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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.
I've heard of this special type of person called an "Engineer" who designs systems such as the electrical installation in a residence.
These "Engineers" are very clever, very clever indeed! They've come up with a method by which it doesn't matter which sort of connector is used. Incredible I know! I was hesitant to believe such a thing possible when I first heard it myself!
They call it "modularity".
Or, we find an energy storage mechanism that doesn't use a high voltage charger.
Ohm's law isn't changing any time in the next century. If you want lots of current (120kw+) into a storage device it either needs to be very high amperage (low resistance giant fat cables or room temperature super conductors) or high voltage or both.
Tesla Superchargers are high voltage and high amperage (480v and 250A).
If the UK's power mains are 230v and that's a constant that isn't going to change any time soon. So all that this law requires is that a high amperage cable be run from the circuit breaker to a place in the garage where an adapter can be wired up.
Adding an extra 30A circuit is around $50 in parts. The expensive part is just running cable in a home with drywall and studs. It only takes a minute to run the cable while the house is under construction.
Fortunately, UK bureaucrats are well-known for their intelligence.
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
1) Read the one sentence summary "charger in every new home".
2) Don't bother to read the fine article, which includes words like "where appropriate" and "consult".
3) Assume that "charger in every new home" will be applied rigidly even when it makes no sense. This will be a regulation which will probably run to hundreds of pages, but pretend that one sentence says everything you need to know about it. Also pretend that the people writing regulations are drooling idiots.
4) Conclude that the policy will lead to idiotic outcomes, rather than realizing you are making idiotic interpretation
5) Post as AC about how idiotic this policy is
6) ????
7) Profit!
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In one alternate universe nobody owns cars anyway, just autonomous rides requested by us from A to B. Then the shared car goes off and charges itself up in the nearest distributed charging station.
If you're building a house you will already hire an electrician to do many hours or even days of work, an extra few minutes to install a car charger isn't going to make much difference when he's already wiring up lighting and multiple power sockets to every room. You'll already be paying whatever charges for distance and travel they request in either case.
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