Category Archives: Charging

Evolt EV Charging points support Merseyside’s eco-ambitions

February 19, 2016Charging, Electric Cars, Evolt, News, Reviews and CommentTrevor Larkum

Liverpool City Region’s (LCR) drive towards creating an eco-friendly environment is being helped by APT Controls, which has completed the installation of 28 of its Evolt Electric Vehicle (EV) charge points.

Evolt Charge Point in Liverpool (Image: Evolt)

Merseytravel, the executive body that provides professional, strategic and operational transport advice to the LCR’s Combined Authority, and the body responsible for coordinating bids and projects, chose Evolt after a full tender process.

Amy Coulson, Programme Development Officer at Merseytravel outlines LCR’s e-mobility strategy:

“It sets out our commitment to promoting the use of EVs across the region, and this includes installing a charging network for an even greater public take up of environmentally friendly transport. Evolt are helping us deliver this.”

Fourteen Evolt charge points have been installed and are available for public use at sites across Merseyside including rail stations, hospitals and the Seacombe Ferry Terminal; a further 14 have been strategically placed at sites of importance for the local authority, such as council buildings and NHS depots.

Of the 28 chargers, a mix of 7kW dual wallmount and 7kW standard dual posts were installed, forming the first phase of Recharge, the LCR’s scheme to encourage the public and the local authorities to simultaneously decrease their carbon footprints.

“The LCR, which includes seven local authorities, is committed to leading by example and has recently been awarded funding by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles to introduce 23 Ultra Low Emission Vehicles into its fleets over the coming year,” Amy continues.

Justin Meyer, General Manager of Evolt, anticipates that Evolt will remain integral to the Recharge scheme as it progresses through the phases:

“We have developed a significant relationship with the LCR, helped by our experience of dealing with local councils across the country, and are now the EV charge point supplier of choice in the City Region.”

Source: Gravity London

Charging points to be included on motorway signs

February 17, 2016Charging, Ecotricity, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentTrevor Larkum

Motorway service area signs will now show where electric vehicle drivers are able to recharge batteries.

Ecotricity logos will now appear on Roadchef signs from this week, alongside signs from the likes of WH Smith, McDonalds and Costa.

The first Ecotricity sign appeared at Roadchef’s Sedgemoor services on Tuesday 26 January, with additional signs to be installed at Hamilton and Norton Canes over the coming weeks. Ecotricity signs will soon be installed across all 28 Roadchef motorway locations.

The firm currently has 260 charging points across the UK’s motorway network.

“We launched the Electric Highway in 2011 to kickstart the electric car revolution in Britain, and we can see that’s well and truly underway now,” said Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity and the Electric Highway.

“There are now over 50,000 electric cars in Britain; that’s more than a tenfold increase in two years, and this exponential growth is reflected in the use of the Electric Highway, which powered 15 million miles of emission free driving last year – all powered from the wind and the sun.”

Source: Business Car

How do you charge an electric car?

Have your charging questions answered in THE FOOLPROOF GUIDE TO ELECTRIC DRIVING.

This time we explore the truth about charging – like how to do it, how long it takes and how far you can go on one charge.

Charging a Nissan LEAF is simple. Plug it in at home, or on the go..

Rapid chargers are installed at most motorway services, which provide 80% of a full charge in approximately 30 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Op5bDU6Y4U

MILTON KEYNES RECEIVES £9MILLION GOVERNMENT FUND TO PROMOTE ELECTRIC CARS

February 7, 2016Charging, Electric Cars, Milton Keynes, News, Reviews and CommentTrevor Larkum

MILTON Keynes has been named as one of several UK cities to receive funds worth millions of pounds to promote electric cars.

Electric cars charging in Central Milton Keynes

£9million has been allocated to MK to construct a Electric Vehicle Experience Centre that promotes electric cars and can arrange short-term loans. Funds will also be used to make the city’s 20,000 parking spaces available for all electric cars, and to allow them to use bus lanes in the city, which will be re-designated as “low-emissions lanes”.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin made the announcement earlier today, which is part of a £40million scheme.

He said,

“These Go Ultra Low Cities have proposed exciting, innovative ideas that will encourage drivers to choose an electric car. I want to see thousands more greener vehicles on our roads and I am proud to back this ambition with £40 million to help the UK become international pioneers of emission cutting technology.”

At present, a number of parking areas in Central Milton Keynes are designated for electric vehicles, and charging points have become an increasingly common site in the city. Milton Keynes will also pay host to a trial for driverless vehicles.

The other cities to receive a share of the money are London, Bristol and Nottingham/Derby, while further funds have been established for new projects in Dundee, Oxford and North East England.

Poppy Welch, who is the head of advocacy group Go Ultra Low, said,

“We’re excited to see the innovative ideas put forward by each of the winning Go Ultra Low Cities become reality over the coming months. The £40 million investment by government, combined with funds from each winning area, will transform the roads for residents in and around the 4 Go Ultra Low Cities.”

Source: Citiblog

Renault ZOE Charging Curve (2.3kW ‘Granny’ Cable)

February 6, 2016Blog, Charging, Electric Cars, Renault, ZOETrevor Larkum

Soon after I bought our Type 2 ‘granny’ cable I did some testing to see how long it would take to charge the ZOE (when set to 10 Amps, about 2.3kW). Previously I’ve done some detailed monitoring of charge curves, specifically for 7kW home charging and 43kW rapid charging. Given that I knew this method would take much longer than either of those I chose to not monitor the whole charge, instead just one hour to get an idea of its behaviour.

Figure 1: ZOE 2.3kW Charge Curve (Image: T. Larkum)

As before, at regular intervals I noted the percentage state of charge and the predicted time to complete; these are shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2 respectively. With such a short test it is difficult to draw any firm conclusions, but it appears to be safe to deduce:

The ZOE dash predicts a charge time of about 10.5 hours from a start charge of 46%, so about 23 hours for a complete charge.
The ZOE is actually charging at about 6% per hour, so it should reach full charge in about 16 hours.

These findings are not inconsistent with each other, and the charge time is probably about 17-18 hours. Firstly, the previous analyses of charging curves show that the predicted charge time decreases over time, so it will likely decrease towards an actual lower charge time. Secondly, the predicted time includes time for battery balancing where the simple linear charge estimation does not, in other words there’s probably an hour or two of balancing ‘charging’ when the charge curve hits 99% – hence the estimation of 17-18 hours.

Figure 2: ZOE Charge Completion Prediction (Image: T. Larkum)

Of course, it’s obvious that this is a very slow way to charge compared to 3.5 hours on the usual home charge point (or half an hour on a rapid charger). This may be partly due to the charger being a generic, non-ZOE specific one and it may be partly due to the ZOE being an older Q210 model which is well known for inefficient charging at low powers.

So, if any readers are keen to volunteer, it would be interesting to repeat the test on other setups, for example:

A ZOE Dynamique Nav R240 with the Renault 13A cable
A ZOE Dynamique Nav Rapid Q210 (or older Intens) with the Renault 13A cable

If anyone sends me the details I’ll post them.

Meanwhile, despite the slow speed of charging, I have made good use of the cable a number of times to grab a ‘top up’ while spending time visiting family.

Figure 3: Green granny lead just visible going from front of ZOE under black car to garage (Image: T. Larkum)

Most recently it got used on Christmas Eve while visiting the in-laws during one of our regular trips to Oxford.

Figure 4: Charging on Christmas Day (Image: T. Larkum)

Then on Christmas Day we visited my brother’s family in Surrey for Christmas dinner, using a new route from Northampton down the A34. This meant using the Ecotricity charge point at the Reading M4 Eastbound services, which worked fine and took less than half an hour.

Figure 4: Another view, showing the benefit of a 10m rather than usual 5m cable (Image: T. Larkum)

Returning back, having charged with the granny cable, we skipped using the Reading M4 Westbound services which turned out to be a mistake. The next one at Chieveley was down and we had to retrace our steps to Reading Eastbound – thus a timely reminder to always charge early and have a backup in mind in the direction you want to go.

Figure 5: Charging on the Ecotricity rapid charger at Reading Eastbound services (Image: T. Larkum)

Anyway, enough about rapid charging. I would recommend that any ZOE owner considers getting a granny cable for home charging. Although expensive they do give some peace of mind, particularly when public chargers can’t be relied on (which has been the case for us at least twice during Christmas holidays).

The UK government just gave electric cars a £40m boost

From street lights that charge your car to ULEV-only spaces, the UK is about to get even more EV-friendly

https://youtu.be/Z_2KbeWTrSA

[From 26 January] Figures show low-emission transport in the UK is already on the rise, but the government has given it a £40 million helping hand. Yesterday, the transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin announced cities including Nottingham, Bristol, Milton Keynes and London will get a total of £40 million to help encourage drivers to use ultra-low emissions vehicles (ULEVs). The prize fund came courtesy of the Go Ultra Low City Scheme, a competition that awarded grants to cities with the most eco-friendly proposals.

Although Go Ultra Low has awarded £40 million to eight separate cities, the money won’t be shared equally. So what is each city doing with the money?

London plans to use its £13 million share to help form “Neighbourhoods of the Future”, a multilateral programme that intends to prioritise ULEVs over traditionally-powered vehicles. Hackney will dramatically increase its charging infrastructure by building power points into existing street lights, while Harrow will offer priority traffic lanes and parking spaces to those in low emissions vehicles.
Milton Keynes will use £9 million to open an advice and loan centre, meaning prospective buyers can get advice about ULEVs – and even test-drive selected models. The city will also make its 20,000 parking bays free for EV-owners.
Bristol is set to use £7 million of the fund offer three ULEV-only lanes, and 80 additional charging points.
Finally, Nottinghamshire and Derby will use £6 million to install 230 charging points – as well as giving ULEV owners cheaper parking and access to selected bus routes.

100 electric car charging stations to be installed around Oxford

February 4, 2016Charging, Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and CommentTrevor Larkum

ONE HUNDRED new charging points will be created in residential streets in Oxford to make electric vehicle ownership possible for 16,000 extra homes.

James Brown, from BMW I sales, with a BMW i3 electric car at a charging point at the Tesco car park off Cowley Road

The largest pilot of its kind in the world will begin when 30 trial points of various kinds are installed in pavements and lampposts by the end of this year.

The most successful types of charger points will then be rolled out in 100 residential streets around the city, probably from 2018.

Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council hope to encourage thousands more people to buy electric cars to help cut emissions in the city.

City executive board member for climate change, John Tanner, said:

“Climate change and poor air quality are two of the biggest issues facing Oxford and we all need to do everything we can to cut vehicle emissions.

“However, for people living in Oxford’s beautiful but narrow terraced streets, charging an electric car is a real problem. This project aims to remove that barrier.

“By installing 100 electric charging points, we are going to turn the Oxford into a city filled with electric avenues.”

Electric Car Wireless Charging

Here you can see how wireless electric car charging works and the benefits of wireless charging. When this new technology is rolled out to the masses it will change everything with regards to the way people feel about having to charge an electric car.

Evolt reports record year for its EV charging business

January 26, 2016Charging, Electric Cars, Evolt, News, Reviews and CommentTrevor Larkum

Evolt has recorded a record year for its Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging business – 12 months that has seen a significant increase in sales and market share in an increasingly competitive commercial charging landscape.

The company, which began installing some of its first single commercial chargers more than five years ago, has since grown to become one of the largest providers of single, dual and multiple commercial charging points across the UK.

It currently has more than 4,000 of its Evolt-branded charging points installed, from the south coast of England to the Shetland Islands of Scotland. It also has a further 160 Rapid Charging stations in place to meet the needs of an expanding customer base that includes 60 Local Authorities and a large number of private businesses

Justin Meyer, General Manager, says that its engagement with leading consortia and strategic alliances with two of the key industry players have served to consolidate its position as a true market leader:

“We have quickly established a reputation as the ‘go to’ supplier for commercial EV charging infrastructure solutions, respected for the range and reliability of our systems and a strong support network right across the country,” he says.

“Our growth and increased market share reflect the growing popularity of electric vehicles, as more local authorities and private businesses look to meet their ‘green’ responsibilities and realise the benefits that EVs can deliver.

“Fleets of electric buses, taxis and council vehicles are all increasing,” he continues. “We have exciting plans for 2016 and will continue to invest in new technologies over the next 12 months.”

Among the new solutions planned for early 2016 is an 800-Volt Rapid Charger with an innovative design, a 20kW triple headed Rapid Charger, and an advanced home charging unit with a number of bespoke features that will ensure that an EV unit can be installed in every home.

Other new innovations include a series of battery storage systems consisting of a 50kW, 100kW and ultimately 250kW capacity. These will enable expansion of the EV charging network where the power supply is constrained, as well as the ability to work with Green renewable energy sources.

Source: Gravity London

Car chargers fitted at Derbyshire hospitals

January 26, 2016Charging, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentTrevor Larkum

DRIVERS of electric cars will be able to charge their vehicles at hospitals in Derbyshire in an award-winning low-carbon travel initiative.

Charging points have been switched on at community hospitals across the county this week. The move is part of a wider initiative by Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust to reduce the environmental impact of travel by its staff and to support sustainability in the community.

The trust has switched on new charge points at eight hospital locations around the county, including Ilkeston, Ripley, and Walton.

Source: Derby Telegraph