After a day spent in London reviewing the Citroen Ev’ie I was shocked to discover that although there’s nearly 100 charging points spread across the greater London area finding one which wasn’t already in use was very difficult.
As an owner of a plug-in hybrid I didn’t actually need to charge, but I was quite lucky in the end to find a charging point in the Park Lane carpark. It cost a fair bit to use, since the parking charges there are really rather high. It did, however, give me a basic understanding of the frustration that the several thousand EV owners in London face everyday, finding a place to charge their EV.
While many EV owners only make a trip to work within their vehicle’s range some do need that all-important part-charge. As I pulled up to the Berkeley street charging bays today (eager to use my special charging access key) I realized that the charging bays were oversubscribed; a ratio of six waiting plug in vehicles for two charging bays. Throughout the day I noticed this pattern repeated again and again. How frustrating must it be for the London-based EV owner who has to wait to charge their car. Could you imagine waiting to fill up your car?
It’s great that the plug in revolution is really going strong in London, but it’d be nice to see a few charging spaces in EVERY carpark and on every street. The more charging points, the more cars get to be charged and put on the road. Imagine only having a few filling stations for the whole of the area…
Well done, London. You’re the EV capital of Europe and quite possibly the World, but could we have more plug in charging points, please?