Cleantech Investor

First published in Cleantech magazine, February 2011. Copyright Cleantech Investor 2011

By Nick Hanna

I recently hired an electric vehicle in London in order to shoot some stock pictures for an online photo library. The aim was to visit several different charging points to get a range of images.
 
After collecting the hire car from Go-Go Electric Cars in Brixton, I headed off towards my first stop – Sainsbury’s in East Dulwich. The first thing I noticed was that other traffic seemed to keep their distance behind the car – did they think I was going to do something erratic, or suddenly run out of battery power and stop dead in the middle of the road? No idea, but I was grateful for the road space.

Once at Sainsbury’s, I had to make a circuit or two of the car park before finding the charge point. There were two spaces, one of them occupied by a Prius. Whilst I was hooking up, I gave a disapproving glance towards the Prius family as they drove off, assuming they had been trespassing on EV territory. Embarassingly, I then saw the sign which said: ‘Reserved for electric or hybrid vehicles’.

After Sainsbury’s, I headed north of the river to an NCP car park at Saffron Hill in Farringdon. This is where my journey began to descend into farce.

On entering the car park, I was faced with a giant banner which said: ‘Electric vehicle charging only £1 per hour’. Confidently, I collected a ticket at the barrier and drove up through the car park, searching in vain for the charging station. I asked an NCP employee – he didn’t know. After driving all the way up to the top of the car park, and then all the way down again, there was still no sign of the charging station.

I then pulled over near the car park entrance, and went to look for someone. Nothing – just an unmanned office with a phone number, which I called. They didn’t know, but promised to get back to me. Ten minutes later, I received a call informing me that the charge point was near the ticket barrier. I looked again, and eventually found a very small coin-operated box with a socket almost next to the banner I’d seen on entering the car park.

Unfortunately, by this time I was on the wrong side of the exit barrier and it was impossible to go back round the whole system the wrong way. I was obliged to pay £4 in order to get out of the car park – but I then took another look at the space available if I had decided to charge up here. It would have been impossible – there was insufficient room to park the car even had I wanted to. Clearly, what NCP has done is to convert an old motorcycle parking bay, and then expect drivers to squeeze through a gap of less than two metres to get inside it.

This is ridiculous. The car I was driving was pretty small, but even so I would not risk it. What is the point of this charging bay?

‘NCP – planning a green tomorrow today’, claims the banner. Based on my experience, NCP is not planning very well at all. If this is typical of the state of planning for a greener tomorrow, then we’re all doomed.
 
I headed over the river again to my next stop, Upper Ground in Lambeth. And there it was, a free car parking space just behind the Royal Festival Hall. Magic! I plugged in the car, and went for lunch on the riverside. What could be better – two hours free parking, right in the heart of the South Bank. After lunch, I reclined the seats and took a snooze in the little car as free electricity pumped into the batteries from the charge point.

Now that’s what I call a green future!