This afternoon I stumbled across a very useful video by a firm of electricians in Cambridge. They went through a list of things that needed to be in place with your home electrics before an installation of an EV could take place. To cut a long story short, our set up would need a couple of upgrades at least one of which would involve the taking out of a kitchen cupboard.
The other issue I have is the 10 metre distance between our consumer unit and where the charger would be mounted.
None of these issues are insuperable in themselves but the £350 grant wouldn't even come close to covering the installation of a home charger.
Why do I raise this? Well I think people need to do their homework BEFORE buying an EV - the installation of a charger may not be straightforward especially in a post war but not very modern property like ours. Had a brief discussion with my electrician son-in-law and he thought a minimum of £1500 would be required and more likely £2,000.
This had me thinking, given my age and the small annual mileage I do, getting an EV might be something I never actually do or, indeed, need to do.
Hard on the heels of that I listened to a podcast with Robert Llewellyn talking to Fiona Howarth, a big wig at Octopus energy. Work is already ongoing on a vehicle to grid infrastructure (only a small project at present). The basic idea is that, to avoid pressure on the grid at busy times, you plug your car in and your domestic energy derives from whatever charge is in the battery. The car gets charged at night whilst demands on the grid are minimal. Octopus already have an "agile" tariff which selects the cheapest time to charge your car.
We live in interesting times. I won't be part of the EV revolution but it's going to be a huge change.