Limits of charging electric vehicles
Making it easier to charge electric vehicles in Stirling is more complicated than some would hope.
Forth and Endrick independent councillor Rob Davies told a full Stirling Council meeting recently that while electric vehicles were becoming more popular, recharging them away from home was“a major limitation”.
He said:“Unlike petrol or diesel, which can be bought easily and simply at any garage or service station using a credit or debit card, or even cash, that is simply not the case with electricity.
“Unless the driver has exactly the right network membership, or a pre-loaded app, he or she can find themselves struggling with erratic wifi connections to buy electricity in an unfriendly outdoor environment at a service station.
“There is clearly an anticompetitive land grab underway between providers of EV charging points that is not in the interests of consumers. While many currently provide the electricity for free that is obviously a situation that cannot last.”
Councillor Davies asked the council’s environment and housing convener, Councillor Jim Thomson, to consider making it mandatory in the council area for any EV charging point provider to make them simple to use and available to anyone in possession of a credit or debit card.
However, Councillor Thomson said:“EV charging providers have the ability to locate charging points at private outlets and the format of these cannot be controlled by the local authority. The local authority would not be able to mandate that all chargers be of a certain type and/or vending format.
“There are a number of providers who are offering contactless credit card charging but the majority require an access control type card or a smart phone app to activate the charging appliance.
“The majority of chargers (around 80 per cent) in Scotland and Stirling are managed through the ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) network, Scotland’s national EV charging network, owned and developed by the Scottish Government. The numbers of chargers within that network continues to grow significantly. The charging network across Scotland is generally recognised as being effective and well developed and Stirling has a comprehensive network.
“We are continuing to invest in the network to make more chargers available and improve the reliability of charging units. Castleview Electric Vehicle Charging Hub will open this month and represents a large scale self-generating energy EV hub.
“The ability to pay by debit or credit card is outwith my remit. I take your point and it sounds sensible. I have no knowledge of how that could be done but it is worth epxloring.”