[AndyG]

I have answered all day, but the question is asked in a way that can't be accuratly answered.

When I park at the railway station I leave the car all day as I am a train ride away from my car and why put a charger at a railway station if you don't except it to be used as a parking space.

When I park at the park and ride its the same again.

When I park at a NCP etc then same again.

If I park at a pub/restaurant/cinima/theater/etc then I park for as long as need to be away, again don't put charger in locations if you don't want people "blocking" them.

If I park at a hotel again the space is mine as long as I want it, day or night don't ask me to wake up because the car has finished charging. I have paid and booked for a room and space, so unless the hotel says they have another guest staying who needs the space, its mine. (if another guest needed to share I would ask to talk to them to work out the best for both of us)

At the other end of the scale a Rapid should never be blocked, if you are away for your car for more than coffee/food and pee then you are away to long, ie much more than 15 mins from the start of your charge.

 

[AndyG]

Yes...and I think this is something it may be in all of our interests to reflect on as the number of ev's takes off.

If we treat the ev space as though it were an ordinary space there is the danger of bottlenecks. Of people needing a charge not being able to access it despite the infrastructure being available and in use.

Perhaps this looks different from the Milton Keynes perspective where there are numerous chargers compared to places like Shropshire where there are a precious handful.

Sadly I think this will need enforcing ultimately as parking does now. If you are plugged in and your charge has finished AND where your car is stops another car charging then a fine can be levied.

This may be inconvient to the person charging / charged. But there will need to be some management of this finite resource if it is not to be wasted in my opinion

What would you do then if like my wife you charge at the train station, I don't think for one second there is a single person who would return at lunch time to move their car.
Don't put chargers in places that are for parking if you don't want people to park in them.

 

[AndyG]

There is a strange 'it's my dedicated charger' thing going on here.

How do you all know nobody else turns up later?

And yes, I do return and move my car when staying in a hotel. I thought everyone did

What about train stations or park and ride?

 

[AndyG]

Yep. Moved it. Set an alarm.

Fenlander
Please say you are not doing that, it Is probably the strangest thing ev related I have ever read. Who is out looking for a charge at 4 am

 

[AndyG]

Someone who is arriving at the hotel the next morning for a conference?

Anyone who turns up at at hotel at the crack of dawn and complains that they can't get a charge because it is being used is bang out of order.
If I have booked a room I would have done so after researching that the hotel had a charger and therfor would have booked that as well. I am paying for a service and not an inconveniance. The hotel would have installed the charger for the same reason as ie the swimming pool, to make me pick them over someone else. Making me get out of bed to move my car is not going to happen or the next time I would stay somewhere else. If on the other hand reseption told me when I arrived that another guest also need to charge I would hope that we could park next to each other and work it out between ourselves, but never at 3am

 

[AndyG]

I cannot disagree more with that statement.

IMO the only future long term for EVs is rapid charging. The whole concept of plugging in whenever you stop works now for the few early adopters that currently have EVs and it will probably work in the short to mediaum term until rapid charging and battery technology improves but I do not see a future long term for charging posts at 13A anywhere. It is just too slow and people will not want to have to plug in everywhere they go. We do it because we are early adopters and have different motivations but most of the public just want a car they can drive and not have to fuss with charging cables every time they stop.

I will not plug in to a 13A socket anywhere except in an emergency. No point... it is just too slow... and I feel that the vast majority of the general public (not us early adopters but the genuine public not at all interested in EVs... they just want a hassle-free car) will feel the same.

13A, or even 7kW, charging everywhere is no long term solution IMO. It works for now and I am pleased to see that a car park has so many sockets. It has to help in the short term. But IMO the real and long-term answer to the problems of public charging are to be found in rapid charging and longer range batteries.... then people won't need or want to use slow charging solutions.

Paul….
I think you are right and wrong

Charging as a means of continuing a trip must be via Rapids, as slow charging is a waste of time.
But destination charging has its place and is also by far and away the best most time affective way of charging. It takes 30-90 mins for todays cars to recharge on a rapid, it only takes about 2 minuets (to plug and unplug) if you are away for your car for a reason. The cost of installing a single 32a post would allow for many many more ZCW type posts to be installed, if a carpark at train station's etc had whole floor's of those then "blocking" would never be an issue

 

[AndyG]

This isn't stealing or going out of your way. It's just accepting that free fuel is there for the taking at no extra cost. You have to budget assuming all charging points in a car park will deliver full rate for as long as a car is parked there - that's inevitable once batteries get larger. Who isn't going to plug in and take a few £ of electricity while doing whatever they are doing? We *know* this to be true based on the comments from MK people - who didn't plug in when it was free?

We've ended up in some confused discussion where we are assuming the current mix of cars and use pattern, trying to persuade ourselves that it won't change and all we need is a few pence an hour to cover all the costs.

But we are where we are, there is no point trying to prodict the future.
There is no way a Tesla drive is going to go out of his way to spend 13 hours charging just to get £5-£8 of electricity for free, they own a £50k-£100k car.

It is the charging infastructure that is wrong not the user. We are the customers, every other business providing a service finds out what their customer wants and trys to provide that as close as possible. What they dont do is say "have this like it or lump it, oh and by the way we paid for the infastructure already through your taxes but we are still going to rape you with over inflated costs"

 

[AndyG]

No need to go out of their way. Every car park will offer free charging. Top up for free while you do anything. Drive home, power the house.

I thought this servey was about time not money, your point makes your whole survey a complete waste of time, if every carpark has charging points then there will be no need to worry about blocking.
You need to go back and either start a with a new question or work out what you actually want to know.

IMO there aren't many EV owners that will complain about paying a fair price for what they use, and I still say that everbodys time is far to valuable to worry about trying to save a few pound of electricity at the cost of their time.

 

[AndyG]

I think you misunderstood. It's other people who think 'free' unlimited chargers is a viable business model, not me. I've discovered what I wanted to know

Your question is spacificaly about "blocking" time and not cost.
How can you have discovered anything with a question asked in the way your is?