Home Charging Without a Driveway, is it Possible?
Waking up with a full pack of electrons in the car is something most current Electric Vehicle (EV) owners take for granted. Unlike what internal combustion engine (ICE) owners think, EV owners actually save time when charging compared to an ICE car. EV owners don’t have to make weekly trips out of their way to find cheap fuel, stand around in the cold breathing in toxic fumes while filling up, and then finally pay the cashier the best part of a hundred notes for the privilege.
But 40% of the UK’s housing stock has no off-street parking. This puts a large part of the population at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to owning an electric vehicle. Public charging as your sole source of energy is not ideal, to put it mildly. The current costs of public charging mean you can pay the equivalent cost of petrol prices. I am fully aware of these downsides as this has been my EV life for four years. I am an enthusiast and early(ish) adopter, but I could not in good conscience recommend an EV to any of my neighbours. I am the only EV owner on our Victorian terraced street and do not see this changing in the years to come. Unless we have change, we will have a two-tier market where EV sales will continue to grow but 40% of the public will be left behind. Currently, why would a regular ICE car owner without a driveway choose to go electric? All they will see are refuel costs comparable to petrol, but with the extra inconvenience of much longer refuel times.
Luckily this situation changed recently for Nottinghamshire residents. EV ownership has become more convenient and cost-effective for those without a drive, thanks to the Electric Vehicle Cable Channel (EVCC) pilot programme. It is now possible to have a cable channel fitted into the pavement outside your house. Your charging cable sits in the new channel with an access flap that lays flush with the pavement. This lets EV owners on terraced streets, access cheap home electricity prices without causing a tripping hazard for pedestrians.
I had one fitted by the council last October and it has been a game changer. The savings soon stack up. A conservative figure of one full charge per week (20p per kWh at home vs. 50p per kWh at public chargers), I will save the cost of fitting the home charger in one year. After that, it’s savings at every top-up. But more importantly is the convenience. I have not needed to plan in trips to public chargers and, for the first time ever, have been able to wake up to a full charge ready to set off on a long journey. With summer around the corner, I am also able to charge the car using the free power from my solar panels. Monday morning's commute is a little nicer, knowing you’re driving off the weekend's sunshine.
It’s true, I can’t guarantee I will always get the spot outside my house. But whenever I do get the parking spot, I make sure to charge up every time. This has worked well enough for me to not need to visit a public charger in eight months. Prior to the charging channel installation, this would be a weekly visit.
Several neighbours have also shown an interest in the charging channel. When I demonstrated it, you could see one more barrier to adoption dissolve in their minds.
The EV charging channel is only one solution to street charging and will not work for all house locations, but it is part of a broader mix of solutions. Other companies, like Connected Kerb and lamp post charging by Ubitricity, work well, but the downside is that they are businesses that necessitate profit margins. This can only push up the cost for the end user.
If you apply the philosophy of Ockham's razor to street charging, that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one, then the EV cable channel is the simplest solution to the problem of street charging.
Written by Mike Harvey
