Five radical new ways to charge an EV when you don't have a parking space
The cheapest solution is to use domestic electricity, but jury-rigged extension archways or on-ground cable-protectors are hardly pedestrian-friendly. One solution is the cable gully, a small metal-lined trench across the pavement to the kerbside that allows cables to be run from house to car without creating a trip hazard. In 2019, Oxford Council pitted cable gullies against other street solutions, such as charging bollards, and found they were the most utilised.
The main downside, as with lamp-post chargers, is that a free parking space next to the gully isn’t guaranteed. The Oxford trial concluded they work well for quiet streets but “in streets with high parking pressures are unlikely to be sufficient alone”. Another solution that needs no digging up of the pavement is Dutch start-up ChargeArm’s device, which sits in your front garden and swings across to your car, leaving room for pedestrians to walk underneath.
Other solutions are faster; for example, Rolec’s purpose-built Streetcharge EV street lamp has a 7.2kW charger embedded. Another clutter-free alternative is to install pop-up kerbside chargers, such as those operated by UK company Urban Electric. The downside of lamp-post chargers is their wide spacing means the adjacent parking spots can quickly become occupied on a busy street , forcing you to look elsewhere.Bringing the charger to the car saves time and mileage.
The battery has a capacity of 42kWh, so it’s more a top-up charge than a full fill for longer-range electric cars , but it’s still a useful solution. The pilot programme in Prague is currently free, but expect the cost to be similar to ultra-rapid charging, with a flat fee on top.
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