Adrian wrote:
Roland Perry gurgled happily, sounding much like they
were saying:

Listen.... the poles and sockets aren't the problem. Getting power
to the poles *is*. Think a 300 space car park: ho much wiring and how
many amps is that?

No worse than a medium factory.

I'm surprised a medium factory would take that much power, but the most
difficult part inside the car park is wiring up every bay to the feed.

...not to mention what happens when some numpty cocks up parking and
takes the pole out of the ground.

Then, of course, there's the scrote factor - how many of these street
poles will be being tapped for domestic electrickery?

Well if the only work when you stick a credit card in them, not many.

Look: Laying cables in a small area isn't that big a deal. Laying cables
for streetlamps, traffic lights and so on is already done routinely in
streets.

440 AC technology is mainstream in industrial places. I am not syaing
that upgrading stuff wouldn't in time be necessary, but power at the
sort of 50KW level, able to mostly recharge a small car in an hour, is
not a big problem.

Electric showers are typically 8.5Kw. They are common enough. That's on
domestic wiring.

125A 3 phase connectors are routinely available. That is probably around
40KW at least...i can never remember how these things work.

And as far as MOST charging goes, MOST of the time people will NOT be
drawing full current. The chargers will, once the battery is full, cut off.

So the requirements for a massive substation to feed everything only
really exist at e.g. motorway service stations where a high volume of
cars with very flat batteries will be present.

One can envisage a standard plug: you pull up to a charge point, open a
'filler flap' pull a cable out and plug it in, locking with your key,
then go to the post, shove in your credit card, looking at the readout
on the post. It says you are e.g. half full. Shove in electric company
of your choice credit card, key in PIN, and buy what charge level you
need. Once PIN accepted, voltage is applied to the connector, until what
you have prepaid is delivered, or the battery is full, whichever comes
first. Do shopping, come back, green light is on, unlock cable and
remove. Drive away.

Apart from the time to charge, very little different from a credit card
petrol pump.