AT86
TS Member
Chargers are also being installed over at the hotels.
From: https://www.instagram.com/p/C8RmYtptBFa/?igsh=dXl0YmRsZ3Flam02
From: https://www.instagram.com/p/C8RmYtptBFa/?igsh=dXl0YmRsZ3Flam02
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EV Charging at Alton Towers
- Thread starter AT86
- Start date
If it’s like elsewhere they are first come first served destination chargers
Bowser
TS Member
It’s an interesting conundrum. My circumstances are atypical but things like that really put me off getting an EV anytime soon.
As it stands I can do a round trip to AT easily on one tank (just over 300 miles). Having security that you can charge at destination would be great, otherwise it’s potentially an extra hour at the end of the day on an already long trip (or extra stops on each leg).
Not sure what the solution is though.
The solution comes back to "build more" essentially; however there have been experiments floating around in China of prebooking Tesla supercharger stalls which utilise physical barriers so solutions are out there. It's always been the thing with destination charging though as there isn't really any way of policing it other than enforcing a driver to return by sticking on idle fees. And can you imagine coming back to your EV to be polite and move it, and the car park being full so you need to move it to the arse end of the overflow field?
"Build more" is interesting as well as the only hard constraint is grid capacity - in the grand scheme of things rolling out destination chargers is cheap and they can very quickly become a profit centre for anywhere that has enough of them - once the cabling is laid and the charging unit installed the only ongoing cost is maintenance if it breaks. My EV can do pretty much a 300 mile round trip if I don't drive everywhere like it's a Rita launch so I probably wouldn't use one of these unless desperate but they will be extremely popular with cars with a lower mileage despite the amount they are charging.
I've been an EV owner for around 5 years and the situation now compared to when I got my first one is like night and day. Can't move for rapid chargers in some parts of the country and there is brand competition at motorway services too - Gridserve/Tesla/Applegreen are all common at Welcome Break for example, and there are more than a few sites with competing Ionity and Gridserve chargers. Plus on a long journey the time taken to fill up is about equal to the walk to the services, get a coffee and have a pee and get back to the car so it's a stop my bladder would already be imposing on me anyway.
Bowser
TS Member
Would it not be easy to implement a prebook which requires a code/QR to activate? If someone else parks there they can't use it. And then a red light to visually indicate booked, green light for available for those without bookings? The parks already have pre-booked hotel spots where presumably a member of staff goes and physically puts a name card on the spot so there are old fashioned methods too. I think people will accept that you have the spot for the day at a theme park rather than having to move a fully charged car.
Of course you have the chance of some idiot deliberately using it as a spot but hopefully that would be very rare (and you'd be within your right to block them in if you can reach the cable) but people generally honour the hotel bookings as far as i can tell.
I've certainly been to pubs where the power to the charging units was activated by a physical key you got from the bar, each charger with its own key so there are hard solutions out there but I think the prevailing opinion at the moment is to handwave the problem away until someone comes up with an interoperable standard that probably involves yet another app.
The biggest risk is the chargers being ICEd by people who plain don't like the idea of them but that's more difficult to overcome as it involves attitude adjustment and I'm going to make a huge assumption that it is the same sort of people that block disabled bays, park in the parent and child etc.
AT86
TS Member
£1 per hour overstay fee to encourage people to move their car once charged I assume.
From: https://www.instagram.com/p/C8U8VWcNBCA/?igsh=b205N25qODU3YjZ2
From: https://www.instagram.com/p/C8U8VWcNBCA/?igsh=b205N25qODU3YjZ2
Jb85
TS Member
Seems standard across the industry from what I’ve seen so far. A lot of companies jumping on the bandwagon- charging a fortune for electric and hoping to cream it even more by people overstaying their welcome
Bowser
TS Member
Overstaying in motorway services is very different from a theme park though, especially one like Alton Towers where a round trip to move your vehicle could take a good chunk out of your day. It's completely unreasonable to expect people to do that. It's a low enough fee that inevitably people will just pay it rather than face the inconvenience so its basically profiteering.
Also presumably you only need to actually disconnect rather than move the vehicle to stop being charged so it's a redundant measure in terms of creating availability due to AT's car park set-up.
Jb85
TS Member
I totally agree - The chances are though Towers don’t own the facility. So Raw pretty much do what they want.
EuroSatch
TS Member
The overcharge makes sense. At 22KW speed it will take several hours for your average EV to charge (my EV onload is 11KW so this would take almost 6 hours to charge to full from empty). It they were fast-DC chargers to get a bump when you turn up at a service station then sure, you’d expect people to move their car, but in this scenario most people who just calculate to take the hit as it’s not worth their time to move the car. We’re still in early days of EV roll out, and early adopters are fully aware they have to adapt their behaviour when they drive long distance, and the bare minimum of guests will be impacted.
My concern is capacity. This is very much a token installation - as with most charge points across the country and globally. However in a few years there will be more and more people switching to electric, and you will need to see a wholesale overhaul of large car park infrastructure to cope. Even with this small number, you will be lucky to land a charge point when you rock up at the resort, and how will that be managed? Are you expected to go into the coach park, hope to get one but then have to pay full parking price to leave if none available? Or will there be anything to indicate availability on arrival at the resort? In 10-20 years the capacity will need to be seriously improved
My concern is capacity. This is very much a token installation - as with most charge points across the country and globally. However in a few years there will be more and more people switching to electric, and you will need to see a wholesale overhaul of large car park infrastructure to cope. Even with this small number, you will be lucky to land a charge point when you rock up at the resort, and how will that be managed? Are you expected to go into the coach park, hope to get one but then have to pay full parking price to leave if none available? Or will there be anything to indicate availability on arrival at the resort? In 10-20 years the capacity will need to be seriously improved
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Jb85
TS Member
@EuroSatch infrastructure is a major thing. We are millions of chargers away from where we need to be.
That said - other tech may take over. Hydrogen for instance.
It’s a gamble I guess.
That said - other tech may take over. Hydrogen for instance.
It’s a gamble I guess.
it is a hard one, in my oppinion hydrogen mades the most sence for longer distance driving due to the size and weight of a battery required for the length of the trips, but smaller trips (e.g city driving) battery electric cars are really good for as their regenerative breaking, and ability to be charged at home works well, although hydrogen needs to develope before being usefull (some types of fuel cells require pre heating)
Jb85
TS Member
My longer term view is we will move away from a car ownership model, to rent / leasing cars based on trips. You’ll probably end up with fleets of self driving cars based at regional charging stations / points that you hail to take you. Given the running costs will be minimised it’ll work out cheaper than owning for most.
Long way off yet mind.
why reinvent the wheel? at that point it would be significantly better for the enviroment to use a bus or a train and it should end out being cheaper to get a bus (transporting 30-100 people is going to have better scale of economics compared to 1-3 people)
also the self driving thing I think isn't going to be reliable enough for vehicles without drivers to drive arround.