Local Councils Are Subsidising EV Charging
By Paul Homewood
h/t Ian Magness/Graham Worthington
I do hate those stupid “postcode lottery” headlines!
From the Telegraph:
As usual the Telegraph gets it all back to front, claiming that some drivers are being “overcharged”.
In fact, the reverse is true. Many councils it seems are subsidising electric car drivers, as the commercial rate is typically around 45p per KWh.
Why should taxpayers fund EV drivers, particularly when they are already subsidised to the tune of thousands of pounds by central government? I see nothing “fair” in that, Ms Simpson!
Indeed, it appears some councils are actually offering free charging:
In any event, the number of chargers run by local councils seems to be pathetically small. Sheffield, for instance, has just 12 chargers, and they are all situated in the town centre, which is OK if you have business in town, but useless otherwise.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Do you get the feeling, like me, that EVs are ONE BIG CON?
The fuse is lit and fizzing in the direction of the big black round thing. The only question is how far back to stand to safely enjoy the spectacle when it splodes.
Yup!
I don’t pretend to have an in depth understanding of the National Grid but I do look at the live status website from time to time and it strikes me that, whether it is central government or local councils, they are incentivising people to use/buy something that they don’t possess to sell.
Were we producing ‘green energy’ in abundance I would completely get it, but we’re not. Wind and solar combined only generated roughly 21% of consumption in the last year and I refuse to accept that biomass has anything to do with ‘green energy’ whatsoever! Coal is greener, cheaper and cleaner!
In fact recently we appear to be burning coal more and more frequently when we’re struggling to generate or import enough juice in other ways.
So if we have to burn coal to meet demand at the margins, it’s not unfair to deduce that all “new green” demand is being met by coal..
Therefor we are subsidising people who are running their cars or heat pumps on coal…….
……and who said politicians were all idiots?
Yep. They tend to burn well, too.
In a parallel world, the cost if installing EV chargers would be paid by a levy on the EV’s purchase price and the amount paid for a kWh would be cost of electricity plus a percentage to service the chargers. Allowing motorists to charge for free is another case of robbing the poor to pay the rich, Reverse Robin Hood.
The ‘free charging’ is paid for out of council tax revenues, the vast majority of which will be paid by non EV owners. I’m so pleased that I’m subsidising virtue signallers, NOT 🤬
In Carmarthenshire, the council is receiving an additional £9 million from the Welsh Government and is increasing council tax by nearly 5%. I’ll be miffed if I find that any of that cash is being spent providing free chargers.
That make me even happier. As, courtesy of the Barnett formula, English taxpayers will be subsidising Camarthenshire EV drivers.
Well we’ve been subbing Scotland, Wales & NI massively for years so no change then. We’re in rural Somerset. Yet to see an EV charger ANYWHERE In our locality. Regardless, it is an honour to fund them in other parts of the country.
We do get a bus weekdays. At 2 hour intervals, into Frome. Beezer.
In East Devon there are lots of virtue signallers with their green flash number plates and Tesla seems to be the car of choice for the wealthy in Exeter. How kind of them to support slave labour in the mining of rare earth metals. Hypocrisy and virtue signalling are perfect bed fellows.
Well Said !!
Thank you kind Sir 😊
A Lithium-Ion battery in one Electric Car weighs about one thousand pounds, and it is about the size of a travel trunk. It contains twenty-five pounds of lithium, sixty pounds of nickel, 44 pounds of manganese, 30 pounds cobalt, 200 pounds of copper, and 400 pounds of aluminum, steel, and plastic. Inside there are 6,831 individual lithium-ion cells.
It should concern us all, that those toxic components come from mining. For instance, to manufacture each auto battery, you must process 25,000 pounds of brine for the lithium, 30,000 pounds of ore for the cobalt, 5,000 pounds of ore for the nickel, and 25,000 pounds of ore for copper. All told, you dig up 500,000 pounds of the earth’s crust for . . . just for . . . ONE . . . Electric Car Battery.
Let that one sink in, then added, “I mentioned disease and child labor a moment ago. Here’s why. Sixty-eight percent of the world’s cobalt, a significant part of a battery, comes from the Congo. Their mines have no pollution controls and they employ children who die from handling this toxic material. Should we factor in these diseased kids as part of the cost of driving an electric car ?
The embedded costs not only come in the form of energy use; they come as environmental destruction, pollution, disease, child labor, and the inability to recycled Used Batteries.
The main problem with solar arrays is the chemicals needed to process silicate into the silicon used in the panels. To make pure enough silicon requires processing it with hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, hydrogen fluoride, trichloroethane, and acetone. In addition, they also need gallium, arsenide, copper-indium-gallium- diselenide, and cadmium-telluride, which all are highly toxic. Silicon dust is a hazard to the workers, and furthermore the panels cannot be recycled.
Windmills are the Ultimate in embedded costs and Environmental Destruction. Each one weighs 1,688 tons (the equivalent of 23 houses) and they contain 1,300 tons of concrete, 295 tons of steel (Concrete and Steel = 15 % Global CO2) 48 tons of iron, 24 tons of fiberglass, and the hard to extract rare earths neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium. Each blade weighs 81,000 pounds and will last 15 to 20 years, at which time it must be replaced. We cannot recycle used blades.
There may be a place for these technologies, but you must look beyond the myth of zero emissions. I predict EVs and windmills will be abandoned once the embedded environmental costs of making and replacing them become apparent.
I am trying to do my part with these comments. ‘The Embedded Costs’ of Going Green, but who ever asks ? Thank you for your attention, have a good day, and good luck going Green.
https://www.academia.edu/49057069/Electric_Cars_Burn_31_More_Energy_than_Gas_Cars
And we are paying for this madness so that the ‘Rich’ can signal their virtue while we starve . . .
Today the UK government approved a 54% increase in Electricity pricing . . . The madness of going ‘Green’ coming home to roost . . .
My thoughts . . .
‘Sheffield, for instance, has just 12 chargers, and they are all situated in the town centre, which is OK if you have business in town, but useless otherwise.’
The will not be of general use. Who would go to town with the expectation that one would be available? A few people living nearby will commandeer them.
Nobody goes to Sheffield anyway, since John Lewis closed.
Is there any mechanism to get people off them once their car is charged?
My guess is that the free chargers, especially in town centres, will be a hidden bonus to Council employees.
Local councils are the pond life of politics ..Local government really seems to attract some mean nasty power craving pious little totalitarians mixed in with good people committed to their communities . I know of one local council [ one of the 35% of Australian councils that saw fit to declare a climate emergency proving 65% are reasonably sane ] and the green left newsletter that remain mute about slave labor and environmental despoliation in the mining and industrial processing of battery and photovoltaic panel components ….Mike Moores Planet of the Humans was never shown at the local cinema or schools .It had to be censored ….The footage of wilderness areas ravaged to make way for wind turbines and solar arrays and the hilarious scene that revealed the EV charging stations are powered by coal fired electricity would have made the bossy greens livid .
Read Paul Collits brilliant Quadrant Online essay lampooning woke local councils Paul : ” The Little Platoons of Local Government ”
This article on Joanne Nova’s blog is worthwhile reading too : ” We know its a cult because apostates must be exiled “
I emailed a local council in the Midlands yesterday asking for a simple answer about an address in the district. I received an automatic reply which thanked me for my communication saying that the Councils Christmas break will be from 23rd December until 4th February, but we hope to send you our reply within 28 days. .Council workers, like modern MPs take jobs paid by the taxpayer because they are incapable of holding proper jobs down. They know they will also be safe from getting the sack, They are all becoming a disgrace to society.
It wasn’t always thus. Up until the 1970s employees in the public sector accepted that in exchange for a guarantee of lifetime employment and an index linked, taxpayer funded pension they wouldn’t earn as much as those in the private sector. The rewards were larger here, but so were the risks and you had to fund your own pension.
Then the Bliar Government, with encouragement from the public sector unions, decided that the top public sector management jobs should have the same level of rewards as their ‘equivalents’ in the private sector. Which meant all the other job levels had increased remuneration too. But they didn’t lose their guaranteed job security, their gold plated pensions or even their ‘gongs’ for keeping their noses clean.
So naturally they thought they were really rather special and therefore didn’t have to deliver a decent public service any more. So the Government paid out more money for a worse outcome.
Why is anybody surprised that there is such incompetence in the public sector?
Absolutely. The bottom line is that those who cannot afford to save for their own pensions can apparently afford to sub the pensions of those earning enough to pay for their own.
Seems to me that under the ConSocialists, we are getting an ever larger and engulfing Public Sector, with the NHS constantly advertising Diversity non-jobs with heavy duty salaries.
What contribution to making patients better has yet to be measured…
Because it is impossible to measure?
Well, yes, which makes it all the more nonsensical.
Not quite true, Mr Lawson. I started working for councils because the pay was better, the hours shorter, the holidays longer and the pension nice and fat. I did have a spell as an out-sourced contract but am now retiring early with an unreduced pension from my current council. Glad to be going actually as I am working on delivering woke things because they are obsessed with bicycles and pedestrians – oh, and the stupid battery scooters. There is no understanding of how businesses work and already many have left the City as it is too much of a struggle.
The best part of all this MADNESS is that basic physics of Electricity is TOTALLY ignored . . .
OHM’s Law . . . Resistance . . . increases demand and production by an average of 28% . . .
12% during transmission plus 16% to charge the battery in an Electric Car . . .
At least 15% more CO2 is produced to run Electric Cars than Gas Cars . . .
But hey . . . who cares about science . . . Science is a right wing conspiracy . . . Don’t believe a single word . . . scientists are all in the pockets of ‘Big Oil’ . . . Didn’t ya know ??
https://www.academia.edu/62574334/Tesla_Versus_Toyota_Camry
https://www.academia.edu/49057069/Electric_Cars_Burn_31_More_Energy_than_Gas_Cars
Oh I am just a simple carpenter who was listening during High School Science class . . . Even I was able to do the math . . . Unlike the ‘Woke” crowd . . .
Councils are allowed to do this, I believe it was a Blair-era law change covering the environment, in looking for that I came across much recent agitation (funded of course by taxpayers) that may OBLIGE all councils to do it, here is an example of the filth:
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/climate-action-local-government/
I suppose that the near three times the ave price per kWh that the SW charges must be down to the extra costs for wind-powered delivery! 🙂
Yes, our roads are too narrow for the delivery vehicles 🤣
Paul, fooling around with using WordPress to read your (mostly) excellent but always factual missives is just a waste of time.
I have gone back to your email notifications.
Life is just too short.
Cheers
Gavin Hardy
Well Mr. hardy, good idea . . . just go back and bury your head in the sand . . . the truth will come to you there more clearly . . . by ignoring the ‘FACTS’ Paul so clearly brings to the open minds among us in civilization . . . Bless you Paul for your wisdom . . . !!
Jim, that was just a dumb reply. My issue is not with Paul who I regard as essential reading. It’s to do with the way WordPress works.
I will still be reading Paul’s work but via email notification and website.
Now go away and learn to read English.
https://onthewight.com/isle-of-wight-ev-charge-points-the-proposed-new-locations-and-their-power-rating/.
The few chargers we have are totally unreliable.
Good. The whole idea is stupid.
Such fun to watch all these ignorant people who screamed we should ALL go GREEN now having so many problems with THEIR IDEAS. LOVE IT !!! Grow up and live in the REAL world.
Aarrghhh! Just lost the long reply I was typing!!
Essentially, it was that that idiot Evan Davies allow the equally challenged Caroline Lucas to give an uninterrupted ppb for the Greens over the new Sizewell.
No interruptions when she claimed wind was so cheap and that storage would see us through. Nothing when she said that the interconnectors would keep us with power.
The woman is certifiable! So is BBC PM for allowing it.
I heard that on BBC R4 also. Where was the “balance” to Caroline Lucas’s views on the relative costs of renewables and nuclear ?! Her words were accepted as gospel with no “fact check” !
KB,
every man and his dog knows that nuclear is expensive and wind is cheap, the message is constant in the media including the BBC. Why would the interviewer challenge her?
The fact that it is so far from the truth is a disgrace but that doesn’t change the realities of today. People still blame the energy companies, lately the cost of gas for the very high electricty bills which are about to get more expensive
Did you not get the memo KB? Post the 28Gate meeting the BBC has decided that its charter does not apply to global warming. I do hope they stick to not allowing the tv licence to be increased but it is likely they will keep the woke liberal nonsense and cut the few good things left.
Interesting challenge. Drive from Newcastle to Trafalgar Square without paying for any refuelling. No time constraints.
Not a problem for my Landrover Discovery 4. I can manage about 400 miles on a full tank of diesel. No virtue signalling here!
I could beat that if I bought a new Dacia Duster with the dual fuel option. It’s combine petrol and LPG ( currently less than half the cost incidentally) tanks give circa 800 miles.
to DevonCamel – yeah, but I could also do it towing our Airstream 684 trailer!
https://www.airstream-europe.com/traveltrailer/airstream-684/
Audi TT tdi. Easy. Quick, too.
You could do it charging at Tescos en route. Some EVs wouldn’t need charging if you fully charged it first.
Today I drove a round trip of 550miles, nearly all motorway, 7hr50mins of driving. Towing a trailer on my Shogun4x4. Half journey empty trailer and return half with 2x 2500lt stainless tanks aboard. 1 full tank of diesel used. Which EV vehicle could do that journey in the same time? Outside air temp 6c.
None.
The average EV is £10,000 more expensive than parallel ICE version. Oh but I save on fuel!!! In my AdBlu diesel Citroen I can drive over 80,000 miles for ten grand. Some saving. And a 32 grand Nissan Leaf depreciates at £5K a year fot the first three years, a new battery can be £4K plus so at some point your EVs value falls to zero.
You can buy it for £10k mote and probably sell it for £10k less than the equivalent ICE version!
And it’s only cheaper to run if you put no value on your time. Two hours charging on a long journey at £50/hour adds £100 to the cost.
Good point about the value of our time. I think sometimes that our Lords and Masters are simply amusing themselves, by seeing just how far they can go in chivvying us into ‘voluntary’ chain gangs, tasked with levelling mountains with a spoon.
They also insist a shout of “Yes Boss! No complaints Boss!” greet a Lord where ever he goes.
Most of the public chargers in Sturgeon’s People’s Republic Of Scotland are free. IE paid by taxpayers.
https://chargeplacescotland.org/
By ‘taxpayers’ does that mean the English? We seem to pay for a lot of things to be free in Jimmy Krankie Land.
Yep. There are very few Jockish taxpayers, except for oil Cos.
” Woking’ council ? .
“Why should taxpayers fund EV drivers, particularly when they are already subsidised to the tune of thousands of pounds by central government? I see nothing “fair” in that, Ms Simpson!”
Um – “central government” is ALSO the taxpayer. The long term trend of stealing from the poor to subsidise the rich continues under our Socialist government.
“…Socialist…”
Of course.
I guess there is a more specific point, “Why should LOCAL taxpayers fund NON-LOCALS?”
There is a legal analogy with hotels. Provided one looks respectable, one can usually sit, unquestioned, in the lobby of the grandest hotels, being technically technically a Licensee; but if I want to enjoy any other facility I must become a Guest, and pay. Before that, I certainly can not wander over to the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet and freely indulge!
Unsurprisingly the SW loses out again.
Two points:
When will owners of ICE vehicles receive an equal subsidy?
Could these subsidies be legally challenged?
My rural town has two 7kw/h chargers in the pavilion car park. They appear to be free to anyone who plugs in. Never seen a vehicle connected.
I think the only charging points in the nearby village – we are a hamlet in all but name – are at the station where you have to pay to park. Currently £6 a day. But I don’t think there is a fee for the charger. They always used to be empty but have been used a lot more recently although mainly hybrids rather than battery cars. But around here I would suspect that most households have more than one vehicle – I live alone and have three myself! And so they could afford the risk of a hybrid/battery car.
“I live alone and have three [vehicles] myself!”
You old redneck, you!
I expect the trade-in value of them goes up and down depending on how much petrol is in them.
The chargers are statuary, showing that good people live in the town.
@Devoncamel
give us a bit of entertainment and FoI the council for the charging stats…. There will be a meter even if individual charges aren’t logged.
Dead easy to do via whatdotheyknow.com
Here’s the deal.
Factsheet: https://www.netzerowatch.com/content/uploads/2022/01/Cost-Decarbonising-Cars.pdf
What is to prevent an electric car owner charging it for free and then plugging the house into it via a transformer and inverter, saving the huge increases in electricity rates, caused by the renewables back up and China changing to gas heating in order to go a bit greener?
The council taxpayers are paying rich people to charge their virtue signalling coal fired cars. FTFY.