Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill

Written Evidence submitted by Andrew Fischer (AEVB 19)

My name is Andrew Fischer. I have been driving a battery electric vehicle for three and a half years. I live and work in rural North Wales. I would like to make these comments and suggestions on the Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill:

· Petrol car refuelling model should not be applied to electric cars.

· Low speed destination chargers should be addressed in the bill

· We need a single payment system for public recharging

· Charge points should be required to default to free vend if they loose network connectivity

1 Most electric car owners charge their cars at home overnight. Going to a rapid charge station once a week to "refill" an electric car is petrol model thinking. We need rapid chargers only to undertake long journeys. I use rapid chargers only once or twice a month.

2 95% percent of respondents to the RCN survey stated their preference for rapid chargers along the motor way network. With the motorway network now mostly covered, I would add we also need rapid chargers along trunk roads.

3 Requiring a single rapid charger at all petrol stations is not what electric car drivers need. We need rapid chargers enroute. We don’t need them where we live or at our destinations.

4 A single rapid charger is likely to be in-use, off-line or blocked by a petrol car. I would prefer to see clusters of rapid chargers strategically located along motorways and trunk roads.

5 We need banks of low-cost 7kW or 22kW AC chargers at destinations like hotels and shopping centres. For example, a hotel car park could have twenty or thirty 7kW AC chargers at a about the same cost as a two rapid chargers. These chargers would allow guests to recharge their cars overnight.

6 We need a single payment system that will work across all public charging networks. I would prefer to simply use my debit card. I’ve found cell phone apps to be unreliable and not fit for purpose.

7 A common fault with public charge points is loss of network connection. This makes it impossible for the charge point to authorise payment. In the past, I have come close to being stranded when charge point refused to charge my car because it had lost connection. Ecotricty’s Electric Highway now default to free vend on loss of communication, which has greatly improved the reliability of their chargers. This should be written into law. It would both improve charger reliability and encourage charge point operators to quickly repair communication faults.

November 2017