New phenomenon Electric car charging cables

I’ve never seen that. I suggest you contact your local councillor and report it. Do take a photo.

Apparently it is not illegal to run a cable across a pathway to charge your vehicle but you could be in trouble if someone trips over it The cable should be brightly coloured so pedestrians can see it and preferably held down with a cable cover
I suppose if you have an electric car with a flat battery you don’t have much choice

I think there will be more of that as a necessity as the sales of EVs really take off. Perhaps eventually there will be points on pavements etc or people without drives will use charging points in public car parks. There will be cities and towns everywhere with residents who do not have parking space next to their house.
DS is a design engineer on EVs and says that the batteries will need long slow charging not just the fast relatively short lived charging. Batteries are now being produced do have a much longer range than the initial ones.
He tells me that if you get an electric vehicle you should buy the best charging lead you can - can’t remember why but would trust him on that point!

I do think that there are going to be problems as more and more people buy a plug in electric car. Just where are people going to be able to charge their vehicle if they don’t live in a property that has its own drive and space to have a charging point fitted? People living in terraced housing or flats are going to have difficulties, I think, and there is potentially a hazard if lots of cables are going to be strewn across footpaths in order for people to attach them to their cars. Footpaths are already hazardous for pedestrians at times with vehicles parked half on the path and half on the road, so goodness knows what it will be like with numerous cables trailing all over them - unless I’m missing something and other methods are going to be used.
I know that there are a few charging points scattered about in various places such as pub car parks, but there are nowhere near enough of them if we are all going to go all electric with our cars. I don’t think it’s been thought through very well at all.

We have a new hub in town with all things council under one room including gym and swimming pool. As a regular pool user I always park in the electric bays, there must be about 10 of them, and they are nearly always empty and closer to the entrance.
The other day after swimming I sat in my car and watched this chap paying and disconnecting his car. He rolled up this enormous cable which he then zipped up in a circular bag he then opened the bonnet and then opened a large container on top of the engine, put the cable bag into this container, closed the lid, closed the bonnet, pressed some buttons on the electric pole thing and paid by card.
What a faff I'll be sticking with petrol for a while!!

I remember ages ago seeing a picture of sockets in lamp posts, I don’t recall the detail.

rosie1959

Apparently it is not illegal to run a cable across a pathway to charge your vehicle but you could be in trouble if someone trips over it The cable should be brightly coloured so pedestrians can see it and preferably held down with a cable cover
I suppose if you have an electric car with a flat battery you don’t have much choice

Brightly coloured is fine for pedestrians with good sight, for the blind or those with visual impairment not so much, or probably in the dark either. Near where I live there's one of those big motor homes that seems to be permanently plugged in by a cable across the pavement. Some of my neighbours are quite frail and I do worry that these will present a trip hazard. Imagine if they become every 4th house or whatever!

I agree Rosie51 it would be a good idea that if they have to run over the pavement they are secured down to avoid any accidents

Some streets in London have charging points in lampposts

Aha, thank you Gymstagran I didn’t imagine it.

If you park a non electric in an electric charging bay in our Asda and you get a fine.
I agree it’s very dangerous to trail the cable across a pavement.

I think it could lead to unscrupulous antics whereby people unplug other's cars to plug in their own. Will all parking lots have the equal number of outlets to spots? Most likely not. It's very expensive for landlords, whether commercial or residential to install electrical outlets.

My DSs street in Brighton have charging points on the lamp posts.

I am getting used to my new electric car at the moment. We had a charging point installed on the side of the house where some of the electricity comes from our solar panels but I have been learning how to charge it if away from home.
Once connected it is impossible to remove the cable unless the car is switched on. Our car came with two cables, one to connect to chargers and another to connect to a household three pin plug. Some of the charging stations have the cable to plug into your car, at others you need to use your own cable.
Many charging stations are free to use, with others you pay by bank or credit card. We went a drive to the coast at the weekend. Plugged the car into a free charger in a car park and when we returned from a long walk the battery was fully charged. That will last for over 200 miles.
Our previous car took £70 worth of petrol to fill the tank. So far we have saved over £100 on fuel.
It handles beautifully and self charges from the brakes. It’s called regenerative charging. As a result on short journeys you can return with a net gain in charge. Sounds crazy but I’ve seen it myself.
We are delighted with the car. Had to wait 8 months for it but it will be worth it never to have to o into a petrol station again.

Found Sf101* disparaging remarks re charging rather strange.
Seems much more faff, to me, to have to find a petrol station when the car is getting low on fuel, Turn off the road, to go in there, often then having to queue up waiting for a pump to be available. Then get out off car, having remembered to release the petrol catch inside the car, open up the place to take the petrol, pull out the 'correct' pump - push that in, and then stand there, regardless of the weather,having to squeeze that pump, at the same time trying twist round to watch to see how much of this stuff is going into the car. Then, taking it out, closing the petrol cap, travaise across to the paying area, queue up to pay, then back to car. My goodness, that really is a faff!!! AND, to do all this to use such expensive stuff in the car.

So much easier to take out a lead, plug it in, and that is it!!!!

Franbern and then wait for a few hours while it charges.
I hope there will soon be EV batteries that can be taken into a house or flat to charge, instead of having cables everywhere.

We are told that electric vehicles are so clean and good for the planet. But they will be powered, at least partly, from the new nuclear power stations that we are to have.
I don't know that that is an improvement.

not quite that easy, we have one free charger for 7000 people and vandals regularly break it. Son in law came the other week, needed to plug into my 3 pin socket to get enough miles to get to the nearest fast charger on the motorway

Best sustainability is via people looking after their existing cars and driving carefully. I now use E5 fuel with cleaning and lubrication additives. Engine sounds sweet and I get more mpg

Re nuclear power stations, the very best form of energy provision, the cleanest and most reliable (speaking with my physicist hat on)

Sf101 charging at a public charging point can be a little bit of a faff I suppose, but the main problem is when travelling away from home. First finding a working charge point, with a compatible connection and membership payment card ( until recently payment was only available via the correct membership card - of which there are many- credit cards have only recently started to be accepted at the newest charge points- ).
Most people charge at home or at another regular charge point such as their work car park. Our home charger has an attached cable specific for our car so it’s simple to plug in over night.
I have seen cables across a pavement but usually covered by a cable cover. Obviously a curly cable will not work under a cover.

EVs are the future, get used to it, the lucky ones will be able to charge at home, others will charge at a public charger, chargers are becoming more numerous and cars are able to charge quicker.
The benefits in pollution reduction in cities is immense, battery technology does not seem to be improving, there is no alternative on the horizon so range is not likely to increase

Franbern I haven't seen many charging points that are weatherproof and rolling up a wet cable into a wet bag on a windy day yuk!

My 83 yr old friend has just bought an electric car. She got an interest free loan and it's 2nd hand. it still cost £15k
She is still anxious about its range but she visits her DD and DGC every day so saves money and the planet. I am very proud of her.
However I completely agree that trailing a cable across a public pavement is unacceptable.

That’s a small price to pay when you consider the price of petrol. I have an electric car and it’s wonderful. I feel very grateful when I pass petrol stations and see the prices. I charge overnight on economy 7 and it costs practically nothing.

tanith

If you park a non electric in an electric charging bay in our Asda and you get a fine.
I agree it’s very dangerous to trail the cable across a pavement.

if asda own the parking, they cannot fine you. www.comparethemarket.com/meerkat-your-life/articles/parking-fines-on-private-land-to-pay-or-not-to-pay/

My daughter's neighbours use a shallow triangular cover (yellow, like the cable), where the cable crosses the footpath, keeps it in place nicely, much less of a trip hazard.