Infrastructure? What infrastructure!?

When switching to electric cars, it’s always an idea to have a home charging infrastructure. 60% of you already have the perfect infrastructure to make going electric more convenient than petrol or diesel. The remaining 40% won’t have to wait long for this either!

There are certain things that we all know are undeniable truths: alcohol warms you up; England never win penalty shoot outs; there is no infrastructure for charging electric vehicles. As sure as the sun rises and falls, these are facts. Constant facts. Things we build the foundation of our reality on. Except, of course, they are all totally untrue! Alcohol does not warm you up. It causes a temporary warm feeling as blood rushes to the surface of the skin. However, this actually makes your core colder! Whereas penalty shoot-outs have a little more foundation in fact but are still a myth. Although they have one of the worst records in international football, England have won many penalty shoot-outs! Most recently in the 2018 world cup!

We hear everywhere that there is no infrastructure for electric vehicles.

Surely this must be true? Well, as someone who has had pure electrics and plug-in hybrids since the first Leaf arrived, I have to disagree! Government statistics show that nearly 60% of us have a drive or a garage. If you do, it means you have access to the electric supply, and therefore a home charging infrastructure. If you can access the supply, use our free home ChargePoint (which we supply with any electric car order). As well, you could even just charge overnight from a 3-pin plug to an external socket. Or, worst case, through a window!

If you opt for the ChargePoint, you’ll start every day with about 200 miles range on most electric cars; most of us cover a tenth of that in a typical day! Going further? You can get another 100 miles in the time it takes to drink a Starbucks. Pick one of nearly 30,000 public ChargePoint’s, including the ones at every motorway service, and relax!

Of course, we all know these are always full or broken.

Or are they… The reality is that in the last year I have personally covered 30,000 miles in ULEV’s. In that time, I have only been inconvenienced by these issues twice! Industry figures suggest electric charge points are only used 3% of the day on our motorway network!

Don’t take my word for it! Next time you pull over at the services, check the white boxes with the green union jacks and weird leads. Are they empty, full, or cordoned off? They aren’t some weird alien invaders from Dr Who, by the way. They’re electric vehicle charge points and they’re here for universal ‘good’. Electric vehicles are slowly bent on conquering the world, charge points will become a more frequent site!

For the 40% who can’t charge at home, what are the options?

Well in many new apartment developments, EV points are being planned in. Or, if you live near a supermarket, hotel or pub, EV points are being installed at a startling rate! Yes, there’s the minor inconvenience of parking up to charge. Imagine, you can get 200 miles range for carrying ￡30 of shopping home. In some cases, charging is free! Effectively, this means your shopping is free when compared to the cost of diesel for 200 miles.

The future is getting even better with the government investing heavily in roadside charging for those with no drive/garage. Contact your local council to see how they are spending their share.

Perhaps the only fact to take from this is that for those of you with drives or garage, there are no reasons to not go electric. For those without, well it may not be the right time now, but it’s on the way!