Table of Contents
According to the Prime Minister’s 10-point plan for ‘green industrial revolution’, the government will be phasing out sales of new cars and vans powered solely by petrol and diesel from 2030.
This decision will automatically accelerate the transition to Electric Vehicles (EVs) which is already seeing an increase in sales over the past decade.
The UK accounts for around 13% of electric vehicle sales in all of Europe with over 164,100 pure EVs and 373,600 plug-in models on UK roads at the end of September 2020.
Electric vehicles, as the name suggests, work using electricity as compared to petrol, diesel, or gas used by fuel-powered cars.
They are plugged into a charging station powered by the grid, the electricity from which is stored in rechargeable batteries inside the car.
Despite the great benefits that EVs provide, certain drawbacks have always been associated with them. You must, however, understand that EVs are still relatively new with their technology still evolving.
Read on for an in-depth look into the pros and cons of electric cars:
There are several advantages to owning an electric car such as:
Cars are one of the biggest contributors of air pollution, and to control the adverse effects of global warming on the planet, something must be done about the greenhouse gases and air pollutants coming out of them.
Luckily, electric vehicles offer a great solution. They help achieve cleaner air and fewer greenhouse gases by having zero emissions. Because fully electric vehicles do not have an exhaust system, they work without pumping fumes and harmful gases in the air like fuel-powered vehicles.
Additionally, electricity which is used to power EVs can be generated using renewable resources such as solar, wind, and water power, as compared to the natural, but non-renewable resources used by conventional cars.
In addition to being a cleaner alternative, electric cars also have lower running costs. With fuel prices getting higher by the day, the thought of not having to use petrol and diesel to power your car is a rather comforting one.
Electricity is much cheaper than petrol and diesel and considering that you have solar-powered electric vehicle chargers at home, you can enjoy even more fuel savings.
Charging from home also gives you the benefit of not having to visit the petrol pumps and wait in line for your turn, saving you both time and money in the process.
Since electric cars don’t run on oil, they don’t require oil changes. Not just that, but since they don’t have combustion engines, they don’t need any maintenance related to them.
They also have significantly fewer moving parts than fuel-powered vehicles, making them cheaper to run and maintain.
Electric cars are also typically easier on the brakes and don’t wear off as quickly leading to fewer brake replacements.
Most car enthusiasts will tell you that the noise of a car is one of the best things about it. Tell that to someone living on a busy road during rush-hour traffic and they’ll tell you what a nuisance it can be sometimes.
Electric cars are extremely quiet, taking care of the noise pollution produced by their counterparts. There is no noise from the engine, with all that’s apparent is the sound of the wind and the tyres.
Due to their exceptionally quiet nature and to improve road safety and provide greater confidence to vulnerable road users, such as the visually impaired, the government has passed a regulation where, from 1 July 2019, all EV manufacturers must install acoustic sound systems to produce a sound when they are reversing or driving below 20 km/h.
The more polluting your car is, the higher the tax you have to pay, and since electric cars produce zero emissions, most of them are tax-free.
When buying privately, if your EV costs less than £40,000, you can qualify for free road tax. EVs over that price point cost £340 a year for the first five years, but after that, they are also exempted from road tax.
The disadvantages of owning an electric car include:
Range anxiety is probably one of the biggest drawbacks of an EV. Compared to traditional cars, they have shorter ranges, although manufacturers are looking into ways to make them go further.
The usual range for most EVs is between 60 and 100 miles on a full charge, which is more than enough for most people’s daily commutes. But what if you are in a new and unknown place, far away from home? You’ll have to find a charging point which, at this point, aren’t as common as petrol stations.
Due to this reason, you can’t be as spontaneous with EVs and proper planning is required. The range for EVs is constantly improving but at present, it is one of the main deciding factors between an electric and fuel-powered vehicle.
While the running, maintenance, and tax costs of an EV are relatively low as compared to a fuel-powered car, there is no getting around the fact that EVs are more expensive to buy.
The upfront purchase cost of an EV is much higher, especially for fully electric models. The advanced technology and battery packs required for EVs add to the hefty price, coupled with a limited number of buyers.
At present, a typical family fuel-powered car is likely to cost you around £20,000, whereas an EV would cost you around £25,000. However, as technology continues to evolve and with an increase in demand, the price gap is likely to close very soon.
As of December 2020, 13,060 different locations have 20,656 EV public charging devices and 35,946 connectors installed in the UK.
Those are big statistics considering that EV charging stations are a relatively new concept. However, they are nowhere near the number of petrol and diesel stations spread across the country.
Most EVs come equipped with navigation features that will find a charging point for you, but the stations are mostly limited to urban areas. Some areas have many stations available for charging whereas others have none. This makes road trips and travelling in rural or remote areas quite difficult.
The good news is that more charging stations are being built around the country as the demand for EVs increases, with people installing them in commercial as well as residential properties.
Filling up your car seems like such a mundane task that takes no more than a couple of minutes. On the other hand, recharging the battery of an electric car takes much longer, sometimes taking up to 12 hours to fully charge.
The total time depends on the model of the EV, size of the battery, and the type of charger used with newer car models charging as quickly as 30 minutes.
There are three main types of EV charging – rapid, fast, and slow – with rapid, ultra-rapid, and Tesla’s superchargers being the fastest of the lot. Rapid and fast chargers are found mostly in commercial and public places, whereas slow chargers are more popular among homeowners where they can leave their vehicles to charge overnight in the safety of their homes.
Fuel-powered cars have been ruling the roads for over 100 years with manufacturers mass producing them to meet their demand.
Electric cars are still relatively new with fewer options to choose from. Even though the market for EVs is increasing at great speed, the fact remains that, when compared to conventional cars, there aren’t many options.
EV chargers are an integral part of owning an EV where it is simply plugged into a charging port connected to the main power supply.
Just as you would be mindful about the power and voltage while plugging any electronics such as computers and other machines into a socket, you must be careful about knowing how much power an EV requires and providing it with just that. Supplying more power than is required can damage both the charger and the vehicle.
You can charge your electric car at home, at work, or a public charging station:
Having an EV charger at home can be extremely beneficial for EV owners. It’s like having your own personal petrol pump that you can use absolutely any time, whenever you want.
Since charging an EV takes time, it is best to leave them on charge overnight so that you wake up each day with a fully charged battery, and without worrying about having to charge it and wait while it does. Also, night time is the cheapest time to use electricity so it’s a win-win.
You can use a regular domestic 3-pin socket to charge your electric car, though it is advised not to. A dedicated home EV charger is the recommended option since it delivers just the right amount of power that the vehicle needs, without exposing any of the components to the risk of power surges.
Additionally, home EV chargers are designed to work over longer periods without overheating or malfunctioning.
The typical cost of a domestic EV charger is around £800 to £1000 depending on the type of charger, manufacturer, and installer.
Under the Office of Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) EV Homecharge Scheme (EVHS), you can be eligible for a grant of up to 75% of the cost, capped at a maximum of £350 if you:
Since most people spend the majority of their day at work, it only makes sense to have EV chargers at the workplace to accommodate employees with electric cars.
At present, more than half of EV owners are unable to charge their cars at work which adds to their reluctance to switch to EVs.
However, the trend is changing with more companies, especially ones with dedicated parking spaces, installing EV chargers to encourage the usage of EVs and promote sustainability among their employees and visitors.
It also makes owning an EV easy for people who live far away from work and might need to recharge their car batteries more than once a day.
Employers can apply for the Government’s Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS) if their workplace doesn’t have an EV charging station.
It is a voucher-based scheme that helps offset the installation costs of the purchase and installation of the EV charging stations by contributing £350 per charging point – up to a maximum of 40 sockets across all sites for each applicant.
EV chargers in public spaces such as in petrol stations, car parks, supermarkets, and cinemas are extremely important to facilitate the shift towards sustainability.
EV owners need to be confident that they’ll find charging stations easily so that they are more comfortable taking their cars for longer journeys, even to rural and remote areas.
The number of public chargers in the UK is continuing to grow at a rapid rate, most of which are equipped with rapid chargers that provide up to 80% charge in as little as 20 to 30 minutes.
There are 3 different types of chargers for electric cars that differentiate in the time they take to charge the vehicle. They are:
Rated at 3 to 6kW, these units typically take around 5 to 8 hours for charging an EV from empty to 100%, and around 12 hours for EVs with bigger batteries and longer ranges.
They are mostly found in homes where people leave their vehicles on charge overnight and also in places of work where the cars are left to charge while the owners work in their offices.
A 7kW fast charger takes around 3 to 5 hours to fully charge an electric car, whereas a 22kW unit could do the same in just a couple of hours.
Due to their quick service, fast chargers are usually found in supermarket and shopping centre car parks where the EV can be left for a few hours to charge.
Rapid chargers are the fastest out of the three taking around 45 minutes to an hour to charge an EV battery up to 80%, and around 1.5 hours to charge EVs with longer ranges and larger batteries.
They are commonly found on motorways and close to major roads where people need to quickly charge their cars and get going.
Rapid chargers come in two main variants – DC and AC units. DC chargers provide up to 50kW of power, while rapid AC units are rated up to 43kW.
Rapid DC chargers are faster than rapid AC chargers, with DC-only ultra-rapid chargers powering at 100kW and above, and ultra-rapid chargers at 150kW to 350kW.
If you are an electric car owner looking to install an EV charger at home, or a business owner looking to help employees or customers/clients charge their EVs at the workplace, you’ve come to the right place.
At Calder Electrical, we install EV chargers in line with the current regulations and can offer a government incentive to reduce the installation costs for both domestic and commercial properties.
There are various chargers currently in the market and it can be a little confusing to choose the best one for your needs.
We will take out the hassle and provide you with the most suitable and affordable option, ranging from the standard systems to the smart ones that are becoming increasingly popular.
We are authorised and registered OLEV installers and our charge points come with a 3-year warranty. We offer all kinds of different options to choose from such as wall-mounted to freestanding pedestal units, and with different types of chargers and charging speeds.
Contact us right away for our expert opinion and professional services!
Photo by Tech Nick on Unsplash
According to the Prime Minister’s 10-point plan for ‘green industrial revolution’, the government will be phasing out sales of new cars and vans powered solely by petrol and diesel from 2030.
This decision will automatically accelerate the transition to Electric Vehicles (EVs) which is already seeing an increase in sales over the past decade.
The UK accounts for around 13% of electric vehicle sales in all of Europe with over 164,100 pure EVs and 373,600 plug-in models on UK roads at the end of September 2020.
Electric vehicles, as the name suggests, work using electricity as compared to petrol, diesel, or gas used by fuel-powered cars.
They are plugged into a charging station powered by the grid, the electricity from which is stored in rechargeable batteries inside the car.
Despite the great benefits that EVs provide, certain drawbacks have always been associated with them. You must, however, understand that EVs are still relatively new with their technology still evolving.
Read on for an in-depth look into the pros and cons of electric cars:
There are several advantages to owning an electric car such as:
Cars are one of the biggest contributors of air pollution, and to control the adverse effects of global warming on the planet, something must be done about the greenhouse gases and air pollutants coming out of them.
Luckily, electric vehicles offer a great solution. They help achieve cleaner air and fewer greenhouse gases by having zero emissions. Because fully electric vehicles do not have an exhaust system, they work without pumping fumes and harmful gases in the air like fuel-powered vehicles.
Additionally, electricity which is used to power EVs can be generated using renewable resources such as solar, wind, and water power, as compared to the natural, but non-renewable resources used by conventional cars.
In addition to being a cleaner alternative, electric cars also have lower running costs. With fuel prices getting higher by the day, the thought of not having to use petrol and diesel to power your car is a rather comforting one.
Electricity is much cheaper than petrol and diesel and considering that you have solar-powered electric vehicle chargers at home, you can enjoy even more fuel savings.
Charging from home also gives you the benefit of not having to visit the petrol pumps and wait in line for your turn, saving you both time and money in the process.
Since electric cars don’t run on oil, they don’t require oil changes. Not just that, but since they don’t have combustion engines, they don’t need any maintenance related to them.
They also have significantly fewer moving parts than fuel-powered vehicles, making them cheaper to run and maintain.
Electric cars are also typically easier on the brakes and don’t wear off as quickly leading to fewer brake replacements.
Most car enthusiasts will tell you that the noise of a car is one of the best things about it. Tell that to someone living on a busy road during rush-hour traffic and they’ll tell you what a nuisance it can be sometimes.
Electric cars are extremely quiet, taking care of the noise pollution produced by their counterparts. There is no noise from the engine, with all that’s apparent is the sound of the wind and the tyres.
Due to their exceptionally quiet nature and to improve road safety and provide greater confidence to vulnerable road users, such as the visually impaired, the government has passed a regulation where, from 1 July 2019, all EV manufacturers must install acoustic sound systems to produce a sound when they are reversing or driving below 20 km/h.
The more polluting your car is, the higher the tax you have to pay, and since electric cars produce zero emissions, most of them are tax-free.
When buying privately, if your EV costs less than £40,000, you can qualify for free road tax. EVs over that price point cost £340 a year for the first five years, but after that, they are also exempted from road tax.
The disadvantages of owning an electric car include:
Range anxiety is probably one of the biggest drawbacks of an EV. Compared to traditional cars, they have shorter ranges, although manufacturers are looking into ways to make them go further.
The usual range for most EVs is between 60 and 100 miles on a full charge, which is more than enough for most people’s daily commutes. But what if you are in a new and unknown place, far away from home? You’ll have to find a charging point which, at this point, aren’t as common as petrol stations.
Due to this reason, you can’t be as spontaneous with EVs and proper planning is required. The range for EVs is constantly improving but at present, it is one of the main deciding factors between an electric and fuel-powered vehicle.
While the running, maintenance, and tax costs of an EV are relatively low as compared to a fuel-powered car, there is no getting around the fact that EVs are more expensive to buy.
The upfront purchase cost of an EV is much higher, especially for fully electric models. The advanced technology and battery packs required for EVs add to the hefty price, coupled with a limited number of buyers.
At present, a typical family fuel-powered car is likely to cost you around £20,000, whereas an EV would cost you around £25,000. However, as technology continues to evolve and with an increase in demand, the price gap is likely to close very soon.
As of December 2020, 13,060 different locations have 20,656 EV public charging devices and 35,946 connectors installed in the UK.
Those are big statistics considering that EV charging stations are a relatively new concept. However, they are nowhere near the number of petrol and diesel stations spread across the country.
Most EVs come equipped with navigation features that will find a charging point for you, but the stations are mostly limited to urban areas. Some areas have many stations available for charging whereas others have none. This makes road trips and travelling in rural or remote areas quite difficult.
The good news is that more charging stations are being built around the country as the demand for EVs increases, with people installing them in commercial as well as residential properties.
Filling up your car seems like such a mundane task that takes no more than a couple of minutes. On the other hand, recharging the battery of an electric car takes much longer, sometimes taking up to 12 hours to fully charge.
The total time depends on the model of the EV, size of the battery, and the type of charger used with newer car models charging as quickly as 30 minutes.
There are three main types of EV charging – rapid, fast, and slow – with rapid, ultra-rapid, and Tesla’s superchargers being the fastest of the lot. Rapid and fast chargers are found mostly in commercial and public places, whereas slow chargers are more popular among homeowners where they can leave their vehicles to charge overnight in the safety of their homes.
Fuel-powered cars have been ruling the roads for over 100 years with manufacturers mass producing them to meet their demand.
Electric cars are still relatively new with fewer options to choose from. Even though the market for EVs is increasing at great speed, the fact remains that, when compared to conventional cars, there aren’t many options.
EV chargers are an integral part of owning an EV where it is simply plugged into a charging port connected to the main power supply.
Just as you would be mindful about the power and voltage while plugging any electronics such as computers and other machines into a socket, you must be careful about knowing how much power an EV requires and providing it with just that. Supplying more power than is required can damage both the charger and the vehicle.
You can charge your electric car at home, at work, or a public charging station:
Having an EV charger at home can be extremely beneficial for EV owners. It’s like having your own personal petrol pump that you can use absolutely any time, whenever you want.
Since charging an EV takes time, it is best to leave them on charge overnight so that you wake up each day with a fully charged battery, and without worrying about having to charge it and wait while it does. Also, night time is the cheapest time to use electricity so it’s a win-win.
You can use a regular domestic 3-pin socket to charge your electric car, though it is advised not to. A dedicated home EV charger is the recommended option since it delivers just the right amount of power that the vehicle needs, without exposing any of the components to the risk of power surges.
Additionally, home EV chargers are designed to work over longer periods without overheating or malfunctioning.
The typical cost of a domestic EV charger is around £800 to £1000 depending on the type of charger, manufacturer, and installer.
Under the Office of Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) EV Homecharge Scheme (EVHS), you can be eligible for a grant of up to 75% of the cost, capped at a maximum of £350 if you:
Since most people spend the majority of their day at work, it only makes sense to have EV chargers at the workplace to accommodate employees with electric cars.
At present, more than half of EV owners are unable to charge their cars at work which adds to their reluctance to switch to EVs.
However, the trend is changing with more companies, especially ones with dedicated parking spaces, installing EV chargers to encourage the usage of EVs and promote sustainability among their employees and visitors.
It also makes owning an EV easy for people who live far away from work and might need to recharge their car batteries more than once a day.
Employers can apply for the Government’s Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS) if their workplace doesn’t have an EV charging station.
It is a voucher-based scheme that helps offset the installation costs of the purchase and installation of the EV charging stations by contributing £350 per charging point – up to a maximum of 40 sockets across all sites for each applicant.
EV chargers in public spaces such as in petrol stations, car parks, supermarkets, and cinemas are extremely important to facilitate the shift towards sustainability.
EV owners need to be confident that they’ll find charging stations easily so that they are more comfortable taking their cars for longer journeys, even to rural and remote areas.
The number of public chargers in the UK is continuing to grow at a rapid rate, most of which are equipped with rapid chargers that provide up to 80% charge in as little as 20 to 30 minutes.
There are 3 different types of chargers for electric cars that differentiate in the time they take to charge the vehicle. They are:
Rated at 3 to 6kW, these units typically take around 5 to 8 hours for charging an EV from empty to 100%, and around 12 hours for EVs with bigger batteries and longer ranges.
They are mostly found in homes where people leave their vehicles on charge overnight and also in places of work where the cars are left to charge while the owners work in their offices.
A 7kW fast charger takes around 3 to 5 hours to fully charge an electric car, whereas a 22kW unit could do the same in just a couple of hours.
Due to their quick service, fast chargers are usually found in supermarket and shopping centre car parks where the EV can be left for a few hours to charge.
Rapid chargers are the fastest out of the three taking around 45 minutes to an hour to charge an EV battery up to 80%, and around 1.5 hours to charge EVs with longer ranges and larger batteries.
They are commonly found on motorways and close to major roads where people need to quickly charge their cars and get going.
Rapid chargers come in two main variants – DC and AC units. DC chargers provide up to 50kW of power, while rapid AC units are rated up to 43kW.
Rapid DC chargers are faster than rapid AC chargers, with DC-only ultra-rapid chargers powering at 100kW and above, and ultra-rapid chargers at 150kW to 350kW.
If you are an electric car owner looking to install an EV charger at home, or a business owner looking to help employees or customers/clients charge their EVs at the workplace, you’ve come to the right place.
At Calder Electrical, we install EV chargers in line with the current regulations and can offer a government incentive to reduce the installation costs for both domestic and commercial properties.
There are various chargers currently in the market and it can be a little confusing to choose the best one for your needs.
We will take out the hassle and provide you with the most suitable and affordable option, ranging from the standard systems to the smart ones that are becoming increasingly popular.
We are authorised and registered OLEV installers and our charge points come with a 3-year warranty. We offer all kinds of different options to choose from such as wall-mounted to freestanding pedestal units, and with different types of chargers and charging speeds.
Contact us right away for our expert opinion and professional services!
