As the world prepares for the inevitable return and succession of the electric vehicle, local governments and councils are getting their act together, with the installation of public charging points increasing globally.

Businesses are also getting on the bandwagon. A McDonald’s restaurant in NC, USA now offers free public charging to customers with electric cars. Not only does this offer convenience to EV drivers, but public feedback shows that it will most likely bring more revenue to that store.

McDonalds isn’t the only business aware of the potential benefits for both higher profit and customer convenience.

Sainsbury’s in the United Kingdom is installing free public charging points in 11 of it’s London supermarkets, putting half of London within 3 miles of a charging point to the delight of the Mayor, Boris Johnson, who says, “I want London to be the electric car capital of Europe”.

Currently, more than half of American citizens have access to a suitable recharging point for their vehicles, be it in their garages or an outlet near a window where the car is parked.

Public charging points will only increase the convenience of driving an electric vehicle, as well as boosting your range while you shop or rest.

But what about the extra drain on the network? Not to worry. Here in New Zealand we have just over 2 million vehicles running on our roads.

With a population of 4 million people, 2 million vehicles is a lot for our small nation, yet a report conducted recently proved that even if every single vehicle somehow became electric overnight, the country’s power grid would only experience a
40% increase in demand.

Despite the fact it’s a terrible analogy (it would take decades to move all drivers to electric transport, not one night) it’s a great testament to the efficiency of electric vehicles. You might even be surprised to learn that your average electric kettle uses around the same power drain as an electric car charging.

To remove any impact on the national grid, there’s always the option of solar powered public charging points, like that just installed in the offices of Dell in Texas, USA.

Dell have made use of their large carpark area by roofing some sections with shades – with solar panels on the roof side. This generates enough free, clean power to power their offices and for visiting electric vehicles to recharge.