One of the fastest-growing areas of expertise that electricians are training in is the installation of chargers for electric vehicles, in no small part because the appetite for EVs from both businesses and the general public has increased significantly.
With the SMMT describing September as the best month on record for electric car sales, as well as a tipping point where electric cars outsold petrol and diesel cars for the first time, the need for a robust, high-speed charging infrastructure is paramount to their viability as a commuter car.
Part of this can be sorted out at home, and many EV owners and businesses with an EV fleet will inevitably install charging stations, but another major aspect of living with an EV is public charging.
Whilst the scale and the speed are issues that have been identified and are being worked on, there are other aspects to the public charging experience that planners, electricians and designers can improve to make them more appealing to current and future EV drivers.
Better Shelter And Amenities
The typical amenities afforded at a petrol station tend to be relatively uniform; the forecourt is well-sheltered, the pumps are easy to use and well maintained, and there is typically an easy way to pay and a shop to buy essentials for the journey.
This is not always the case with EV chargers, in part due to the somewhat ad-hoc nature in which they were installed, which has previously led to EV chargers being located at the edges of car parks or on the far side of forecourts, without shelter from the elements or access to anything whilst you wait for the car to charge.
This is improving; dedicated charging parks and stations have been developed with shelters and shops, and a recent trend is to incorporate charging parks with solar panel farms that can help to provide low-cost electricity to use to charge vehicles.
Less Complexity
With a petrol or diesel car, the process of refuelling is fairly simple. Park up, choose the right fuel for your car, insert the pump and take as much as you need.
With EV charging stations, there are multiple types of charging plugs to consider, with a risk of incompatibility, and many stations rely on the use of apps or payment cards that can make the process more complicated than it needs to be.
Thankfully, this is something that is being fixed; there has been a standardisation of EV plug and socket, with adaptors more readily available and the potential to standardise.
Improved charging apps and in-car information systems also provide a greater amount of information on where to charge and how much it will cost.
Improved Reliability
As a growing number of charging stations have started to appear, the main concern characterised by range anxiety is less about access to a charger but the availability of a reliable charger within range.
This can and is being fixed by more robust and reliable charging stations maintained by a growing number of skilled electricians, but real-time monitoring and information on which charging stations are available, working and not in use will also help here.