Few topics are as – if you’ll pardon the pun – charged as EV charging times. So what options are available, and how fast are they really?

Charging time is a hot topic when it comes to electric cars. The onset of rapid charging means that being stranded for hours waiting for your car’s battery could soon be a distant memory. Yet these chargers are still relatively rare, so what are your options the rest of the time? Here we look at all the methods and what are the best approaches to keep you going.

Slow charging

As the name suggests, this method results in the longest charging times, with some larger EVs needing up to 24 hours to replenish their batteries when charged this way. Even something as humble as a Nissan Leaf with a 40kWh battery will require nearly 12 hours for a full battery. Normally running at about 3kW, these chargers are occasionally still found at public charging points but are more often than not the portable type that feature a three-pin plug for use with a domestic electricity supply. Most electric cars get one of these units as standard, but the ever increasing size of battery packs mean that most manufacturers recommend using them only when no other charging method is available. Of course, if you don’t cover many miles a day, then slow charging allows you an easy way to top-up the car’s cells overnight, while the slow rate of charge means less heat is generated in the battery, which can help prolong its useful life.

Fast charging

This is quickly becoming the most popular method of charging, particularly for domestic use. Fast charging runs at either 7kW or 22kW, with the latter usually being reserved for public charging points. Most dedicated domestic wallboxes, such as a Pod Point, run at the lower 7kW rate, which roughly halves the time it takes for a full charge compared to a slow charger. So for example, you can expect a Nissan Leaf with a 40kW battery to be fully recharged in about six hours, while a Tesla with a 75kW battery will require about 12 hours. 22kW requires a three-phase electricity supply, meaning they are a rare and expensive solution at home. They also require a car that can accept Direct Current (DC) charging as well as the more prevalent Alternating Current (AC) method. If your car can accept this rate of charge, then expect charging times to be slashed by around half compared to the 7kW unit, so a 75kW Tesla will be charged in under six hours.

Rapid charging

On paper, this is by far the fastest way of topping up the batteries in your EV, with some chargers able to deliver a significant injection of energy within just 20 minutes. Charging at anything from 50kW to up to 350kW, these units are usually found at motorway service stations and dedicated charging hubs. You’ll need a car that can handle this type of DC charging, and for best results you’ll only charge up to 80 percent of the battery’s capacity, because beyond this point the rate of charge slows significantly to protect the cells from the high temperatures involved in such high electrical currents.

Of course to make use of this capability you’ll need a car with a charging system that can accept rapid charging. Most entry-level models are available with an optional upgrade that allows DC charging of up to 100kW, while more expensive models such as the Tesla Model 3 and Model S can charge at a rate of 250kW. Some variants of the Porsche Taycan can handle up to 270kW, while the Lucid Motors Air will claim a 300kW figure when it goes on sale next year.

To give an idea of speed, a 40kW Nissan Leaf using a 50kW charger (currently the most popular in the UK, but more 150 and 350kW units are coming on stream all the time) can be charged to 80 percent of its capacity in as little as an hour, which is around the same time it takes to charge a 75kWh Tesla using a 150kW charger. On a 350kW charger the Taycan takes just over 22 minutes to go from five to 80 percent charge.

However, bear in mind that regardless of the power of the charger itself, your car will only be able to charge at the maximum rate of its onboard system. So a Leaf with a 50kW charging capability will receive current at this rate even when plugged into a 350kW charger.

Read more: AUTOCAR

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Cornwall Council has secured £2.9 million in funding from the European Regional Development Fund to continue its electric vehicle (EV) charging rollout.

A further £725,000 has been committed by the council to cover the remaining cost of the 150 chargers, which will be installed in a range of locations including council car parks and offices as well as in communities where there is currently limited chargepoint availability.

The move will take the number of public chargepoints in Cornwall up to over 360 by 2023, with the council citing the need to improve access to chargepoints well before the 2030 ban on the sale of new internal combustion engine vehicles.

Edwina Hannaford, Cornwall Council cabinet member for climate change, pointed to how travel in Cornwall “isn’t as easy as in major cities”. Road transport accounts for 22% of Cornwall’s carbon footprint, with action to reduce this needing to be “a focus of our activities”, Hannaford said.

“As we work to improve access to infrastructure, I would also like to see more financial incentives from industry and government to enable people to make the switch.”

Read more: CURRENT

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With a 10-point plan for a “green industrial revolution” announced, Boris Johnson has announced that sales of new petrol and diesel cars and vans will be phased out by 2030.

It aims to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles to cut climate emissions and local air pollution, as part of the 10-point plan.

The plan aims to boost green jobs and drive the shift towards cutting emissions to net zero by 2050, the prime minister says, but what will it mean for motorists and how are electric vehicles different? ITV News has found out.

How do electric cars work?

Pure electric cars are powered by an electric motor using energy stored in batteries, and do not produce emissions from the tailpipe.

How are they charged?

You simply plug the vehicle into a source of electricity, the battery charges up and you’re good to go, according to Erin Baker, Editorial Director at Auto Trader.
She told ITV News: “While you can charge an electric car from a regular three-pin domestic plug socket it’s not really recommended, from either safety or convenience perspectives.
“Safety because electric cars draw a lot of current and can overload regular cables and it’s not really sensible to have long extension leads trailing across the pavement or your driveway. And convenience because it will take you a really, really long time to fully charge a modern electric vehicle (or EV) on a domestic supply.”

How long does it take?

According to the AA, it depends on what kind of charger you are using. A rapid charger can give you 80% range within half an hour, whereas a slow charge – which is the kind you’d get at home – will be eight hours for 80% range.
Charging power is usually measured in kW and EV batteries in kW hours, or kWh.
Ms Baker said: “You can do the basic maths – a 20kWh battery would take around four hours to charge with a 5kW supply, two hours on 10kW and so on – and most EVs use batteries ranging from 30kWh all the way to 100kWh.”

How far will a full charged electric vehicle take you?

This will vary on a number of factors, and from car to car, according to AutoTrader.
A small battery makes a car a lot cheaper but will mean less range, a bigger battery can mean more range, more performance, or both.
Ms Baker said: “While some claim a range in excess of 350 miles, at the moment, the average single-charge range is around 180-200 miles. But they are improving with every new EV rolling off the factory floor so expect this to improve within the next 12-24 months.
“Manufacturers will publish an officially calculated range for comparison purposes but small electric cars like the Mini Electric or Honda e may do little more than 100 miles on a full charge in real-world driving, while battery powered versions of popular superminis like the Vauxhall Corsa may achieve double that.
“Premium models like Teslas use bigger batteries and may, meanwhile, be capable of 300 miles or more on a charge.”

How much do they cost to run? Do they save money in comparison to petrol or diesel cars?

Currently, the government offers a £3,000 grant for buying an EV – but even with this incentive, the cost is higher than a petrol car.
Jack Cousens , head of roads policy at The AA, said: “An entry level Ford Focus is around £21,000, whereas the entry level Nissan Leaf is around £26,500 with the grant already applied.
“However, once you get past that hurdle, EVs are cheaper to run and maintain.
“A petrol car costs £50 a tank whereas it could cost you around £5 to charge an EV at home.
“EV’s also pay no VED (Vehicle Excise Duty), but a new petrol/diesel car currently pays £150 a year.”
AutoTrader recommend shopping around and being smart about how and when you charge up at home.
“Charging in public can be a lot more expensive and you pay a premium for the convenience of using fast chargers,” Ms Baker said, “but it will likely still cost less than petrol or diesel on a pence per mile basis and, for most EV drivers, this will be the exception rather than the rule.”
“They are still more expensive – not least because most are bought new at present – but this is changing fast,” according to Erik Fairbairn, Founder & CEO, Pod Point.
He added: “EVs are likely to be cheaper to manufacture than equivalent petrol cars by the mid 2020s, due to rapidly falling battery manufacturing costs.”

Read more: itv news

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A third of households in England do not have off-street parking at their homes
This means drivers are forced to run cables and extension leads across footpaths. We investigate who is liable if a pedestrian trips and falls on one of these cables. Is it safe to use extension leads? And what schemes are available to EV owners without off-street parking?

Electric car sales are booming in 2020 and, with the ban on petrol and diesel cars due in the next decade or so, an increasing number of people are going to own battery-powered vehicle in the coming years.
But while there might be plenty of benefits of EV ownership, charging one of these cars is not ideal if you live in a flat, terraced house or any property that has no off-street parking.
Already, many owners in this scenario use a variety of ingenious methods to plug zero-emission vehicles parked on the road into the mains inside their homes, which usually means running a cable across a footpath.
What are the legal implications of doing this? Would you be liable if someone injured themselves tripping over the charging cable? Can you safely charge a plug-in model with extension cables and would a insurer pay out if you it caused damage to your vehicle?

Is it illegal to run a charging cable across a footpath?
Four in five EV owners charge their cars at home – the rest using public devices or facilities at work places, industry figures show.
However, data also shows that a third of English households have no dedicated off-street parking provisions available.
This has meant that many early adopters of electric cars – especially those living in cities – have found themselves in a real ‘needs must’ situation, with drivers having to run cables across footpaths to span from the sockets inside their properties.

As well as increasing the risk of others tampering with their vehicle’s charging, it also creates a potential hazard for pedestrians who could trip and fall on leads across the pavement.
While there is obvious risk, the Local Government Association told us there is ‘no legislation that it is aware of’ that would make the inconsiderate placing of a charging cable illegal.
A spokesman told This is Money that if someone was to injure themselves tripping over a charging cable across a pavement, the owner could potentially be liable – though a personal injury lawyer and motor insurer claims this might not be the case (read more below).
A cable should only be placed over the footway when the vehicle is charging and should always be removed when not in use.
Though it is suggested for those living on particularly busy streets to use raised plastic cable protector, which are usually used on construction sites.
A protector, up to three metres in length, usually costs around £20.
The LGA adds that drivers should consult their local authority’s website when considering how best to charge their electric vehicle.

A personal injury lawyer’s perspective on trips and falls caused by charging cables in the street
This is Money spoke to Kathryn Hart, a partner at personal injury law experts Lime Solicitors, to better understand what the process would be for an individual who suffers injury after tripping on a charging lead across the footpath.
‘Your accident probably happened on a public highway so you cannot claim the negligent person is the occupier of that highway,’ she explains.
‘You will need to argue that in common law negligence they owed you a duty of care, that they have breached that duty and that it was reasonably foreseeable that the injury would occur and that you have been injured.’

Read more: This Is Money

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The number of public electric vehicle charging points in the UK increased by 18% in 2020, according to the latest data from the Department for Transport (DfT).

The Electric Vehicle Charging Device statistics for October 2020 also shows a 7% increase in available chargers in Q3 2020 alone.

Of the 19,487 public chargers now available in the UK, 3,530 are rapid chargers.

London has the highest level of charging device provision per 100,000 of population but is slightly below average in terms of rapid charging device provision.

Scotland is above average in total devices per 100,000 and has the highest level of rapid device provision

Charlie Jardine, founder and chief executive of electric vehicle charge point and charging software developer EO Charging, said welcomed the 18% increase.

He said: “We look forward to seeing this number grow as EVs are set to be an essential part of how we ‘build back better’ from the Covid-19 pandemic.

“While increasing the availability of public charge points is an important step in overcoming the barriers to EV adoption, 59% of vehicles on roads are company vehicles so businesses must carefully consider installing their own EV charging infrastructure.

“We’ve seen much evidence of businesses leading the way on this in recent months, with significant demand from our customers transforming their fleets across the UK and Europe from diesel and petrol to electric.”

In the North West, the number of total devices available decreased by 4.9% over the quarter, predominantly in the Greater Manchester area.

However, total rapid devices in that region increased by 5.7%.

The number of available devices can fuctuate for a range of reasons.

Owners and operators can choose to temporarily or permanently decommission or replace devices, or they can be unavailable due to faults, maintenance or other restrictions in the area where they are located.

In every other region, the number of charging devices increased across the quarter to October 2020.

The West Midlands saw the largest percentage change but London saw the largest absolute increase of 504 devices which accounted for 41% of all new available devices, further increasing the unequal geographical distribution in the UK.

Rapid devices increased in each region across the quarter with the smallest percentage increase in Scotland. Despite this, Scotland still has the highest number of rapid chargers per 100,000.

Read more: Smart Transport

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Exercise bikes are to help power electric vehicle (EV) charging at GRIDSERVE’s first Electric Forecourt in Braintree.

The company has partnered SA Green Fitness and SportsArt to offer the solution, which uses G576U Upright Cycles. The energy produced from pedaling using these cycles is to contribute to the power grid for charging the vehicles at the forecourt.

Toddington Harper, founder and CEO of GRIDSERVE, said the partnership formed a “key part of our mission to support education initiatives, helping people to understand more about energy, and how clean energy can help contribute towards healthy and more sustainable lifestyles.”

Alongside the wellbeing area – which will house SportsArt’s G576U Upright Cycles – the forecourt is to have 350kW charging stations to accommodate 36 EVs and a lounge with high speed WiFi, washrooms and children’s area.

There is also to be a retail space with supermarkets and coffee shops and a designated spot for non-EV drivers to learn more about low-emission motoring.

Braintree was unveiled as the location for GRIDSERVE’s first forecourt in 2019, with plans to install solar PV and battery storage on site alongside the chargers.

Construction began on the site in March 2020, with plans for 100 such sites also in the works.

In April it was announced that Hitachi Capital had made a multi-million pound investment into GRIDSERVE to help fund the development of the Electric Forecourts as well as GRIDSERVE’s hybrid solar farms.

Read more: Current

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