Motoway service station charge points are set for an overhaul as the Government plans to intervene with new legislation to remove monopolies and ensure chargers are reliable and accessible by all.
Ecotricity currently holds an exclusive contract to provide charging provision along the motorway network, but this is set to change according to Transport Minister Rachel Maclean.
Speaking to electrifying.com, she said: “We do believe it will take government investment to ‘charge up’ this market. So we’ve got nearly £1 billion to upgrade those connections at motorway service stations. What we are going to have is at least six high power chargers in every motorway service area by 2023.”
Service level agreements will be put in place to ensure 24/7 customer care and there will be clear pricing information available. If these standards are not met the government says it will use legislation to enforce them.
Rapid Charging Step 1: Access the Rapid Charger (Image: T. Larkum)
The chargers will be available to anyone with a contactless payment card and will be in addition to Tesla units, which are already installed at most service stations. Larger sites will have up to 12 new points providing speeds of up to 350kW.
Maclean added: “We want the private sector to come in and we will take the best commercial offer. Now we have set out our strategy this is an attractive area for investment. This will drive an increase in performance.”
The move has been welcomed by industry experts. RAC spokesman Rod Dennis said: “This is great news as charging electric cars at motorway service areas needs to fast, reliable and easy to pay for so drivers can make longer journeys with the minimum of fuss.
“Nothing is more frustrating to an electric car driver than the sight of an out-of-order charge point, so the fact that there will be a commitment to having chargers ‘in service’ will make a big difference. The promise of clear pricing is also important as drivers are used to knowing what they’d be paying before filling up, thanks to petrol price ‘totems’ on forecourts.
“It should also go a long way towards showing would-be EV drivers that ‘range anxiety’ is a thing of the past, further speeding up the switch to electric.”
It’s not just the rapid charging network which will see investment, the Government has also doubled the funding available to councils to improve local charging infrastructure.
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Instavolt has laid claim to the UK’s largest public rapid charger motorway hub as it opens a new electric vehicle (EV) charging site.
The eight-bay hub is located at Welcome Break’s service area on the northbound carriageway of the M6 at Corley in the Midlands. A further seven rapid chargers are to open on Welcome Break’s southbound carriageway at Corley by the end of the month.
The chargers form part of a £50 million investment by Instavolt to help meet its goal of installing 5,000 rapid EV chargers by 2025. It currently has 570 rapid chargers installed.
Charging Hub with eVolt Rapid Chargers (Image: SWARCO eVolt)
The EV charging firm has signed agreements for chargers with a number of companies, including fast food chains KFC and McDonalds. The KFC partnership covers the installation of rapid chargers at up to 450 KFC drive thru restaurants in the UK, while the McDonalds partnership – announced in July 2020 – is for the installation of 125kW chargers at new and existing drive thru restaurants “where they can be accommodated” across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Instavolt’s chief executive officer, Adrian Keen, said the project at Welcome Break’s service areas marks “a significant step forward for EV drivers” as it allows them to take advantage of Instavolt’s contactless payment and “class leading reliability” on a motorway for the first time.
He added that the M6 has particular importance for the company due to it being “one of the busiest and longest continuous motorways in the UK”.
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As it turns out, renewable energy is helping to keep some people warm and alive in Texas.
As we reported yesterday, people in Texas are in danger due to extreme winter weather, power outages, and contaminated water. Their houses are dangerously cold, they don’t have the ability to boil water, and some don’t have access to water at all.
While many people don’t have a warm place to sleep, some Tesla owners are camping out in their garages, in their Tesla vehicles. Unlike a gas car, you can run an electric car in the garage without fear of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Tesla Texans have taken to various social media platforms to share just how their electric cars have saved their families.
Some Tesla owners own more than just a Tesla car or SUV, but rather a solar roof and Powerwall battery energy storage unit. People who have solar panels of any kind on their home, especially if they have the means to store energy, are much better off than those relying on the failing Texas grid.
People are concerned that Texas won’t update and winterize the grid appropriately, which means this will happen again. Next time, they need to be better prepared. If their state and its leaders aren’t willing to take care of them, they have to plan ahead to take care of themselves. Interestingly, at least one official in Texas told citizens the problem is not the local government’s responsibility, and they should “fend for themselves.” He resigned shortly thereafter.
Meanwhile, people from all over the country have reached out to help. After Ford North America Product Communications manager Mike Levine posted the first tweet below, he took it a step further, with a few more related tweets.
Ford is even requesting that its Texas dealerships loan out any available vehicles that may be able to help people, such as F150s with built-in generators.
Some Tesla Energy owners have been sharing information related to their solar systems and Powerwalls. Despite the winter weather, they’re still able to capture energy during the day and store it for many hours of relief.
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Hyundai is kicking off its new electric sub-brand with an absolute beauty. The Ioniq 5 is a mid-size crossover with hot hatch proportions. Or perhaps it’s just a very big hatchback – the jury is still out. Whatever you want to call it, it’s oozing style. While the design is sharp and modern, including the Z-shaped crease that’s part of Hyundai’s new design language, Hyundai says the Ioniq 5 was inspired by its first production car. We’ve squinted at it from all angles and don’t see it though. What we do see is a good-looking car with an innovative interior and a promising drivetrain. So let’s dig into its coolest features.
1. Thoughtful Aesthetic Design
Hyundai has come a long, long, long way when it comes to aesthetics, but there’s more to the Ionic 5 than next-generation European hot hatch looks. The Parametric Pixel lights, with their pixel-like clusters, are an artful acknowledgment of the Ioniq 5’s digital origins. Simultaneously, the clamshell hood and flush door handles are old-school tricks to maximize aerodynamic efficiency. The aero-optimized wheels will be available in sizes up to 20 inches and carry on the Parametric Pixel design theme. There’s a lot to love about the Ioniq 5’s styling, but the light clusters are arguably the coolest individual aspect.
2. Room For Activities
The Ioniq 5 has a 118-inch wheelbase, which is nearly four inches longer than Hyundai’s three-row Palisade SUV. Furthermore, the interior is unencumbered by a transmission tunnel and features a flat floor. That gives Hyundai room to apply what it calls a ‘Living Space’ theme to the interior. This means plenty of room to stretch out and relax, as well as lots of headroom and large amounts of useable storage space, including storage for a purse. The seats recline, complete with a (likely optional) first-class-cabin-style lower leg support on the front seats. Hyundai is even touting a single-pane glass ceiling so you can lay back and look at the stars. Lastly, and importantly, you can store all your stuff in 18.7 cubic feet of cargo space.
Hyundai Ioniq 5 (Image: hyundai.co.uk)
3. Solid Performance Meets Balanced Range
Power comes from either a 58-kWh or 72.6-kWh battery pack hooked up to a single rear electric motor or a dual-motor layout. With the two-wheel-drive configuration and a 72.6-kWh battery, the Ioniq 5 will jog up to 62 mph in 7.4 seconds while getting a range of almost 300 miles. The all-wheel-drive variant with the 72.6-kWh battery generates a healthy 301 horsepower and 446 lb-ft of torque and will sprint from 0-62 mph in 5.2 seconds and top out at 100 mph. These aren’t earth-shattering figures, but they’re more than adequate for the trendy family on the move.
From a range perspective, the WLTP test cycles suggest between 292 and 298 miles is capable on 2WD models with the larger battery. This will likely drop to around 220 miles when the EPA gets its mitts on the Ioniq 5.
4. Convenient Charging Technology
For electric vehicles to become widely adopted, charging the batteries needs to be quick and convenient. Hyundai claims that the Ioniq 5 can be charged from ten percent to 90 percent in 18 minutes using a 350-kW charger, which is a great start. The South Korean automaker also says that up to 62 miles of range can be recharged in just five minutes. For convenience, owners can start and stop charging with the touch of a button on their smartphone app, and Remote Climate Control gives the option of scheduling the vehicle’s pre-heating while connected to a power source. Hyundai’s E-GMP charging system can support both 400-V and 800-V charging infrastructures by using the motor and an inverter to boost 400 V to 800 V for stable charging.
5. Augmented Reality HUD
In its press release, Hyundai glosses over its Augmented Reality Head-Up Display (AR HUD). It shouldn’t, because the ability to turn the windshield into a display screen is crazy cool, especially when AR is involved. Plans for creating one for the brand started in 2020 when Hyundai Mobis, Hyundai’s parts and service arm, invested in Envisics, a UK-based AR HUD company. Hyundai hasn’t given any real details about the system yet, but we assume it’s similar to Mercedes-Benz’s AR-HUD technology. That said, with so much hype around it, we certainly expect some unique features to be debuted when the car arrives.
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This is BMW’s first electric car since the i3 and uses a completely different recipe.
The world is changing at a faster pace than ever. Most of the credit goes to the rapid tech advancements in all fields. At the same time, this change doesn’t seem to happen fast enough in some industries. The automotive world is one of them. Even though there were some pioneers, including the BMW Group. In 2011, the Bavarians founded the BMW i division, and this was supposed to be the specialist arm of the Bavarians, focused solely on electric drivetrains and alternatives to internal combustion engines.
BMW i – Born In 2011
The BMW i engineers started cranking out new technologies at a fast pace. One clear example in this regard is the BMW i3, their flagship EV, if you will. Even eight years later, the i3 is still the only car you can buy under $100,000 with a carbon fiber monocoque layout. But the more important thing to remember about the i3 is that it now has its third different battery pack to rely on. And over the course of just about 6 years, its energy storage capacity more than doubled. All that was done without physically increasing the size of the huge battery pack in the floor.
And that seems to be the key to a truly electric future, a future that is so uncertain, most companies don’t really know what the perfect recipe to tackle it is.
At the moment, there are two different philosophies at play in the automotive industry. On the one hand, we have companies with dedicated EV platforms which allows them to build electric cars from the ground up with no limitations. These platforms would be adjustable and allow you to make the most out of the specifics of an electric car. From adjusting the design, to offering more space inside than a similarly sized internal combustion engine car. The problem with this approach is that it’s costly and you’re investing a lot in a platform that may not cater to all the needs your customers have.
Other car makers opted for a modular platform that can house both purely electric cars and internal combustion engine. That means they can build both types of cars on the same assembly line, with the same overall chassis design, allowing you to be very flexible and adapt to the customer demand. This is what BMW is doing and they call it ‘The Power of Choice’.
It’s a risky strategy that does come with a couple of shortcomings. For example, a car that was designed to use an internal combustion engine will have some issues with interior space, with weight distribution and even practicality once is converted to an EV. But that can be overlooked if the car in question is good enough for the customer.
Meet The iX3 – BMW’s First Electric SUV
That’s what the BMW iX3 is setting out to do. This is BMW’s first electric car since the i3 and uses a completely different recipe. This time, instead of giving it a bespoke platform just for itself, the new electric SUV is using the same platform as the regular X3.
Choosing the BMW X3 to be the first car offered as part of the ‘Power of Choice’ strategy wasn’t at random. The X3 is one of the best-selling BMWs and with this new choice, the range now includes all types of powertrains: from petrol to diesel engines, PHEV and, a full-on M car and now an EV. But what is the iX3 exactly? Nothing more than an electric X3 and you can see that from every angle.
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Mirror Motoring’s Colin Goodwin says that in a torrid year for the car industry, MG was the fastest growing car brand – with spectacular sales for a good reason
Last year, as you have no doubt guessed, was a shocker for the car industry. Sales in the first lockdown were virtually non existent – and for the rest of the year dealerships struggled.
Unless, that is, they had an MG sign out front.
In 2019, MG was the fastest growing car brand registering 13,000 sales. And in 2020 it had beat that figure by September.
Why this spectacular performance?
It’s simple really: MG makes cars that are very affordable, good value and crucially, many of them are electric. Like the ZS crossover which undercuts almost all EV rivals on price.
They’re what we motoring hacks like to call ‘honest’ cars.
And now we have the latest MG model on test. It’s called simply the MG 5 SW and it has the distinction of being the only pure electric estate on sale today.
Its positives well outweigh the negatives – and price is a big positive here.
To keep costs down it’s sensible to keep your range of cars simple – and MG has done that with the 5 SW.
There are only two trim levels; the entry-level Excite which is £24,495 (including PICG) and the Exclusive at £26,995.
Not only do these prices undercut most rivals, they’re lower than those for MG’s own ZS.
This MG is no beauty – a bit like a Kia or Hyundai from a few years back. But so what? It’s hardly ugly and you’ve got to remember that price.
It’s a similar story inside as there is a fair bit of hard plastic about the place. But I could live with that because of the simplicity and ease of use of the controls.
We’re testing the dearer Exclusive which comes with leather-style upholstery, heated front seats, sat nav, roof rails and automatic wipers.
I’d save two and a half grand and stick with the entry level car. Not least because the satnav isn’t brilliant and since both trim levels come with Apple Carplay and Android Auto you can use your phone for navigating.
Roof rails aren’t a good idea on an EV anyway, they add drag.
Which brings us neatly onto range. The MG 5 SW is fitted with a 154bhp electric motor that’s powered by a 52.5kWh battery of which 49kWh is usable.
Again, the MG thrashes its nearest price rivals including the ZS. The claimed WLTP range is an impressive 214 miles.
You can charge the MG using a rapid charger via a CCS-style connector at a maximum rate of 50kWh – which means you can take the battery from zero to 80% in 50 minutes. In theory.
I’m sure EV drivers will know it’s not always possible to achieve ‘book figures’ for recharging.
I used a rapid charger on this and in half an hour had only added about 20kW.
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And it’s the first Hyundai you might actually *desire*. Still want that Tesla Model 3?
Hyundais are cars we admire but don’t necessarily desire. Well that’s about to change. The Ioniq 5 is the first to use the brand’s new Electric-Global Modular Platform, so it’s hugely significant. It also references the Seventies Pony, the hatch (designed by il maestro Giorgetto Giugiaro) that first gave the brand serious traction outside South Korea. Not sure how many of us really remember it, but somehow that little nostalgia kick really works. The result is a sharply surfaced example of the perfect post-modern BEV.
Trailed by 2019’s lovely ‘45’ EV concept, the real thing remains impressively faithful to the motor show tease. “It’s an opportunity to showcase a part of history that not that many people know about. There’s a lot of history to tell,” Hyundai’s head of design for Europe, Thomas Buerkle tells TG.com. “We had the chance to pull the A-pillar forward, and extended it into the clamshell bonnet. So there are fewer shutlines, and it looks cleaner and wider. We wanted there to be some real excitement to the EV driving experience. There are lines on this car that are only possible with special tooling and stamping, and of course it helps that Hyundai is the only brand in the world that produces its own steel. So we can get the precision we need. The less busy the design, the more you focus on the details.”
Details like the body side slash, the pronounced V shape in the nose and the minimal ‘pixellated’ head- and tail-lights. There are flush door handles and cladding on the sills and at the front and rear which actually helps define the shape rather than looking tacked on, and also contains hidden illuminated elements.
It’s all part of what Hyundai calls ‘parametric design’, which means ‘something expressed in terms of a parameter’. Erm, isn’t everything? Never mind, because the car is a sensation: taut, well-proportioned and beautifully surfaced. It also rides on 20in wheels, the biggest ever fitted to a production Hyundai, and also surely the most imaginatively designed, kind of like fractals. Note also the Ioniq 5’s wheelbase: exactly 3000mm. This is a BEV purpose-designed and built as such, that takes the possibilities of the rapidly evolving electric car form, including the skateboard chassis, and runs with them.
Hyundai Ioniq 5 (Image: hyundai.co.uk)
Hyundai has thrown everything and then a bit more at this new car. You can choose between a single motor rear-drive version or an all-wheel drive dual motor one, with a 58kWh or 72.6kWh battery. The dual motor version makes just over 350bhp and 446 torques so it’s good for 62mph in 5.2 seconds (top speed on all versions is limited to 115mph). There’s a multi-link rear suspension too, promising genuine handling smarts.
Crucially, the Ioniq 5 uses 800-volt battery tech so it can rapid charge on a 350kW charger from 10 to 80 per cent in 18 minutes, or replenish 62 miles of range in just five. The higher voltage also improves charging efficiency and reduces heat loss. Hyundai is claiming a range of 295 miles on the most efficient version. It’s also fitted with something called Vehicle to Load (V2L) which turns the car into a giant portable powerpack – yep, this is an EV you can use to charge another EV (with the correct adapter), amongst other appliances. It supplies up to 3.6kW of power, and has a 220-volt port located under the back seats with another one beside the car’s exterior charging port. And there’s a solar panel roof which offers an additional boost to the battery pack – it can produce up to 205 watts, though this is probably a more significant USP in California than Clacton.
The Ioniq 5’s 3m-long wheelbase makes good on Hyundai’s ‘Smart Living Space’ claims for the interior, which also uses sustainable materials and slimline seats. The seats, headliner, door trim, floor and arm rest use recycled plastic bottles, plant-based yarns and eco-processed leather. A moveable centre console – dubbed the ‘universal island’ – can slide back by up to 140mm. The seats also fold almost totally flat, and together with an unimpeded floor suggests that the Ioniq 5 could double as a rather commodious mobile home. The boot can hold up to 540 litres with the seats up, 1,600 litres with them folded flat. There’s a bit more room in the ‘frunk’.
There’s full Android auto and Apple carplay connectivity, Bluelink connected car services for live routing and over-the-air updates, two 12.25in screens, augmented head-up display, wireless phone charging, voice recognition software, and a Bose audio system. And the full suite of advanced driver assistance tech – Hyundai calls it SmartSense – is also integrated.
Early adopters can go for a fully loaded ‘Project 45’ edition that’ll cost you £45k (prices for the rest of the range haven’t been confirmed yet). Hyundai’s Tesla Model 3 killer? This could be the closest yet.
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Swedish carmaker also says it will sell its vehicles to consumers online only
Volvo plans to sell only electric cars by 2030 in the latest move by a legacy carmaker to abandon fossil fuels that contribute to global heating.
The Swedish carmaker also said it would sell its electric cars direct to consumers or via dealerships through the same simplified online portal, in a blow to the traditional model of selling vehicles via independent dealerships.
Volvo had previously said it wanted half of its sales to be electric by 2025, but it said on Tuesday its new strategy – which puts it in line with the UK’s 2030 ban on internal combustion engine sales – was an “acceleration” of plans to phase out internal combustion engine sales completely.
Håkan Samuelsson, the Volvo chief executive, said the company did not want to be stuck targeting a shrinking market for petrol and diesel cars. He expected the carmaker’s sales to continue to grow as it moved to electric technology.
“To remain successful, we need profitable growth,” he said. “So instead of investing in a shrinking business, we choose to invest in the future – electric and online. We are fully focused on becoming a leader in the fast-growing premium electric segment.”
Rivals that have in 2021 unveiled formal plans to abandon fossil fuels include the Jaguar brand (by 2025) and luxury carmaker Bentley (by 2030). Jaguar’s move had “encouraged us to be a bit braver”, Samuelsson said.
Volvo XC40 P8 (Image: media.volvocars.com)
Samuelsson added that he expected the cost of manufacturing an electric car to drop to the same level as internal combustion engine cars by 2025. In the longer term, the cost of manufacturing electric cars would be lower, he said, achieved through reducing the number of complex systems in the car and cutting the number of separate computers needed.
However, a customer in 2025 will probably still pay more compared with an equivalent hybrid version, Samuelsson said.
Volvo last year launched its first fully electric car, the XC40 Recharge, and it will unveil a new electric 40 Series on Tuesday. However, its higher-margin premium cars allowed it to be among the more advanced European legacy carmakers in the transition away from fossil fuels, including the launch of its Polestar all-electric brand to rival US electric car pioneer Tesla. Volvo also sells several plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
Its electrified portfolio meant that Volvo easily achieved EU-mandated emissions targets in 2020. That allowed it to sell emissions credits to Ford for an undisclosed sum, helping the US carmaker avoid steep fines.
“There is no long-term future for cars with an internal combustion engine,” said Henrik Green, the Volvo chief technology officer. “We are firmly committed to becoming an electric-only carmaker and the transition should happen by 2030. It will allow us to meet the expectations of our customers and be a part of the solution when it comes to fighting climate change.”
The company recorded its best-ever profits in the second half of 2020 as the Chinese market rebounded from the fall in sales at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
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Analysis by transport group says battery electric vehicles are superior to their petrol and diesel counterparts
Fossil fuel cars waste hundreds of times more raw material than their battery electric equivalents, according to a study that adds to evidence that the move away from petrol and diesel cars will bring large net environmental benefits.
Only about 30kg of raw material will be lost over the lifecycle of a lithium ion battery used in electric cars once recycling is taken into account, compared with 17,000 litres of oil, according to analysis by Transport & Environment (T&E) seen by the Guardian.
A calculation of the resources for each relative to their weight shows internal combustion engines burn material 300 times greater than that lost once an electric car battery is scrapped. The comparison did not include potential emissions if fossil fuels were burned to create the power for recharging of car batteries.
“Our previous analysis has shown that that electric vehicles emit 64% less CO2, including all the different stages like electricity generation and fuel production, but this still hasn’t shaken off the argument that electric vehicles use up a large amounts of raw materials,” said Lucien Mathieu, a transport analyst at T&E and an author of the report. “Our analysis shows that the raw material needs of EV batteries pale in comparison to the fuel burned by fossil fuel cars, which, unlike batteries cannot be recycled.”
Fuel prices have risen as oil recovers to $40 per barrel (Image: N. Ansell/PA)
In the fossil engine/battery calculations, “we excluded the raw material needed to produce the electricity and the [fossil] fuel because this is contingent on factors such as national electricity mixes and fuel extraction efficiency. In our analysis of upstream energy use [producing the electricity and making the solar panels and turbines used to produce that electricity], we have shown that it would only make a 5% to 10% difference in total energy consumption” for electric vehicles powered by renewable energy.
On other aspects of the two vehicle types, the Brussels-based campaign group said battery electric vehicles were superior to their petrol and diesel counterparts across raw material demand, energy efficiency or cost – as well as eliminating exhaust emissions of carbon dioxide and other harmful gases.
The accelerating move to electric vehicles will entail environmental costs. Higher battery production will require more mining of minerals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel.
However, T&E argued that the cost of oil extraction for fuel represents a much greater environmental toll. The report pointed to a “double standard” used when assessing the relative merits of electric and fossil fuel vehicles, which takes the use of oil for granted.
“When it comes to raw materials there is simply no comparison,” said Mathieu. “Over its lifetime, an average fossil-fuel car burns the equivalent of a stack of oil barrels 25 storeys high. If you take into account the recycling of battery materials, only around 30kg of metals would be lost – roughly the size of a football.”
Developments in battery technology will reduce the average amount of lithium, nickel and cobalt required for each car, mitigating some of the increased demand for the materials as well as lowering car prices. At the same time, circular economy regulations requiring higher recycling rates could cut demand further.
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Executives from National Grid and home battery firm Moixa discuss the challenges
It has been clear for a while now that electric vehicles are coming. If the sales charts and chatter on social media weren’t clues enough, the UK government’s announcement of a 2030 ban on the sale of new ICE cars is the future writ large in bold font. But as Brits start to buy more EVs, many people are worried about the infrastructure to charge them and whether it can cope.
Will the UK’s transport network give us the flexibility we currently enjoy from our cars? In the latest of our Autocar Business Live webinars, sponsored by NewMotion, some of the fog was cleared by our guests: Graeme Cooper, National Grid’s project director for transport decarbonisation, and Ben Fletcher, EV project lead at Moixa, a clean-tech software company working specifically with home batteries.
Some EVs, such as the Nissan Leaf, can serve as a storage medium. Will all cars act as storage devices in the future?
Fletcher said: “This is known as vehicle-to-grid [charging]. The car can take power from the grid or provide it back into the house. There are huge advantages to this, but there are a number of challenges around it. There are some hardware costs – it isn’t just a normal charge point, so that’s a bit more expensive – and there’s also a different way that the driver thinks of the vehicle. They need to be incentivised to be plugging in their car at all times, rather than just when they want it to be taking a charge.”
Cooper added: “There’s societal behaviour with this. I’m three years and 40,000 miles into EV ownership, and when I first had it, I plugged it in every night; now I only plug it about once a week. And if it’s not plugged in, it’s not visible and not controllable.
“We need behavioural scientists to look at this: when you ask people when they use their car, it’s 5.30 to 7.30 on a cold, wet winter’s commute. When does the grid most likely need power out of the battery? At 5.30 to 7.30 on a cold, wet winter’s day. Is this [vehicle-to-grid] going to be big or small? I think the jury is out on that. But one thing I would say is that flexibility is going to be critical. If we’ve got more variable generators like wind or solar, what you need is consumption that turns up or down when that is happening.
Charging Station in Sunderland (Image: Fastned)
Why won’t there be blackouts?
Cooper answered: “Because we [National Grid] are a monopoly, we work to a standard that’s administered by Ofgem, the regulator, and we live up to a 99.99987% reliability; that’s seven seconds a year. When we look forward to what’s coming – more EVs, more electrification of heat – yes, the grid and the energy market will change. But this is a managed transition that doesn’t happen overnight. So we plan for it, we watch for it, we even advise: The people in the National Grid Electricity System Operator do a forward forecast every year called the Future Energy Scenarios that says what we think is coming and how we manage it. The uptake we’re seeing in electric cars now isn’t a surprise.
Is there enough time before 2030 to get it all ready?
Fletcher said: “As somebody who has been involved with the EV market for quite a long time now, what’s interesting is that the ‘hockey stick’ we see with the vehicles [slow growth of sales morphing into rapid uptake] is actually following a similar trend that we see in the number of charge points that are out there. The more people buy EVs, the greater the market there is for people to be charging those cars.
Cooper added: “By 2030, we will have 40GW of off-shore [energy generation capacity] installed in the UK. That’s an additional 30GW on top of what we already have today. Now, that in itself means we need more smart consumption to match that, so the two things go lock-step together. There will be the right wires to do off-shore wind and the right wires to do EV charging. The energy market will grow because of electrifying more things.
“The government has a policy called Project Rapid, which is high-power, on-route charging. They also have £950 million funding in place, and that’s to make sure that at every motorway service area in England, there’s adequate futureproofed capacity for everybody to go clean transport. You will start to see futureproofed grid capacity going into these services.”
What speed does my home charger need to provide?
Cooper said: “If you’re thinking about fuelling an EV like you would a petrol car, then all of this is lost on you. Cars are stationary for 96% of the time, so what you actually want to do is charge the car while it’s parked – so overnight or while you’re in an office. Charging a car fast is actually the wrong thing to do. I come home and once a week, I plug the car in and it charges at 7kW. By the morning, the car is full.”
Fletcher agreed: “You should always be doing something else while your car is charging. So the opportunity gain you get between a 22kW charger and 7kW charger is pretty small, because most people sleep overnight and that’s the time it will take to charge. I’ve never found a [charging] point where 7kW wasn’t adequate for what I needed to do with the car.”
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