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UK Wants An Electric-Vehicle Charger In Every New Home (thedrive.com)
A new government proposal included in Road to Zero, a report on climate-change related policies, would require all new homes to be fitted with electric car charging points. It follows a commitment made last year by the UK to end sales of new gasoline and diesel cars by 2040. The Drive reports: "It is our intention that all new homes, where appropriate, should have a charge point available," a government statement said. "We plan to consult as soon as possible on introducing a requirement for charge point infrastructure for new dwellings in England."
To help achieve that goal, the U.K. will reportedly establish a 400-million-pound ($531 million) fund for companies that manufacture and install charging stations. The government is also reportedly looking at integrating charging stations with newly-installed streetlights, as well as wireless-charging technology. A new Automated and Electric Vehicles bill will also give the government power to mandate installation of charging infrastructure at highway service stations.
To help achieve that goal, the U.K. will reportedly establish a 400-million-pound ($531 million) fund for companies that manufacture and install charging stations. The government is also reportedly looking at integrating charging stations with newly-installed streetlights, as well as wireless-charging technology. A new Automated and Electric Vehicles bill will also give the government power to mandate installation of charging infrastructure at highway service stations.
if anything, this will drive UP the value of existing homes since they aren't subject to this new requirement.
FFS, installing a home charger costs about $250 in parts including the plug. It's about $50 in parts if you just want to install a high amp circuit 20 feet from the circuit breaker.
It's a few hundred extra bucks to have an electrician and install it once your house is prebuilt. This will drive down the price if anything of existing homes since a new home will include a charger that cost the developer maybe $300 (on top of $700,000) but an existing home will cost $800 for an electrician to come out for 3 hours and run cable through a finished wall.
Many of the things you've said are technically true, but are worded in such a way to make it sound bad. There is a mix now worldwide, but if you look at a continent/regional level there is a clear preference for one system or the other going forward.
* You need AC charging so that you can charge from any power point, anywhere on the planet. This makes any home a potential charging location and is vital to the success of EVs because 90% of the time you don't need anything else.
* You need DC charging so that when travelling long distances, you can charge at 50kW, even up to 150kW or 350kW, which is effectively the same time as you would stop on a road trip if using petrol/diesel. Some don't support this, but will be a necessity for mainstream acceptance.
So, for the most part, each car is going to need to support two standards, one AC and one DC.
AC - most countries have chosen one standard or another - USA and Japan are predominantly J1772, Europe is predominantly Type 2.. however in any case, it isn't much of an issue, you can get adaptors to go from one to the other and in some countries the standard is that the charging unit has a socket only - so your carry your own cable which is suitable for your car. So while there are different plug types the electricity is all "compatible". On a purely technical basis, Type 2 is superior - it allows rates up to 22kW or 43kW.
DC - the three public standards are Chademo, CCS1, and CCS2. Chademo, a big plug on it's own. CCS1 and 2, combine one of the two AC standards mentioned above with 2 pins for DC. The bonus here is that the car then only needs the one socket which can take an AC or DC plug. Again, most countries have chosen one of these as a standard, a small number have chosen two (with a preferences towards one for future vehicles). DC fast charging equipment has two plugs in the same way that fuel pumps have 3, 4 or 5 types of fuel.
CCS2 is the format being used for IONITY and other 350kW charging networks in Europe. So every big European manufacturer is now going to use it. I think it will be the eventual winner. As a result, Type 2 will follow on as the AC standard.
Tesla is a strange one, but I'm going to guess you are North American - because almost everywhere else, Tesla uses the Type 2 socket which makes it compatible with many other public charging stations. It is speculated that the Model 3 outside North America will have a CCS2 port, which would make it compatible with both public Type2 and CCS2, as well as existing Tesla chargers/superchargers. It's a shame they didn't go down this route in North America, because they've now backed themselves into a corner due to how many cars and chargers use the existing North American socket type.
- Chuq
Pretty sure anybody buying a new built house in the UK doesn't care about their house costing $50 more to build.
For the record, I had a 50A circuit installed in my garage last month by a licensed electrician. The cost including materials and labor was $150.
three-phase isn't actually 400V RMS between the phase and neutral, it's 400V RMS between phases.
Most UK domestic properties aren't hooked up to all three phases of the grid. Typically, each house along a street will take a different phase from the grid, so my house would have about 240V from phase 1, my neighbour to my left is on phase 2, my neighbour to my right is phase 3.
In the UK, the phase-to-neutral voltage is notionally 230V with a tolerance of -10% +6% but that only came in with international harmonisation, in reality, UK domestic properties tend to be about 240V, because that's what was designed into the grid before the international harmonisation. Having this harmonisation is good - it means that aside from a different connector, you can use an appliance bought in Ireland and use it in Russia.
They're the safest in the world
Not to your feet. The little buggers always sit prongs up.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Not so here in the UK - we get ripped off for everything.
Right now, if you buy an electric car, you can get £500 towards the purchase of a charge unit (from the government). Guess what!? all charge units magically cost £499. After that you need to fit the thing, and for that you'll need a 16A armoured cable from a dedicated RCD on your fuse board. We got ours fitted for free by Mitsubishi, but they'll only really run the cable and connect it up - if your fuse board isn't new enough, isn't big enough or accessible enough, then you'll need your own spark to come and fix up all of that before the "free" connection comes along (our "free" guy said he's move the stuff off the RCD he used "on the quiet" because he's not even supposed to do that - the RCD has to be literally empty when he shows up). Our install was simple, but I'd say you could get charged a couple of hundred quid for it, if you got your own spark to do it.
If this regulation mandated that you had to have a 16A feed to your garage or driveway or to your allocated parking space or whatever then it would make a lot of sense. The cost of the charge units would come down to real levels rather than inflated ones, and people would be free to buy a good looking charge unit rather than the utter mingers a lot of the companies force on you. Further, you'd get the charger right for your car, could get a 'smart' one if you want, can get one that will alternate between two cars or whatever.
If the regulation went further and said you need a 32A feed, then things get really funky. The usual properly-wide fuse in the UK is 60A, so if your car is pulling the full 32A, you can blow the fuse by boiling the kettle while straightening your hair (pretty much). Some newish properties in the UK have no gas, so they use electric heating - again, that 32A feed is going to be a real problem there. I seriously doubt any of the grid can really cope with 50% of the houses pulling the full 60A at the same time, never mind all of them doing so. In practical terms, the only way we're ever really going to have 32A feeds is if we have some sort of battery storage for it - and there's no way these regulations will demand all of that.
So... expect some terrible legislation that will be (ab)used by the charge point manufacturers to inflate their profits, whilst charging the house-buyer and consumer for it. Expect the regulations to be woefully out of date in a matter of years, but not updated to reflect that, so you'll have to have a charge point you can't use as well as putting in one yourself that you can. Can't wait.