ukslim
Established Member
- Joined
- May 10, 2023
- Messages
- 246
- Reaction score
- 296
- Points
- 94
- Location
- Warwick UK
- Driving
- MG4 Trophy LR
Totally agree, but I think there's cause to be optimistic. A lot of these, while definitely a problem today, are going away:EVs are still far too complicated and technical for people used to just filling up at the garage. I am not saying they couldn't learn it but many won't and don't want to try.
To be an EV owner, just for "filling up" you have to wrap your head around:
- Battery/range option: which do I need?
- Battery chemistry and relationship to charging (range vs health charges).
- Chargers: grannies, home chargers, public AC chargers, tethered, untethered, rapid chargers.
- Charger networks and apps: installing, configuring, finding chargers, route planning, contactless cards, different rates and memberships.
- Route planning apps: stops, charger availability, are they working, busy periods, peak/off peak.
- Charge schedules: cheap rates, EV tariffs, trade offs vs personal usage.
- Cables: single phase, 3 phase, 16A, 32A.
- Charge curves, preheating, battery balancing.
- Type 2, CCS, Chademo connectors.
- Range/health charges can be simplified to "80% usually, 100% when you need it" - MG4 already has that in the app.
- Battery chemistry, forget about it. Above point is all you need to know.
- Charger networks and apps, new regs should sort it so you just need contactless. Apps for loyalty points, discounts, subscriptions etc. maybe, but all that's optional.
- Route planning:
- Step 1, ZapMap/ABRP-like functionality will appear in Google Maps/Apple Maps which people are already using
- Step 2, it'll become redundant as chargers become more ubiquitous. Just expect to find ultra-rapid chargers at every services. Just expect to be able to "drive until we see one" when your charge hits 20%.
- Charge tariffs - some way to go, but I think they'll crack it. Something akin to Intelligent Octopus, suitable for a mass market.
- Charge curves, preheating, battery balancing - ignorable for most.
- Connectors - well, Chademo is dead as far as I'm concerned. So there's only two types, "slow" and "fast"
- and you don't need to worry about "fast" because it's attached to the public chargers.