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Comment by jasoncartwright | Hacker News Reader

I've used street light charging for a few years now in zone 2 in London. Works great.

I've never seen street light charging anywhere in Manchester - in fact the lack of on-street charging points is why I bought a hybrid rather than a EV.

Admittedly that was almost 3 years ago, but I still wouldn't have anywhere to charge it at home...

Provision differs by local authority, but there are some areas of London where they appear to have put a plug on almost every streetlight.

https://ibb.co/GPH8wym https://www.zap-map.com/live/

Are they typical 15 or 20 amp circuits? (whatever the typical circuit is in the UK)

15 amps at 230v won't charge very quickly.

It's 20amp & says it's 5kW (but might be 4.8?). More than enough to charge a car overnight.

I’m assuming that there are still far more cars than there are streetlights. It might work, but god does it sound stressful never knowing if you’ll get lucky and find a streetlight parking spot.

They cluster them in at least 3's. If the three by my house are completely blocked (the cable is almost as long as the car), in use, or broken (one was kicked in recently, now fixed) and I desperately need a charge (which has only happened once) there are at 10-15 more within 5 or so minutes walk.

Ubitricity has shown a concept where they have smaller extender posts off the lamp posts, which I guess they'll be able to install if an area gets really busy.

>Provision differs by local authority

Absolutely. I think there are more on-street charging stations in that neighbourhood than there are in my entire city...

Not everywhere in the UK is London.

"The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed"

If the future looks like London. I don't want to go there.

The quote is from William Gibson and was about technological development being different based on wealth and location.

You seem to have hijacked my point with something that's bothering you though :(

There is this attitude from those in cities that us outside of it eat mud and bang sticks together like primates. I frequently am seen as uneducated because I have a west country accent.

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