Random EV thoughts.....

This might help. Tune in from 3:30

No, we'll miss the targets and then pay a few million in penalties every year until we do eventually meet the targets (of 5 years previous)), then we'll start paying new penalties for missing the newer targets....

While I think 60km is great I would prefer hubs every 100km on major roads. Later they could add more sites in between.

How would that work though. Will ecars or equivalent take a mini digger and knock a hole in fence every 60km along all the main routes and set up 2 chargers and then wait to see if any private providers can see themselves making a killing out of developing these sites? Or will ecars simply throw a few chargers into existing petrol stations along main routes? Always have to admire the EP for their precise plans that really are difficult to implement in the real world.

Interestimg to see how this will actually unfold

This is what was previously recommended by the European Commission:

Member States shall ensure a minimum coverage of publicly accessible recharging points dedicated to light-duty vehicles on the road network in their territory. To that end, Member States shall ensure that:

(a) along the TEN-T core network, publicly accessible recharging pools dedicated to light-duty vehicles and meeting the following requirements are deployed in each direction of travel with a maximum distance of 60 km in-between them: (i) by 31 December 2025, each recharging pool shall offer a power output of at least 300 kW and include at least one recharging station with an individual power output of at least 150 kW; (ii) by 31 December 2030, each recharging pool shall offer a power output of at least 600 kW and include at least two recharging stations with an individual power output of at least 150 kW;

(b) along the TEN-T comprehensive network, publicly accessible recharging pools dedicated to light-duty vehicles and meeting the following requirements are deployed in each direction of travel with a maximum distance of 60 km in between them: (i) by 31 December 2030, each recharging pool shall offer a power output of at least 300 kW and include at least one recharging station with an individual power output of at least 150 kW; (ii) by 31 December 2035, each recharging pool shall offer a power output of at least 600 kW and include at least two recharging stations with an individual power output of at least 150 kW. 

The European Parliament document seems to be focused on truck/bus requirements being brought forward and accessibility and signage requirements for charging hubs. Given the way the press release is worded, they may mandate pay by card being an option and that there be no access fees or overstay fees. I'd also like to see how they define "affordable". Tesla and Ionity hubs don't count either as they're not accessible to all vehicle brands, although they may if they're co-located with a ChaDeMo charger.

Has a battery breakthough been made for electric vehicles?

My take is that it isnt a breakthrough as such, but rather a generational development of existing technology.

The real break through will be when solid state batteries, such as that being developed by ProLogium, can be produced economically at scale.

“But what’s really thrilling is that a fleet of electric Hyundai IONIQ 5 cars will be powering the whole set-up, harnessing electricity through their vehicle-to-load (V2L) feature, which powers other appliances through adaptors.”

All these battery " breakthroughs " are typically companies and universities looking for funding. Many of these batteries may be unsuitable for use in cars and for example may be more suited to homes . There has been constant improvement and even if a breakthrough happens it won't make existing EVs obsolete nor make them unviable.

I tend to ignore them and I assume battery prices will go down and capacity improve and hopefully the rarer materials can be used less and less.

Well their hearts in the right place, and there's been a few people on this forum asking about EVs that can be modified for wheelchair users

If if we're eventually going to all be driving electric, then it's a bridge that will need to be crossed at some point

There does need to be a bit more thinking applied though. AC chargers like the ones pictured are probably straightforward enough, but imagine someone with a walker and arthritic hands trying to plug in a heavy cable from a HPC.

You'd want some kind of crane mechanism like Kempower to hold the weight of the cable

I just think with such a scare resource (with a blue badge holder in the family) of the wheelchair spots shouldnt be further constrained with having some only for while charging too. The subset of blue badge holders with EVs is quite small. We're one! So it's actually to our benefit to have these spots as if policed correctly they will likely always be free. but that's not the point.

I wonder if we're coming at it from the wrong viewpoint, it could be said the space is primarily a disabled parking bay and a charging bay second

I like that Aldi are trying, but I agree that the main issue is that chargers are a scarce resource.

I mean they could put 8 HPC spaces in the car park, and just ensure that there's enough space around all the parking bays for a wheelchair users.

Maybe put some signage up on a couple of chargers indicating people should let a blue badge holder go first, and possibly have a call button so that a driver with mobility issues could ask a staff member to help them plug in

Tbh, if I had mobility issues I'd question the usefulness of a 7kW AC charger at a shop. They're barely useful for most people anyway

When someone who has to treat moving around as a limited resource, I'm not sure grabbing 10kWh or so from a weekly shop is going to be worth the hassle

This is the spot. I'm not sure of the legalities of parking where the little jeep is and running your cable from there.

I would say you wouldn't be operating in the spirit of the rules even if you're not exactly breaking them

Again, I question the usefulness of the spot in that picture. IIRC that car park is more used for some overnight parking so I guess it's useful for anyone in the apartments that doesn't have a home charger.

Basically useless for anyone visiting though. I assume parking is free if you have a disabled sticker on your car?