30 Min FREE Parking for Electric Vehicles

[Hereford Voice]

Electric vehicles charging in the council’s off-street car parks will soon be entitled to 30 minutes of free parking.

The changes will take effect from Monday 16 March 2020, from which date drivers of electric or hybrid vehicles that need to plug in and charge will be able to obtain a free 30 minute parking ticket to display in their vehicle.

Council electric vehicle charge points are available:

Hereford; Garrick Multi Storey Car Park, Plough Lane, Shirehall and Venn Close Car Parks

Kington; Mill Street Car Park

Ledbury; St Katherine’s Car Park

Leominster; Etnam Street Car Park

Ross; Red Meadow Car Park

New rapid charging points are also to be installed in February 2020 at Edde Cross Street Car Park in Ross, St Martins in Hereford and Broad Street in Leominster. These will be capable of delivering an 80% charge to a vehicle in 20 minutes.

Electricity supplied to the council's charging point network is produced from 100% renewable energy.

Cllr John Harrington, Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Transport, said:

Quote

“As part of the council’s commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030, we are delighted to announce this scheme. It is hoped that this incentive will encourage those purchasing a new vehicle to consider alternatives to petrol or diesel engines and in doing so reduce the impact that harmful nitrous oxide and particulate matter in our town and city centres can have.”

Herefordshire Council declared a climate emergency last year, and will publish its new Carbon Management Plan in April this year. The document will outline the council’s plan to reduce carbon emissions over the next five years and set an interim target for its commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030/31.

[H.Wilson]

How much charge will a vehicle obtain in 30 mins? Is this enough time, I know very little about these new electric cars

[twowheelsgood]

Typically badly written and misleading press release from the Council. From the Zap-Map website;

Rapid DC chargers provide power at 50 kW (125A), use either the CHAdeMO or CCS charging standards, and are indicated by purple icons on Zap-Map. These are the most common type of rapid EV charge points currently, having been the standard for the best part of a decade. Both connectors typically charge an EV to 80% in 20 minutes to an hour depending on battery capacity and starting state of charge.

The Council’s current chargers eg at the multi-storey car park are 7kW, which will typically take 4-6 hours to charge, again depending on the battery capacity.

30 minutes is largely useless for the 7kW chargers and drivers will inevitably have to buy a ticket anyway - an hour would have been more sensible. If you can afford an EV, you can afford to buy a ticket!

[ragwert]

20 hours ago, twowheelsgood said:

Typically badly written and misleading press release from the Council. From the Zap-Map website;

Rapid DC chargers provide power at 50 kW (125A), use either the CHAdeMO or CCS charging standards, and are indicated by purple icons on Zap-Map. These are the most common type of rapid EV charge points currently, having been the standard for the best part of a decade. Both connectors typically charge an EV to 80% in 20 minutes to an hour depending on battery capacity and starting state of charge.

The Council’s current chargers eg at the multi-storey car park are 7kW, which will typically take 4-6 hours to charge, again depending on the battery capacity.

30 minutes is largely useless for the 7kW chargers and drivers will inevitably have to buy a ticket anyway - an hour would have been more sensible. If you can afford an EV, you can afford to buy a ticket!

The charging points at the old market are worse.the system there is so out of date that it frequently trips the electricity supply when someone plugs their car in.New electric charging points were to be installed on the upper deck of the car park 18 months ago.

[twowheelsgood]

They're 7kW, they are free if you spend £20 in Waitrose!

If I had an EV, I'd use the 50kW ones in Texaco Ledbury Rd or, better still, the Chargemaster ones at Rotherwas- they even have a 150kW one (well they would I guess, as it's now BP Chargemaster offices).

[Aylestone Voice]

Fuel Duty will raise £28billion in 2019/2020.

When we are all required to use electric vehicles  where will the taxman get his money

[twowheelsgood]

Good point, and not one I've seen raised before, but I'm sure he'll find a way! There's no standardised verifiable way of measuring how much electricity a charge takes at the moment, which is why a lot of charge points are free or a nominal charge or via a monthly charge. Once that is resolved, I expect the Chancellor will be able to slap on a tax per kW or whatever. Of course, by then the emergency dirty diesel generators (such as recently built at Dormington) needed to provide the electricity will be running flat out!

[Peter Thomas-Cruttwell]

On 03/02/2020 at 22:12, twowheelsgood said:

Typically badly written and misleading press release from the Council. From the Zap-Map website;

Rapid DC chargers provide power at 50 kW (125A), use either the CHAdeMO or CCS charging standards, and are indicated by purple icons on Zap-Map. These are the most common type of rapid EV charge points currently, having been the standard for the best part of a decade. Both connectors typically charge an EV to 80% in 20 minutes to an hour depending on battery capacity and starting state of charge.

The Council’s current chargers eg at the multi-storey car park are 7kW, which will typically take 4-6 hours to charge, again depending on the battery capacity.

30 minutes is largely useless for the 7kW chargers and drivers will inevitably have to buy a ticket anyway - an hour would have been more sensible. If you can afford an EV, you can afford to buy a ticket!

Some interesting reading, you learn something new everyday.