Kingston Electric Charge Points

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osutton
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Kingston Electric Charge Points

Postby osutton » Mon Sep 27, 2010 2:32 pm

Dear EV owners,

I'd like to inform members of the society of the current infrastructure in place in the Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames.

Over the last 2 years Kingston Council has installed 7 Charge Points in Council owned car parks. They are located at:
3 x Blagdon Road multi storey car park, New Malden, KT3 4AH
2 x The Rose Theatre car park, Kingston, KT1 1HL
1 x Cattle Market car park, Kingston, KT1 2QY
1 x The Bittoms car park, Kingston, KT1 2AG (available outside of normal working hours)

Members of the Sweltrac scheme or Westminster members are able to access the charge points. 3 hours free parking is available at all points except The Bittoms and charging is free.
For more details of how to sign up to use the points is available here http://www.newride.org.uk/recharge.php

Kingston is looking to expand the number of available charge points in the borough and if anyone has any feedback on their experience of using charge points in Kingston please let me know or if you just have any comments or queries get in touch.

Oliver

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ChrisB
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Re: Kingston Electric Charge Points

Postby ChrisB » Mon Sep 27, 2010 2:56 pm

Thats great Oliver, are they on the EV-Network http://www.ev-network.org.uk/

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osutton
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Re: Kingston Electric Charge Points

Postby osutton » Mon Sep 27, 2010 3:13 pm

No, doesn't look like they're on there yet. I'll try and get them added, thanks for the info.

Oliver

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ChrisB
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Re: Kingston Electric Charge Points

Postby ChrisB » Mon Sep 27, 2010 3:37 pm

No Probs 8)

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Kevin Sharpe
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Re: Kingston Electric Charge Points

Postby Kevin Sharpe » Mon Sep 27, 2010 5:05 pm

osutton wrote:Kingston is looking to expand the number of available charge points in the borough and if anyone has any feedback on their experience of using charge points in Kingston please let me know or if you just have any comments or queries get in touch.
Oliver. While I applaud your efforts to install these charge points I find the requirement to use them - "live or work in one of the SWELTRAC boroughs", ridiculous. I recently attended a lecture about EV's at the Royal Institution and parked my EV in a bay with a charge point. However, because I do not meet the requirements for membership of your scheme I could not recharge my vehicle.... fortunately, the Tesla dealership is not so short-sighted.

Please feedback to your colleagues that this restriction is ludicrous.... we need open access charge points everywhere.
Kevin Sharpe - Founder and Patron for UK registered charity Zero Carbon World. Founder and Chairman Mainpine Group. http://about.me/kevinsharpe

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ChrisB
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Re: Kingston Electric Charge Points

Postby ChrisB » Mon Sep 27, 2010 5:54 pm

I know what you mean Kevin, it does seem currently quite mad that you cant seem to travel between areas :?

This is however being addressed, to my knowledge a recent change in legislation means all charge points will have to follow a standardised frequencey for the keyfob access, this means any manufacturer will be able to make points and one fob will access all 8)

I think the problem stems from early days (and TBH even today) where most EV's have a limited range of say 30-50 miles and thus it wasnt envisaged at the time the vehicles using the points would be from outside the districts.

Of course you are able to travel much further and hopefully in the near future this will be the case for many EV's.

You do have to remember that currently a lot of the points are financed by local governments etc and thus sort of paid for by the local tax payer, hence why they are sort of limited to the local user, this will be changing in the future, but for now they are mainly aimed at the local user and most are free or heavily subsidised, your just slightly ahead of the game with a vehicle that has such a large range :wink:

It wont be long before I can see people joining one scheme and working on a pay as you go type system, i.e you will either buy credits on your keyfob....... OR you will just use the keyfob where ever you are and then at the end of the month you will be invoiced from "A" company with the amount, similar to your mobil phone etc
The infrastructures pretty much there for that to happen, its just getting all parties to agree, but as each one is generally run by a different body this will take sometime to come out in the wash ........ if you know what I mean :wink:

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Kevin Sharpe
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Re: Kingston Electric Charge Points

Postby Kevin Sharpe » Mon Sep 27, 2010 8:32 pm

ChrisB wrote:I know what you mean Kevin, it does seem currently quite mad that you cant seem to travel between areas :?
I think this is all part of the way the mainstream players have educated the bureaucrats about charge points. The reality is that we need public fast charge points everywhere. A few 13A sockets with restricted access are not going to help EV's transition to the mainstream.
Kevin Sharpe - Founder and Patron for UK registered charity Zero Carbon World. Founder and Chairman Mainpine Group. http://about.me/kevinsharpe

osutton
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Re: Kingston Electric Charge Points

Postby osutton » Tue Sep 28, 2010 9:40 am

Kevin Sharpe wrote:Please feedback to your colleagues that this restriction is ludicrous.... we need open access charge points everywhere.


Hi Kevin,

I can confirm that all London boroughs are currently working with TfL to launch a Pan-London charging point network, with a single point of call for membership, information etc. When live, members of the new scheme will be able to access charge points across the capital.

All stakeholders in the EV market are working hard to ensure standardisation not only across London but across the UK and Europe, though as you might imagine it's not an easy process.

Oliver

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Re: Kingston Electric Charge Points

Postby rustybkts » Tue Sep 28, 2010 11:38 am

Kevin Sharpe wrote:.... fortunately, the Tesla dealership is not so short-sighted.


Does that mean I can get a charge from the Tesla showrooms in London? I cannot see them on the EV-Network.

Actually, I have been there and spent an hour or so speaking to Steven Davies the lucky sales guy so charging shouldn't be a problem.

I received the following from Westminster Council when I queried the £361.00 "admin fee" for using the charging bays in their car parks as a casual visitor.

Dear Russ,

Thank you for your query. The ‘admin fee’ you have referred to actually relates to Electric Vehicle owners wishing to apply for a season ticket, however this does not relate to casual customer who are also able to use the charging bays throughout the day. Casual customers will only need to pay for the amount of time they have been in the car park for and won’t need to register in order to use the charging bays.

Apologies for the confusion, I will speak to Westminster and see if they can re-word the website.

Regards,
Claire O’Gorman
Contract Administrator


It seems to me that EV charging availability is very hit and miss considering the actual energy used is low cost.
A simple coin meter would suffice to pay for energy used if required as £1.00 would charge most of us apart from the ever hungry Tesla's. :)

We have over 100 13A charging bays in Leicester just in one car park which are free to use after paying to get in of course.

13A though is a stupid supply to install as a 16A blue socket will not require any difference in cable size but will allow a faster charge and be more compatible to future charge requirements. The 13A plug is also unsuitable for external use.

The next size up 32A will require larger cabling and supply and for that reason will not be found where multiple charging bays are installed.
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ChrisB
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Re: Kingston Electric Charge Points

Postby ChrisB » Tue Sep 28, 2010 11:54 am

rustybkts wrote:13A though is a stupid supply to install as a 16A blue socket will not require any difference in cable size but will allow a faster charge and be more compatible to future charge requirements. The 13A plug is also unsuitable for external use.


Trouble is historically vehicles have only ever been made for charging from a 13A supply really, so joe public hasnt needed to change anything at home.

MK make a suitable outside 13A socket and from memory its actually this socket which is fitted into the Elektromotive charge points

Image

IP 56 rated and thus quite suitable for outside use 8)

TBH moving to a 16A supply from 13A isnt going to greatly improve the charging speed, I can "adjust" the charging from 13A to 16A on the Berlingo and it makes very little actual difference to the charge time overall.

32A though would make quite an improvement, but then you'd also need a charger or a vehicle with a charger that can accept a 32A supply to take advantage of it, these will come in time I'm sure.

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