Widely available and reliable electric vehicles have been a long time coming. The first electric vehicles were developed almost 200 years ago in the 1820s, but barriers to production, policies supported by the fossil fuel lobby, and a lack of necessary infrastructure have prevented popular adoption of electric vehicles—or EVs—until now.
With increased public concern over climate change and fossil fuel dependency, many people have begun asking themselves what they can do to help turn the tide, and electric vehicles look more and more like a viable solution for the average consumer.
At-Home Charging
It is estimated that electric vehicle owners will do 80% of their vehicle charging at their homes. This could mean plugging your vehicle into a standard outlet or using an at-home charging unit. These at-home charging units charge your vehicle much faster than standard outlets and there are a number of government-funded programs to decrease the cost of installing your home charging unit.
But what happens when you’re driving away from home or overnighting out-of-town?
Public Charging
If you’re driving in a conventional petrol-powered vehicle and find yourself running low, you’re unlikely to find yourself so far from a petrol station that you’d run out of gas before you could fill up again. Concerns over whether or not there would be a charging station near you while away from a home charger have caused many people to pass on swapping out their conventional car for an electric vehicle, but this is becoming a worry of the past.
Since 2016, the number of public chargers for electric vehicles in the United Kingdom has nearly quadrupled. Numerous vendors are installing public charging stations all over the country, with the highest percentage located in the Greater London area. These changing stations range from slow to “ultra-rapid” charging, with the vast majority falling in the rapid charging category.
Using online tools, as well as smart navigation built into many electric vehicles, it is easy to plan your route to include charging stations without going too far out of your planned way.
Future of Charging Infrastructure
As public adoption of electric vehicles increases, so too must the availability of public charging stations. Adoption of the vehicles and availability of charging stations are deeply intertwined; a lack of stations has prevented some potential EV drivers from making the swap, and concern over a lack of demand has kept the government and private entities from investing in charging stations too heavily.
With deadlines to end the sale of conventionally fueled cars rapidly approaching, government funds to support the continued growth of public charging stations have emerged, including funds earmarked for installing chargers on residential streets and at workplaces.
As the charging network continues to expand, users are hoping to see it streamlined, with guaranteed compatibility for all vehicles and a universal registration system. This will require the cooperation of the different charging points and vehicle manufacturers such as Tesla, which has been helping to create a network of rapid chargers, but which currently only benefit Tesla drivers.
More consumers are looking to make environmentally conscious changes in their everyday lives, and switching from a conventional vehicle to an EV is a solution that is becoming more tenable to more people. Current trends suggest a rapidly approaching tipping point that will make petrol- and diesel-powered vehicles obsolete and finally put the electric vehicle on top.