Letter: I noted your article (“Drivers plugging into an electric future will need a lot of chargers”, May 12) on the problems with the proposed electrification of the country’s cars and vans. Unfortunately, the problems are much worse than you made them out to be, and they are exacerbated by institutionalised lying by National Grid. I have been trying for a year to get the company to change the way it calculates the extra generating capacity it says will be required to power the electrified fleet — and have met with ignorance and resistance; I have even been told to go away. It is intent on using an imaginary figure entitled “propulsion ratio”, which it is taking as “0.25KwH [kilowatt hours] per mile”, to calculate a figure for additional capacity that it puts at 64 terawatt hours (TwH) per year. The 0.25 figure is supposed to represent the mean consumption of the entire fleet of cars and vans. National Grid is determined to continue with this approach in spite of evidence that energy use could be as high as 160TwH. Additionally, all the evidence from owners’ clubs is that the 0.25 figure is unachievable and deliberately low.
Times 26th May 2019 read more »
A battery start-up backed by former National Grid boss Steve Holliday is launching a £120m fund to accelerate the roll out of electric vehicles. Zenobe Energy is in talks with local authorities and transport providers to finance, install and operate a bespoke vehicle charging system that could double the number of electric buses on British roads, it claims.
Telegraph 25th May 2019 read more »