'Rapid evolution expected' as councils trial differing ways to charge EVs
There's concern the rush to roll-out public electric car charging points could cause problems down the line.
The different ways councils are installing public electric car charging points is causing concern - with experts believing a more-joined up and consistent approach would be better.
Last week at COP 26 in Glasgow, 30 nations agreed to make zero emission vehicles the norm by 2030 and this week we've been reporting on the different types of public chargers planned.
In Bristol, for example, there's some chargers being installed on roads, but in Devon the 74 new rapid-charge units are being placed on pavements - with areas in London trialling lamp post charging.
Glenn Lyons is a professor of Future Mobility at the University of the West of England who expects systems to become more standardised in the future.
He said: "What we have of course are historical street networks across urban areas in the UK where it's not so straightforward to introduce them into that environment retrospectively as it were.
"The challenges that is then presenting is whether the space requirements for that new infrastructure are in conflict with road space - including parked cars or pedestrian and wheelchair users, pushchair users space on the pavements.
"What appears to be happening in some cases now is that the pedestrian environment, if I can simplify in those terms, the pavement is being abused in order to ensure we don't impeded the move across to electric vehicles and of course vehicles in the round.
"Cars in particular are already in some cases over-running built environments and encroaching on pavements by virtue of how they're parked - let alone adding the charging infrastructure.
Should rapid chargers be installed on pavements?
"There are clearly examples where the installations are on the road. There may well be very good technical reasons why that's now always possible but that seems eminently more attractive and appropriate than introducing them onto already crowded pavements.
"Very likely we will see an evolution, perhaps quite a rapid evolution in terms of the form and function of recharging units as the infrastructure develops and matures across the UK - and of course as battery technology changes recharging times and so on.
"The challenge I think is how much legacy recharging infrastructure will already have been created by the time we reach a point where perhaps we're saying we've really got a hang of this now - and we can do it in the most sensitive and effective way for all road users.
"It's understandable that to some extent it's a messy transition, there will be a few stutters and false starts in terms of what the infrastructure, charging infrastructure looks like.
"What we do need to learn the lessons and identify best practice as quickly as possible."
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