According to insurance giant AXA, the UK doesn’t have the infrastructure in place to cope with the growing numbers of electric cars on the road. A shortage of charging points, as well as the strain on energy supplies the new demand creates, may be acting as a barrier to the rise of driverless electric cars, say the insurer.
Practical problems
In fact, concerns about the lack of places to charge these cars and how the National Grid will cope with the extra demand have overtaken worries around liability and technical questions holding up the advance of driverless cars.
Amanda Blanc, the UK boss of the company, is herself the owner of an electric Tesla car and recounted some of the problems she has seen. There is around 125,000 plug-in electric cars on the UK roads – and just 14,000 charging point. Only 2,620 of these are rapid charges that supply 80% of power in just half an hour. Shell has just opened their first charging points for electric cars in 10 filling stations, mostly in the south-east and London.
During a recent long-distance trip, Blanc demonstrated the issues. On a trip to Edinburgh, she stopped twice to use a supercharger but went for coffee while the car charged. She pointed out that in 3-4 years, people will not want to queue for a supercharger and infrastructure is needed to solve this problem.
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Electricity supply concerns
Another big worry is that the strain on the electricity grid. According to National Grid, the growing number of electric vehicles could see electricity peak demand jump by more than the capacity of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station by 2030.
Blanc made an example – if everyone pops out during the break in Coronation Street to put the kettle on, there’s a surge. But what will it be like when everyone comes home from work around 6 pm and puts their electric car on to charge?
AXA is one of the biggest backers of self-driving and electric cars, and Blanc believes children born today won’t need to learn how to drive. She foresees everyone driving around in ‘robo-cars’ that will reduce pollution, be cheap to run and give mobility to everyone, not just those who can drive.
Norway example
A leading example of the switch to electric is Norway. The Scandinavian country sees more than 50% of all new cars sold, being either electric or hybrid, as the country positions itself as a pioneer in the carbon-free transport world.
Zero emission vehicles, mostly electric, accounted for 20.9% of all sales in 2017. Hybrid cars were 31.3% of all sales, including 18.4% for the plug-in hybrids, they announced. It is an increase from 15.7% and 24.5% for the previous year, and positions the company at the forefront of electric road transport.
It comes despite the country being the most significant producer of oil in western Europe. It has set a goal of selling only zero-emission cars from 2025. Electric vehicles also benefit from a generous tax system to make their purchase price very competitive, and owners benefit from free city tolls, ferries, parking and recharging in public car parks. They can even drive in bus lanes, although some measures are intended to be reduced soon.
The liability question
Another big hurdle to overcome regarding driverless cars is to come up with a solution around liability, when a car is in driverless mode. Previously, insurers were uncertain who would be liable when a driverless car was involved in an accident, but a draft bill from the government will clarify the issue, removing another potential block.
It will mean that insurers will automatically pay out if a motorist crashes a car in self-drive mode with the question of whether man or machine was to blame being sorted out between underwriter and car maker. It frees up the further development of this type of vehicle.
Do you agree that the UK may not be ready for an electric overhaul? How long will it postpone the surge in demand? Let us know in the comments below.
I really would like yo buy a hybrid but as on an older person I would be so worried that I cannot find anywhere to charge the car. And will the price of electric charging be so high we cannot afford to drive them
You presumably mean electric car when you say hybrid. Hybrids recharge themselves from a petrol engine. That’s what the word hybrid means: they’re a hybrid between a petrol car and an electric car. Some hybrids can’t be plugged in and always recharge from the petrol engine. To complete the definitions, a plug-in hybrid can be plugged in or can recharge itself from the petrol engine.
It has to be the way forward. Reduce pollution. Needs massive government help. I would buy one tomorrow if it’s price was more competitive.
As a caravan owner, one of ma ny in this country, why not focus on reducing emissions from HGV and Motorhomes, they are the biggest culprits, not car owners, and what about Buses and Diesel trains !!!
What everyone seems to overlook is the loss of revenue from petrol and diesel fuel sales ,that is why unless electriic vehicles are taxed in some other way the government is only paying token service to electric cars to pretend it is concerned about emissions
A comparison with Norway is misleading as their population is 5.3 million, the UK has 66 million with a considerably higher car density. However Norway has developed their natural resources well such as hydroelectric power and has not squandered their share of North Sea Oil having retained approximately 90% of their oil reserves. The UK, except for Scotland, however has dithered and lagged behind, failing to make any real progress towards renewable energy yet has used up 90% of our oil reserves and have abandoned our coal. We shall continue waste resources until nothing is left while successive governments do nothing but develop 5, 10 and 25 year plans on paper.
Kayearmron,
unfortunately you are not aware of your own vehicle pollution whilst towing.. Emissions whilst towing a caravan (usually 75% of the town car weight) are approximately equivalent to the motorhome. If you examine the emissions of current motorhomes you may be surprised to find that their output is so low, even their economy is on a par with a family car.
Bob
In city streets where people do not have garages or drives are we going to have power leads crossing the pavements to reach the cars?
Dont think so, fuel stations have started installing Rapid Chargers. Guessing people will pop there once a week now the range of electric car is increasing.
Most of the charging point spaces I see have non electric vehicles parked in them so preventing correct usage.
So many problems that need to be sorted out! Firstly there is no standard plug-in (esp. Tesla as in article).
I have already seen a cable going over the road to charge up a car as no parking available outside their house.
My house is about 80metres from the road so I could I charge up?
The UK simply has not got in place the electricity generating capacity to cope with large scale electric car use. We have already abandoned a clean coal solution and nuclear is frowned upon- we will have to import power from France again. As for self- drive cars – forget it, apart from a few google experiments in California- the technology and infrastructure are decades off- if it is feasible ever.
The Government expects the car manufacturers and energy companies to put infrastructure in place and vice versa. with the 400mile battery coming online this may not be as big an issue as it seems. however the energy demand will be as we do not have enough power stations to generate the additional energy – never mind coronation street and kettles – the 24hr demand on our energy suppliers could mean severe shortages for most of the day every day and energy rationing.
Sometime during 2017 on TV there was an electric plane has been developed. The batteries were actually 4 x plug-in battery units. If electric cars were to go down the same route then we would not need the streets to be littered with chargeing points. Instead we would go to a garage, unplug a battery pack or packs,and take them in for exchange then pay for a fully charged pack. You could always buy your own spare battery packs to charge yourself at home to take with you on a long journey. It would probably work out cheaper to charge them yourself than pay a garage for a recharged battery.