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Do you think that the UK switching to electric vehicles is realistic?

MattA7

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Given the significant obstacles involved with using electric cars and the massive change in infrastructure that would be required do you think it’s practical.

I’m especially thinking of those that live in blocks of flats that have no choice but to park on the street or those who do long distance commuting and it may not be practical to stop mid journey to charge up.
 
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thejuggler

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Replace electric vehicle with internal combustion and compare with with the horse and cart. When ICE cars came in there was no such thing as the petrol we know now, never mind a petrol station.

The change will take a similar amount of time. 30-40 years and we are about 10 in.
 

Flying Snail

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The question is not is it realistic but when will it be realistic. Currently for a majority of the population it isn't, for the reasons you stated as well as the cost.
 

py_megapixel

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It's entirely realistic, as long as we don't let naysayers get in the way :)

Edit: Hopefully most of those vehicles are on rails though!
 
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PeterC

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Given the significant obstacles involved with using electric cars and the massive change in infrastructure that would be required do you think it’s practical.

I’m especially thinking of those that live in blocks of flats that have no choice but to park on the street or those who do long distance commuting and it may not be practical to stop mid journey to charge up.
I think that the transition will take a lot longer than people expect.

The problem journey will be one not quite long enough to justify a half hour break but without facilities at the destination.
 

lachlan

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Yes it is realistic if you consider
  1. We can and should be driving less anyway, and aiming for reduced car ownership and more public transport and active transport. So there will be fewer cars than there are today.
  2. Battery technology is improving and so ranges are increasing while charging times decrease
  3. Charging infrastructure is continuously expanding
  4. Some people may have to change their travel habits to accommodate the shift to electric
 

birchesgreen

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It is realistic and will happen but not tomorrow. EVs are pretty common to see now but still a small minority, but in 10 years time it could easily be a majority.
 

Ken H

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Huge amount of infrastructure to put in place. People need to have somewhere to charge up at home. Without that is a non starter for many. I cant park near my home. So where do I charge my EV?
That will need an upgrade of the electricity network. Adding in electric vehicles AND heat pumps is quite a big hike in demand. So that is generation and upgrading distribution.
And the cost (money and materials) of putting in charging points so people can charge while at work or whatever they are doing.
And then there is the worry about where the components of electric vehicles come from. The rare earth metals, and the 'old' ones like copper. and stuff line microprocessor chips.
And while we are doing all this at huge expense, China and India are building coal fired power stations.
 

Snow1964

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Yes, charging stations will be much more common.

The number of petrol stations has been falling for years, it peaked at about 40,000 sites in UK in 1950s, now down to about 8380 sites. So lost nearly 80%. The actual petrol pump count is different as now many sites have 8-12 pumps, instead of 2 or 3 pumps in 1950s

So now drive further to find somewhere to refill our cars. Habits change over time, so moving to electric cars seems likely and in some areas quick charge stations are likely to open where there is on road parking

This years SMMT car sales data for 2022 (Jan- April year to date) shows 77,064 electric cars sold which is 14.4% of 536,727 cars sold in 4 months. By comparison diesel cars are a mere 5.6% (few years ago were 50%+) Hybrid car sales are now 36.7% (few years ago were zero), so clearly consumers are already changing.

 

Lucan

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The number of petrol stations has been falling for years, ....So now drive further to find somewhere to refill our cars.
I don't know anyone who drives "further to find somewhere to refill". I certainly don't. I refill at somewhere en-route to a destination, or at my local supermarket on the same visit as buying groceries. Goodness knows where they found the space for those 40,000 petrol stations in 1950, I guess there were village shops with a pump outside, and every repair workshop had one too (there is still one like that near me). Petrol stations, bigger now, nevertheless appear to be everywhere today, unless you are in the wilds of Scotland but I guess that was the case in 1950 too.

I am disappointed that the EV policy revolves around in-car charging. It should have been based on battery swapping which could be done at wayside stations in a couple of minutes (like petrol refilling) in automated drive-through changing bays, the batteries being re-charged out the back. People with driveways could additionally charge at home, so there would be the best of both worlds. I'd get an EV like a shot if we had wayside battery swapping, but as it is I'll wait and see.

Before someone says you need to break the journey anyway, I agree, but I don't want to break my journey at grotty crowded and expensive-to-eat places that wayside recharging stations will be, together with all the "charger rage" which will become an increasing problem as EVs become more popular.
 
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Bertone

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Whilst chatting to the Technician ( from a well known Energy company), who was servicing my boiler a few months ago, the conversation got around to Electric vehicles.
He told me that the company have issued electric vans to some technicians, one in particular lives five floors up in an apartment block.
The company pay him to do his shopping in Tescos in his lunch hour, whilst his vehicle is plugged in and being charged up !
 

Bald Rick

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I cant park near my home. So where do I charge my EV?

at work, at a supermarket / shopping centre while you do your shopping, at the station, at a bespoke charging station, or wherever you park it near home with a charger (which I accept won’t be in place yet!). If you drive an average mileage, and an average EV, you’ll be needing to fully charge every fortnight, or for an hour a day on a slow charger / 10 minutes on a typical quick charger.

last week I drove past an EV charging station in Manchester - with a Greggs on site - and it was reasonably patronised. Park up, plug in, get a coffee, drink coffee, check emails, unplug having gained 100miles range. Definitely the future.
 

NoRoute

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Perfectly realistic, but it's unrealistic to expect it to happen overnight or for all drivers to switch at the same pace.

The first are company car drivers with off-road parking and space for home charging, benefiting from the tax and fuel savings, they're switching now and there's been a huge surge in fleets adopting EVs, some companies have now gone EV-only for company cars. Next are the drivers with space for home charging, where leasing or buying a new or used EV or a PHEV is an attractive option, who are starting to switch and this will increase as more used ex-fleet and ex-lease EVs come into the market,

For drivers without their own off-road parking it is likely to be more of a challenge, but even here it's developing, the rapid charging networks are growing and the councils are starting to roll out charging in public car parks and on-street charging. If you look at your local area on Zap Map and check it from time to time, there's quite a lot of charging infrastructure being added.

Besides attitudes are starting to change, EVs are establishing themselves as the desirable, aspirational car to choose and fashion and image plays a big part, after all who wants to buy yesterday's technology?
 
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Bald Rick

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At present the greatest constraint on EV adoption is the ability of the car industry to supply demand. I’m hearing several anecdotal tales of deliveries stretching well into 2023.
 

Bertone

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At present the greatest constraint on EV adoption is the ability of the car industry to supply demand. I’m hearing several anecdotal tales of deliveries stretching well into 2023.
A friend has been waiting for an VW ID3 for nine months and now latest forecast delivery is November
 

MattA7

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On the subject of EVs do hybrid cars switch between a ICE and electric motor or is the petrol/diesel used to generate electricity for the electric motor.
 

Bertie the bus

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Yes it is realistic if you consider
  1. We can and should be driving less anyway, and aiming for reduced car ownership and more public transport and active transport. So there will be fewer cars than there are today.
  2. Battery technology is improving and so ranges are increasing while charging times decrease
  3. Charging infrastructure is continuously expanding
  4. Some people may have to change their travel habits to accommodate the shift to electric
Lecturing people on how they should change their lives doesn't make some ridiculous pipe dream realistic.

The answer to the question is it realistic in the timeframes talked about? Of course it isn't. Will it happen anyway? Unfortunately I think there is a realistic chance it will.
 

NoRoute

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Lecturing people on how they should change their lives doesn't make some ridiculous pipe dream realistic.

The answer to the question is it realistic in the timeframes talked about? Of course it isn't. Will it happen anyway? Unfortunately I think there is a realistic chance it will.

Current timeframes are that new conventional petrol and diesel vehicles can be sold upto 2030, arrangements for after 2030 haven't yet been decided by government, but its expected that new vehicles will need some electric range, so would need to be plug-in hybrids as a minimum, only after 2035 will sale of new PHEVs be phased out, becoming EV only. There's no plans to prevent people continuing to run their existing petrol and diesel cars.

If you've got a petrol or diesel car you can run it until it wears out, and its likely you can buy another one in the form of a PHEV until 2035 and run it for another say 15+ years until it wears out, which takes you upto 2050 or more.

In practice, I doubt many will want to be running a petrol car in 2050 or even 2040, just like hardly anyone uses film cameras, or buys CRT televisions, or heats their home with paraffin heaters. The world moves on.
 

david1212

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It is practical but to have an adequate charging network in place by 2030 requires massive infrastructure work yet little seems even to be planned. While come 01/01/2030 not all cars will be an EV manufacturers will not still be selling petrol/diesel only right up to 31/12/2029 but will want stock cleared some time before. Likewise for hybrids long before 31/12/2034.

While I can't recall where now I have read that the National Grid have stated that there will be adequate electricity generating capability and distribution capacity in the high voltage network.

The estate where I live was built in the 1970’s. The detached and semi-detached houses were all built with single garage, although some have now been converted to living space, and have off-road parking space for at least one vehicle. Most spaces are within the plot but a few are remote hence running a cable requires agreement with at least one neighbour. The terraced houses and flats have no allocated parking. There are simply communal car park areas for typically 20 cars which I presume are the responsibility of the council. A few could run a cable over the back fence but mostly this would be across open public shared space and footpaths. For some the parking is across a road. The only option I see is the installation of charging points. These don’t need to be high power or even actual chargers just 6kW rated sockets. The charger should be integral to the car. Who would pay for these and how usage charged is another issue. Likewise do the existing sub-stations have adequate capacity or is either upgrading or the build of additional sub-stations required?

My aunt lives in a block of 12 flats on a private site. Each has a garage but remote and without power. There are visitors spaces at the front. Here who will fund the installation of charging points?

For long distance journeys as an example I have looked at the Vauxhall Corsa-e. This is stated to have 50kWH battery, 30minute fast charge and a headline 209 mile range.
From the range calculator the 209 miles is at 45mph. Set 60mph and it reduces to 161 miles, set 70mph then 130 miles. Now allow 20% contingency and that a fast charge is to 80% then the range at 70mph becomes 83 miles. What these ranges might be after 5, 8, 10 years or 50000, 80000, 100000 miles is uncertain particularly if 50% or more of the charges are from a fast charger.

The 83 miles at 70mph happens to be close to the distance from the M4/M5 interchange to Exeter. Hence most cars will need to stop to recharge. Consider a flow of 6000 cars per hour and 6 charging stations. At each charging stations with 30 minute charges 500 100kW fast chargers are required. That is a demand of 50MW. Add the charging station for the other carriageway and a feed of 100MW is required. Look at that in the context of providing power for 33000 3kW electric heaters or 45000 2.2kW kettles. Right across the country along motorways and major roads e.g. A34 from M3 to M40, A55 North Wales large charging stations at intervals of no more than 15 miles are required.

Once holiday travellers are at their base destination again charging points are required. I wonder how many chalet, caravan and camping sites will need a new electricity feed to provide a 6kW charging point for every unit?

Day trip destinations e.g. heritage railways, theme parks, stately homes are going to require charging points. These don’t need to be 30 minute / 100kW but say 4 hour / 15kW. Again will many of these need a new electricity feed in addition to the installation distribution system. Who initially and long term is going to pay ?

Travelodge, Premier Inn etc will require major installations. The weekday business users will expect to be able to fully recharge in 8 hours. Further many may well have cars with a higher battery capacity which in time could be 100kWh. Other will have light vans which in time might have 150kWh battery capacity. Hence chargers will need to be rated at 15/20kW. From a quick search the average number of rooms per site seems to be around 75. For 75 15kW chargers an electricity supply capacity in excess of 1MW is required. For many sites again that will mean a new feed in addition to the distribution sub-station.

Hence back to the original question ' Is is realistic '. Potentially yes but only if the practical work starts very soon.
 

Bald Rick

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On the subject of EVs do hybrid cars switch between a ICE and electric motor or is the petrol/diesel used to generate electricity for the electric motor.

that depends on the model of hybrid, but most models switch between the batter6 at low speed and ICe a5 higher speeds, usually with some blending. High performance hybrids use both.
 

Horizon22

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At present the greatest constraint on EV adoption is the ability of the car industry to supply demand. I’m hearing several anecdotal tales of deliveries stretching well into 2023.

I'd also say the lack of facilities in some urban areas is also one. The majority of people will want to do this at home overnight; not really possible in an flat with 10 floors and limited parking. Whilst - as indeed you mentioned - there are other places, this is certainly a big factor in terms of EV infrastructure. Many urban areas do of course have better public transport and reduced car ownership already, so perhaps that trend will continue anyway, regardless of EV technology being cheaper and more widely available.
 

GLC

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As someone who only has an EV, and lives with on street parking and so no at home charging, living with an EV without home charging is already perfectly manageable. It does require some planning, but the only difference is we plan/rely on destination charging, rather than at home charging. It does help the charging infrastructure in Scotland appears to be particularly good in places admittedly
 

Bald Rick

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For 75 15kW chargers an electricity supply capacity in excess of 1MW is required. For many sites again that will mean a new feed in addition to the distribution sub-station.

just quoting this part of the post for brevity; you have assumed absolute worst case in all your calcs, ie everyone at the hotel or service station needs a full charge, and they all need it at every hotel / service station / campsite etc. This simply won’t be the case.

there are plenty of people out there already doing long journeys in this country by BEV, and the data will no doubt be used to inform the infrastructure required.

no doubt there will be upgrades to many local distribution systems required, and of course many businesses will be investing in charging points (they certainly are round by me), but it is going to be a gradual process Over the next decade and more.
 

507020

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It does help the charging infrastructure in Scotland appears to be particularly good in places admittedly
I would agree with this. Everywhere I have been in Scotland has had plentiful EV charging infrastructure, almost always with cars being charged at the time I saw it, while I am yet to see a single public charger materialise within I don’t know how many miles of my home in England. There certainly isn’t one in my local area, so perhaps the thread title should be changed because the question cannot be answered for the whole of the UK. It may be perfectly reasonable to consider it realistic in Scotland by 2030, but it never will be in England.
 

AM9

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Current timeframes are that new conventional petrol and diesel vehicles can be sold upto 2030, arrangements for after 2030 haven't yet been decided by government, but its expected that new vehicles will need some electric range, so would need to be plug-in hybrids as a minimum, only after 2035 will sale of new PHEVs be phased out, becoming EV only. There's no plans to prevent people continuing to run their existing petrol and diesel cars.
But continuing to run a hydrocarbon fueled car will probably become: a) more expensive as CO2 generation is likely to be discouraged by raiisng the price of those fuels, and b) the consequential reduction in demand reduces the profitability of selling those fuels and the number of available outlets is reduced.

If you've got a petrol or diesel car you can run it until it wears out, and its likely you can buy another one in the form of a PHEV until 2035 and run it for another say 15+ years until it wears out, which takes you upto 2050 or more.
The numbers of drivers clinging onto hydrocarbon fueled vehicle use will drastically reduce for the reasons of access to fuel that I mentioned above, plus an increse in the restrictions as to where polluting vehicles will be permitted to go.

In practice, I doubt many will want to be running a petrol car in 2050 or even 2040, just like hardly anyone uses film cameras, or buys CRT televisions, or heats their home with paraffin heaters. The world moves on.
I agree, - die hard petrolheads will become the dinosaurs of road users.
 

StKeverne1497

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Is this in response to the Channel 5 programme tonight?

From my personal point of view the key factors against getting a pure electric car are the initial cost (at least 50% above the price of an equivalent ICE car), the range - especially as the battery ages (see below) and the sheer nonsensical use of gadgets and apps and subscriptions, so I'm holding out as long as I can while recognising it will have to come at some point.

The subscriptions thing was also brought up at the end of the C5 programme - why should you have to sign up to a "club" or give over your personal details just to activate a charger? The blasted things charge over-the-odds for electricity anyway, so why can't you just tap or swipe your card as you would at a petrol station? They showed an example of a charging station which allows exactly this but it's almost unique in the country.

If someone produced an electric car which didn't need an app on your phone to start the heater fifteen minutes before you drive off (a button on the remote would work just fine) and didn't have a 21" computer monitor blazing away in the centre of the dash, ruining my night vision (I have enough problems with the "infotainment" systems manufacturers have been fitting to normal cars for some years) and instead fitted a nice simple speedometer and "fuel gauge", not only would it save a couple of thousand quid of currently hard-to-source electronics, but it would probably make for a nicer driving experience.

As for range and battery life, my problem is that I regularly travel around 24,000 miles a year. I realise I'm unusual in this and my eldest - who probably manages about 6,000 a year - is more "normal" and a much better fit for an EV. My regular commute is around 50 miles each way, about 35 of which are on a motorway, and I cannot guarantee to be able to charge at the far end. I would also want to minimise charging away from home purely on cost grounds. Fortunately I do have a driveway and am able to park off-road in order to charge at home, but a lot of housing around here is 150+ year-old terracing where this is simply impossible.

When I first looked at EVs, the best was probably the Leaf, with a quoted range of "up to 150 miles". This sounds ideal until you realise that this is with a new battery, at extra-urban speeds (i.e. 50mph-ish) in the spring with no heating or cooling. Nissan had a calculator (may still do) on their website which, once you'd entered "motorway, 0C ambient, hours of darkness" brought the as-new range down to something like 120 miles, again just about ok for my 100 mile commute, except for three things.

Firstly, 20 miles of leeway is not really enough. I get nervous when my Diesel car goes "bleep", even though it will have somewhere north of 60 miles left at that point.

Secondly, I sometimes have to divert via a much more taxing route involving twistier, hillier roads. The distance isn't very much greater, but the fuel use is (and no, it won't all be reclaimed regeneratively as I go back down the hills, when the Diesel car is coasting and uses zero fuel anyway!).

Thirdly, at the time, Nissan reckoned a battery was "spent" when it would only hold about 70% of the as-new charge. For my driving pattern this was predicted to be somewhere around 4 or 5 years and - I'm sure you can see where this is going - 70% of 120 miles is only 84 miles, which is not enough range for my whole commute. On top of that, current wisdom is that Lithium-based batteries don't like being charged to 100% and then discharged to (near) zero, so doing this every day would severely reduce the life of my battery.

The Renault battery lease scheme at the time didn't have a tier for 24,000 miles a year, so that wasn't an option either.

Taking all those things into account, I need a car which - as new - has a range of somewhere around 300 miles just for my 100 mile commute. I reckon this will work because:
  • 300 miles will probably turn into 250 miles in the dark in the winter on the motorway (possibly less)
  • 250 miles is actually only 150 miles if you stick to the "optimal charge window" of 20% - 80% (i.e. only use 60% of the battery capacity) (I know this is current wisdom, but I do have my doubts and would be happy using 10% to 90% based on experience with phones, laptops etc. which are similar (if not actually identical) battery technologies)
  • 150 miles turns into 105 miles once the battery has aged and can only hold 70% of its initial charge
As a bonus, 300 miles range would get me to most relatives in one hop.

Such cars are now starting to appear, but even ignoring the Teslas, Mercs and suchlike they are expensive. The big-battery Nissan Leaf (290 mile range) starts at £34½k and the big-battery Hyundai Kona (300 mile range) starts at £35½k. I've never yet bought a car for more than £20k, and thinking about our other car, with a big family, why is the Nissan e-NV200 only available with the small battery?

And why the rush for electric? Whatever happened to Hydrogen ICE or fuel cells?

A friend is in the market for a new car. He says he's found a lot of second-hand Leafs on the market, but almost without exception they come with batteries which can barely manage 50 miles on a full charge, and a cheap car doesn't look so cheap if the first thing you have to do is shell out £3k or so (it's difficult to find reliable prices online, I've seen up to £5k quoted for a first-gen battery pack) on a new battery pack.

M.
 

AM9

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It is practical but to have an adequate charging network in place by 2030 requires massive infrastructure work yet little seems even to be planned. While come 01/01/2030 not all cars will be an EV manufacturers will not still be selling petrol/diesel only right up to 31/12/2029 but will want stock cleared some time before. Likewise for hybrids long before 31/12/2034.

While I can't recall where now I have read that the National Grid have stated that there will be adequate electricity generating capability and distribution capacity in the high voltage network.

The estate where I live was built in the 1970’s. The detached and semi-detached houses were all built with single garage, although some have now been converted to living space, and have off-road parking space for at least one vehicle. Most spaces are within the plot but a few are remote hence running a cable requires agreement with at least one neighbour. The terraced houses and flats have no allocated parking. There are simply communal car park areas for typically 20 cars which I presume are the responsibility of the council. A few could run a cable over the back fence but mostly this would be across open public shared space and footpaths. For some the parking is across a road. The only option I see is the installation of charging points. These don’t need to be high power or even actual chargers just 6kW rated sockets. The charger should be integral to the car. Who would pay for these and how usage charged is another issue. Likewise do the existing sub-stations have adequate capacity or is either upgrading or the build of additional sub-stations required?

My aunt lives in a block of 12 flats on a private site. Each has a garage but remote and without power. There are visitors spaces at the front. Here who will fund the installation of charging points?

For long distance journeys as an example I have looked at the Vauxhall Corsa-e. This is stated to have 50kWH battery, 30minute fast charge and a headline 209 mile range.
From the range calculator the 209 miles is at 45mph. Set 60mph and it reduces to 161 miles, set 70mph then 130 miles. Now allow 20% contingency and that a fast charge is to 80% then the range at 70mph becomes 83 miles. What these ranges might be after 5, 8, 10 years or 50000, 80000, 100000 miles is uncertain particularly if 50% or more of the charges are from a fast charger.

The 83 miles at 70mph happens to be close to the distance from the M4/M5 interchange to Exeter. Hence most cars will need to stop to recharge. Consider a flow of 6000 cars per hour and 6 charging stations. At each charging stations with 30 minute charges 500 100kW fast chargers are required. That is a demand of 50MW. Add the charging station for the other carriageway and a feed of 100MW is required. Look at that in the context of providing power for 33000 3kW electric heaters or 45000 2.2kW kettles. Right across the country along motorways and major roads e.g. A34 from M3 to M40, A55 North Wales large charging stations at intervals of no more than 15 miles are required.

Once holiday travellers are at their base destination again charging points are required. I wonder how many chalet, caravan and camping sites will need a new electricity feed to provide a 6kW charging point for every unit?

Day trip destinations e.g. heritage railways, theme parks, stately homes are going to require charging points. These don’t need to be 30 minute / 100kW but say 4 hour / 15kW. Again will many of these need a new electricity feed in addition to the installation distribution system. Who initially and long term is going to pay ?

Travelodge, Premier Inn etc will require major installations. The weekday business users will expect to be able to fully recharge in 8 hours. Further many may well have cars with a higher battery capacity which in time could be 100kWh. Other will have light vans which in time might have 150kWh battery capacity. Hence chargers will need to be rated at 15/20kW. From a quick search the average number of rooms per site seems to be around 75. For 75 15kW chargers an electricity supply capacity in excess of 1MW is required. For many sites again that will mean a new feed in addition to the distribution sub-station.

Hence back to the original question ' Is is realistic '. Potentially yes but only if the practical work starts very soon.
There is a lot of panic about the impact of charging on the public electricity supply. It is already mandated that new chargers must a random charge start system to dampen a local inrush surge of charging. There is also a provision to defer charging to better match the network's capacity at any given time. Currenly the ability is there to override that default setting but suppliers, both public and domestic will no doubt manage this demand by appropriate tariffs. Those that insist on immediate charging when demand is high will incur additional costs, (not unlike an anytime rail ticket vs an off-peak type).
The other misjudgement of demand is that every vehicle will need a full charge every day. The average mileage per day is around 28 miles and that is falling annually. The average daily distance driven by vans and other small commercial vehicles is around 50 miles. Neither of those require a complete recharge overnight, which is why the mandated charger features are likely to minimise the demand placed on the local and national power supply.
For what are current hotspots of longer distance refuelling usage, there will be a combination of increased charging facilites located where suitable grid connections can be provided, and where that doesn't coincide with current service areas, they will be scaled down and the new ones take over. 'Travellers' hotels will then make similar moves.

And why the rush for electric? Whatever happened to Hydrogen ICE or fuel cells?

Until the industry can demonstrate that hydrogen can be provided in quantity without producing CO2, it will be a non-starter. So no point holding your breath.
 

MattA7

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I believe some countries are planning to power vehicles with carbon neutral synthetic fuels as a alternative to EVs.

The problem is that those countries power grid is still heavily reliant on coal which means the electricity used to manufacture the fuel is far from co2 neutral. However in the UK our power grid is becoming less reliant on fossil fuels so co2 neutral synthetic fuels wouldn’t be too bad an option.
 

Ken H

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at work, at a supermarket / shopping centre while you do your shopping, at the station, at a bespoke charging station, or wherever you park it near home with a charger (which I accept won’t be in place yet!). If you drive an average mileage, and an average EV, you’ll be needing to fully charge every fortnight, or for an hour a day on a slow charger / 10 minutes on a typical quick charger.

last week I drove past an EV charging station in Manchester - with a Greggs on site - and it was reasonably patronised. Park up, plug in, get a coffee, drink coffee, check emails, unplug having gained 100miles range. Definitely the future.
Try that in the country...
 

AM9

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St Albans
I believe some countries are planning to power vehicles with carbon neutral synthetic fuels as a alternative to EVs.

The problem is that those countries power grid is still heavily reliant on coal which means the electricity used to manufacture the fuel is far from co2 neutral. However in the UK our power grid is becoming less reliant on fossil fuels so co2 neutral synthetic fuels wouldn’t be too bad an option.
I doubt that there will be any official appetite to waste the gains of an increasing sustainable energy supply on any type of fuel for ICE consumption. That might be viable for a country such as Iceland or one with vast solar opportunities compared with their consumption but definitely not for most western European nations.
So, the prospect of filling a private vehicle with a (carbon neutral) substitute for existing high carbon pollutants is self deception. Even carbon neutrality for whatever is burnt for private transport purposes doesn't address the holistic issue of arresting climate change. That will require much energy usage to be net carbon negative to enable a very limited amount of critical use to support essential services. Just because something is technically possible doesn't mean that it will become practice with the situation that we are all in.
 
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