Electric car charging points

[DiD]

Need to get a new car, and would prefer to buy electric, but there don't seem to be very many charging points around! Also, non-electric cars seem to park in the parking bays where there is a charge point AND the charge points sometimes don't work. Does Southwark Council or London plan on investing more in these? What do people on here do?

[exdulwicher]

Whereabouts are you?

Try zap-map.com, it's a nationwide site of EV charging points and it's got a community aspect to it so people can report broken chargers.

Or if you post up your rough location, maybe people on here can tell you about ones locally.

[figgins]

Whereabouts are you? There are quite a few lamp-post chargers around. In my experience the one in my street has always worked. Also a lot of faster charging points, e.g. at Sainsbury's Forest Hill. I have never got the "free" ones at Sainsbury's DKH to work for me. There is a rapid-charger (Osprey) at Tessa Jowell Health Centre. I have used this once, but since then it has been faulty, for me at least.

[intexasatthe moment]

There are quite a few in Townley Road though you need to watch out for the restricted/timed access to that road .

[Nigello]

The lamppost ones, while welcome, a a bit greenwashy because any car can park next to them, not just EVs.

[B&G]

Takes forever to get one too. We applied to have one put into the lamp post outside our house 12 months ago and we haven't heard anything. Anyone know how long the wait list is?

[heartblock]

The provision of charging points in Southwark and specifically Dulwich is pitiful. Maybe a Green Party led Council next year can actually make some real policies to reduce petrol vechicles.

[exdulwicher]

The provision of charging points in Southwark and specifically Dulwich is pitiful. Maybe a Green Party led Council next year can actually make some real policies to reduce petrol vechicles.

It's not (entirely) up to the council - there's a bit of a mess at the moment of types of charger, the companies that supply the electricity to them, the companies that make, install and maintain them and the expected usage (I admit the latter one is a catch-22 because usage is only going to happen if there is a charger there to use and also demand is only ever going to go up!).

Also issues around if it's intended to be domestic (ie for a few households to use between them), some sort of random on-street thing (so driving to the shops etc) hope to find an available charger when you get there or something on the major road network (motorway service stations). The first can be an overnight trickle charge thing, the latter two usually need to be fast chargers. Unfortunately it's a messy picture at the moment, there's no clear national strategy. And local authorities are the ones left looking like idiots if they order 20 Type X chargers in Location Y and they get no use because they're the wrong type in the wrong locations.

[DiD]

We're in Bellenden Road. Provision in the area is dire. This is clearly something the council needs a strategy for, and also begs the question -- should we buy an electric car or not?