BYD clearly hopes to pitch its vehicles as aspirational. But their real allure is that they are affordable. One model on display, the Dolphin, sells for around £25,000 ($33,000); British car reviewers have called the pricing “attractive” and “impressively low”. What really worries BYD’s Western rivals is that there is plenty of room for prices to fall. In China the Dolphin sells for 99,800 yuan, or just over £10,000. An analysis by Rhodium Group, a consultancy, found that BYD could cut its prices in Europe by 30% and still make the same profit per car that it does in China.

Consumers are gradually cottoning on to the appeal of Chinese EVs. Seeing an Ora, Maxus, MG or BYD marque on the road in Britain still feels noteworthy. On current trends, that won’t be the case for long. Chinese brands now make up around 10% of new EV sales in Britain, up from around 3-4% five years ago (see chart). Those figures, if anything, understate China’s increasing role in the car market because Western brands are also shifting carmarking to China. According to data from Jato Dynamics, an automotive-research firm, 22% of EVs registered in Britain (and 7.5% of all cars) are now made in China.

...

Thankfully, Britain’s new Labour government has so far largely leant away from such protectionism. Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, said in July that he was not planning to ask the independent Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) to investigate Chinese EVs, a necessary first step towards tariffs. Britain’s own car industry, which can also demand an investigation, has held off, too.

Why the different approach? After all, Labour ran for election on a “securonomics” platform that takes explicit inspiration from President Joe Biden’s economic policies. The main motivation is likely to be fear of retaliatory tariffs. China is a big export market for high-end producers like Rolls-Royce, Jaguar and Bentley, which make up a big chunk of Britain’s car industry. Losing the market for Chinese tycoons would hurt. And China would be unlikely to limit its retaliation to the car industry. Scottish salmon and whisky might be juicy targets; China buys lots of both products and Labour is loth to risk alienating voters north of the border.

Archive

North-east Derbyshire and Redditch, in the West Midlands, are among the worst public “charging deserts” for electric vehicles in Great Britain, according to an analysis that found 9.3m households do not have off-street parking where they could install a charger.

More than three-quarters of households that park their cars on the street do not have a public charger for electric vehicles within a five-minute walk, according to the analysis by the Field Dynamics consultancy.

The number of places to plug in is increasing rapidly, with a 46% growth in the number of public chargers across the UK in the year to July 2023, according to the data company ZapMap. However, regulators are concerned about big areas known as “charging deserts”, particularly outside cities, that are not served adequately by the public network.

The average gap between London’s coverage and the rest of Great Britain is growing, from a 32 percentage point difference in 2020 to a 47 percentage point difference this year. In 38 local authorities, less than 10% of households have parking covered by the public charger network.

Public battery charging stations for electric vehicles in Great Britain.

Source: https://x.com/au_tom_otive/status/1818217121769267512

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/17620489

Alt text:

An idling gas engine may be annoyingly loud, but that's the price you pay for having WAY less torque available at a standstill.

Source: https://www.speakev.com/threads/pick-your-favourite.181562/ (apparently originally from Facebook - there are a couple of others in the link)

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/4828515

Figures show there are 131 publicly available EV charging devices

I think that charging stations should display their prices like fuel stations.

I don't mean the ones on pavements or hotel car parks, but locations with 6 or more outlets.

Anyone else agree with me?

EV chargers cables owned by BP Pulse and Osprey Charging reportedly stolen from The Maltings Retail Park, Waitrose, Appletongate and Albert Street in Newark – with Nottinghamshire Police said to be investigating

Wow! Didn't expect this. Although the article is a bit confusing as to whether it's the network or just Tesla hardware. When I heard it on the radio this morning they specifically mentioned the supercharger network.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/4062479

The project would involve changing the use of the half an acre site, installing 18 electric vehicle charging points, with landscaping, resurfacing and other external works

I don't really see the point of this. It's just adding complexity for the sake of it. As far as I can tell when you change gear it just changes some software parameters, there are no physical gears. Yet there's a clutch and the ability to stall?

The rates for charging when using a Shell Recharge card on the Shell Recharge network are reducing. For fast (7-22kW) charging you will now pay £0.62/kWh, whilst rapid (25-150kW) and ultra-rapid (150kW+) charging network will cost £0.81/kWh. Paying with contactless payment methods will remain the same.

As of November 1st a £0.35 transaction fee, with a maximum of £7.00 per month, is charged for all charging sessions.

Lots of "unconfirmed" on here.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/3415093

Survey will help gauge development and placement of public charge-points

About to get my first plug-in car, and have some questions.

I work in the software industry so I know that all apps eventually get discontinued or abandoned, so what happens to my home EV charger when the app it needs is no longer available?

Are there generic home EV charger apps that work with other brands chargers?

Can I just not install the app? I'm not saying I'd avoid installing it, but knowing how the charger would behave in this scenario is important information.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/3229618

Early signs suggest the fire was started accidentally

EV Point (EuroGarages' network) appear to have been added to Electroverse!

Some of their points used to show up as ChargePoint and compatible, but I don't think they ever worked.

This article is a couple of weeks old, but interesting stuff.

The first results of UK Power Networks’ Park and Flex Study have revealed the enormous potential of using long-stay car parks, such as those at airports, to help power the grid.

Early research in the study has found that more than 1.3 million homes could be powered by filling up electric vehicle’s batteries in long-stay car parks when energy is cheap and demand is low - and returning that power back to the system during peak times.

The study used advanced modelling alongside both UK Power Networks’ and energy specialist Baringa’s forecasts for the number of electric vehicles on Britain’s roads in the coming years.

With airport parking, details of a customer’s flight dates can dictate the exact length of a vehicle's stay which gives the network operators greater insight into spare power or capacity.

I'm very surprised that there isn't legislation requiring a way to stop the car if it does run away. (Although it's quite possible that's what the police used once they got in the car, and the user missed it in the panic)

Kinda like how you should know how to stall engine runaway on a diesel.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/5965151

Nissan to go all-electric by 2030 despite petrol ban delay::The carmaker moves ahead with its plan despite delays to the UK's ban on new petrol and diesel cars.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/2698651

Nissan have clearly set their trajectory, and aren't changing.

As far as I can tell, nobody asked for or wanted this...

... Except the Daily Mail

Several charging points for electric vehicles at a motorway service station still aren’t hooked up to the power network after connection delays.

I'm already with Octopus, but I've just had a smart meter installed, so I'm looking at moving to one of their EV tarrifs. These seem like kind of a no-brainer, but I'm a bit suspicious. It seems sort of too compelling.. what am I missing?

I'm currently paying 29.26p/kWh and 53.96p/day. Both EV tarriffs are 29.56p/kWh, so only 0.3p more, and the standing charge is the same. But, both tarriffs offer cheap overnight power; Go offers 4 hours at 9.5p/kWh, and Intelligent offers 6 hours at 7.5p/kWh (so why would you ever choose Go..?). I guess you'd choose Go if you can't or don't want to link your car's API to Octopus, but I see no other disadvantage).

Is anyone here on either the Go or Intelligent tarriff? Any regrets or non-obvious gotchas to watch out for?