EV Charging Points Are Being Made Compulsory At Thousands Of Fuel Stations
That escalated quickly! Barely a few hours after Shell announced its first EV charging points at petrol stations, the UK government has unveiled plans to make them compulsory at all large fuel forecourts and motorway service stations.
Transport Minister John Hayes has announced the Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill, which includes instructions that ‘multiple charging points’ should be installed at all such sites. It should double the current charging infrastructure, estimates say, and place charging points at locations that people already know and associate with refuelling.
What constitutes a ‘larger’ filling station is still unclear, and we expect more details on that in due course. That said, it will probably be sensible for all forecourts, large or small, to have at least a couple of charging points.
There’s still no mention of the time and space issue, whereby a handful of charging points won’t be enough to serve demand if every car has to sit there for half an hour or more. We expect the government to say it won’t be a problem because most people should recharge at home. How true that will turn out to be… well, we’ll see.
As part of the Bill’s general drive towards electric motoring, charging points will be installed on the street, addressing the obvious problem of at-home charging where houses don’t have a driveway. Streetlamp-based chargers are reportedly the most likely solution, because they are already wired into the national grid and roadworks disruption would be minimal.
A separate clause in the Bill states that insurance companies will be liable when properly insured autonomous cars have an accident or cause damage. If the car isn’t insured, the driver is liable. Manufacturers everywhere will be breathing a sigh of relief, because they seem to escape responsibility altogether – unless the crash can be proven to have been caused by production errors.
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Come to think of it, thats actually a pretty good idea. If you own a hybrid, you can recharge the batteries and fill up at the same time. 🤔
Yep, good point, although you’d probably have to do them consecutively, rather than at the same time.
I don’t think that that’s reccommended, or even legal. I wouldn’t combine the highly combustible fuel with an electric power source if I were you. A little bit of insulation missing on the cable, or perhaps somebody uses a cheap Chinese knockoff cable, and you know what’s next.
This is a step in the right direction if governments wants more EVs to be sold.
Now let’s think of it. A company like Shell, is making money of EVs and ICE at the same time. Now that’s how you do business. Remember kids, in order to stay successful, you have to make money of your rival. Same way how Sony makes games for nitendo platform.
Absolutely correct
So, Microsoft… How about releasing Forza for PlayStation platform will ya
Hmm…In keeping up with the national interests, maybe fuel companies who start generating electricity won’t suddenly die off and fire many workers after all…wait, but the workers are there to physically remove fuel from the ground .Nevermind.
The last bit about the article is interesting. Seems like UK law doesn’t cover consumer protection as well as EU law.
They are missing how an electric car society would function.
EVs would be great for travel between home and work… or any trip that returns the car home on a single charge. For long distance travel (where you need additional fuel), EV charging stations are not practical. The charging stations don’t need to be at gas stations, they need to be a restaurants and shopping malls… places where you can go do something and kill 30 minutes to an hour while your vehicle recharges.
True, but this is a good start. Now having enouth charging stations for everyone… That will be tricky
right! you can’t just plug your electric car for just a few minutes unlike a petrol car 😂
Now all the unsold petrol/diesel can power the generators to charge the EVs 😂
Get out of here, we already know how annoying it is sitting behind someone at the petrol station when they are taking forever, and now this lol imagine sitting behind a bloody electric car no thanks
All Tesco / Asda Supermarkets and the like will simply need to partition off a number of parking bays for EV’s to charge. 30 minute charge easily done in the time for a moderate to large shop
Also McDonalds and the like need to follow, but most importantly all large employer staff car parks need to step up to the plate.
Not sure if large petrol stations (unless they are Tesco Supermarket Style) will be ideal, my local Tesco’s have plenty spaces next to the petrol station.
The retail park Starbucks would so easily fit these plans, street charging would be ok along as the local area is safe. Already heard of EV’s being unplugged for a laugh at multi story car parks.
You can’t unplug them though that’s the great thing. The cable is locked in place whilst charging and only unlocks when the owner unlocks the vehicle and the charging stops. Sure you could cut the cable if you wanted to risk your life though :-)
As a Tesla owner, I do almost all of my charging at home or at my destinations with really no impact on my time. The only inconvenience I have is the lack of chargers in my destinations. With bills like this, would fix the only remaining problem with the EV movement.
Also, for those who don’t know, many gas stations make just enough money on the fuel to stay open and pay a couple of employees. The profit in gas station franchises is in the goods they sell. With electric vehicles, the person would be there longer, thus more likely to buy other products the fuel station is providing. The faster you fuel, the less likely you are to grab a soda or bottle water.
In the UK, it actually may help to reduce their insane traffic problems with less vehicles on the road.