Whitby doesn't have a rapid charger. There's plenty of market towns in North Yorkshire smaller than Whitby that do have at least one. And Whitby every year gets more important as a tourist destination!
Looking on Zap map I see underpopulated Norfolk is splattered with rapid chargers. Villages, not towns, I've never heard of have them. How is this explained?
Porthcawl has a population of 16,000, and does have a Welsh Gov charger on the way, but no chargers for now. It's nowhere near as geographically isolated as Whitby though.
Whitby's population trebles in the summer and at weekends almost all year round probably at least doubles. The Welsh government you say is arranging something. The authority here, Scarborough Borough Council says there's no demand for rapid chargers!
Perhaps the logic is that Whitby is a 'destination' when viewed as a tourist orientated town rather than purely residential. As such, then the usual long stay destination chargers would be more relevant. Also, that many people staying at cottages and the like would use leads from the property. Whitby cannot be regarded as a stopping off place for cars passing through on longer road trips and thus would not require Rapid service. A case can be made for cars leaving at the end of a holiday, but once again they will probably be able to fill overnight at their accommodation.
I can see that point of view, but part of the issue with Whitby is the lack of options travelling to and from as well. Travelling across the A64 and then up to Whitby, there is only a BP Pulse in a pub car park in Pickering, a couple in Malton and other than that, nothing until you get back to York.
A large proportion of the tourist trade in Whitby is day trippers. The lack of availability of rapid chargers will eventually reduce that trade measurably. I expect that the penny will drop in the tourist office one day.
You try going to Whitby on a sunny summer weekend and you will see what I mean.
It's all part of Boris's levelling up agenda. Shell have opened a new EV hub (or are opening one) in Fulham! Don't they have enough availability yet in the south?
There's a couple of instavolts just opened just outside Scarborough in a MacDonalds (not showing on zap-map yet). However we normally go up to Scarborough//Whitby once per year but it's no coincidence since I've had an EV we've chosen other locations.
Salisbury, pop 40302 has already been mentioned, the rapid charger there has been broken so long that BP pulse have 'disappeared' it from their map.
Tewkesbury, pop 19778
Marlborough, pop 8395
Exactly. And with the well known physical limitations over parking in the town itself, a Rapid down there would instantly be hogged by a self-entitled driver bagging a parking space rather than needing a full charge. And probably leave it plugged in all day rather than leave when full and do battle with the rest of the people roaming around searching for a parking spot. A Rapid at the P&R along with a dozen destination chargers would be the solution.
I'll throw in Burnham-On-Sea & Highbridge. 25,000 population and just the 7kW chargers at Tesco. Right on a motorway junction and has plenty of holiday traffic too.
For additional points you have Bridgwater that is 40,000+ that just has a Morrison genie point.
I'll throw in Burnham-On-Sea & Highbridge. 25,000 population and just the 7kW chargers at Tesco. Right on a motorway junction and has plenty of holiday traffic too.
For additional points you have Bridgwater that is 40,000+ that just has a Morrison genie point.
I was interested to make a comparison to where I live in SW London - population 61,000. This borough has been dragging its feet over EV infrastructure compared to some parts of London but we still have:
x2 175 kW Shell
x5 175kW MFG being installed right now
x3 50kW Osprey and BP
x20 7kW Podpoint free to use chargers at supermarkets (time restricted to 2 hours). Sainsbury has 16 of those, Tesco 4.
100 Ubitricity 3.5kW lamp post chargers dotted throughout the area were installed in 2021 by the council/Ubictricity. The charge points were installed with financial assistance from the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) working with London’s Go Ultra Low Cities Scheme (GULCS), which is managed by London Councils, Transport for London and supported by the Mayor of London.
We also have free resident parking permits for all EVs.
Clearly you would expect towns with 30,000 to 40,000 population to have considerably more than zero chargers but a lot of the infrastructure is being provided by super markets and traditional fuel providers so perhaps their focus is on areas where EV penetration is highest or some other logic dictates the decisions.
East Herts is pretty dire. Ware (16,000) and Hertford (27,000) have 7kW dotted around and the fastest in the area is a free 22kW AC at Aldi in Hertford but not many cars can use it to its full potential, super the the ZOE though! 😁
You've got a 50kw in Hoddesdon only 3.7 miles from Ware. A little bit further on from Ware in all directions you've got more rapids. Coverage you say is pretty dire. You're lucky.
Question is… are we passed the point of this being something councils should be doing? Encouraging, yes… but is the problem nobody wants to install chargers in these locations or the planning process isn’t supporting it?
I guess in the absence of anything the council should step up and do… something. In the case of Scarborough Borough Council they’ll likely cock it up. I notice the destination chargers available in Pickering car parks (different district council) have a four hour limit and you have to pay for parking. If they did that somewhere like Whitby park and ride it would be entirely useless.
Tell me about it! We did a day trip from our Airbnb (where we couldn't charge) to Whitby last Sept and really needed a charge in our Model 3. We used the 7kW point at Aldi and got bus into town for a few hours. We did buy food and booze at Aldi so didn't feel guilty, but crazy we needed to resort to such plans. With days like that I do struggle sometimes to justify encouraging family and friends to buy a BEV
ZOEs can famously charge at up to 43 kW AC, for one.
I hope double-headed 22 kW destination chargers dominate. They can either give all their electrons to one car, or 11 kW per side, which is still decent.
This garden centre just to the west of Whitby with a decent sized car park would be a good site for a rapid charger: Victoria Farm Garden Centre · Guisborough Rd, Whitby YO21 1TL, United Kingdom Anybody know the owners? It's very close to the park and ride which was turned down for a rapid charger by Scarborough Borough Council as they said there was no demand.
With the permitted development changes, it's possible that the Local Council doesn't even need to be involved now.
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