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Hi, I'm Gary, and this is episode 263 of EV Musings,
a podcast about renewables, electric vehicles,
and things that are interesting to electric vehicle owners.
And on the show today, we'll be looking at Canapids.
Before we start, quick reminder that my e-book
so you've gone electric is in its third version.
If you purchased an early version, make sure Amazon sends you
through the updated version automatically.
If you don't have it, the link's in the show notes to buy it.
And you'll know it's the new version
because it has a shiny red EV on the cover.
Now, our main topic of discussion today is Canapids.
So let me set the scene.
It's late in the evening in spring with typical British weather,
which means it's blowing a gale
and the rain's coming down its stair rods.
Look that one up, Gen Z.
You're pulling to the brand new InstaVolt charging hub
at Three Mades Hill in Winchester, ready to charge your EV.
There's plenty of available chargers.
There's a lovely-looking Starbucks beckoning to you.
There's even a doggy rehydration station for books,
the black lab that insists on coming with you,
wherever you go.
At first, you need to get the car charging.
You plug in, swipe the card, and there's system errors.
With InstaVolt, you're supposed to authorize the payment first,
then plug in.
So you've got to replace the cable on the charge unit,
but it's locked in, so you need to retrieve the keys from your pocket
and unlock the car, and then you need to start again.
Authorize with your payment card,
wait for the system to process the payment,
wait for the charger to acknowledge the payment,
plug in, wait for the charger to make the handshake,
and then, eventually, the charge will start.
Now, this might have taken a couple of minutes.
In the middle of the morning on a calm spring day,
this isn't too much of an issue,
but this is Britain.
It's quite dark for long chunks of the winter,
the wind is blowing, and as we've already said,
the rain is pouring.
Now, those two minutes now mean that you're cold,
wind-swept, and soaked through to the skin.
But why?
Because this brand-new SuperHerb
with 44 chargers, drive-through bays,
excellent access on-site facilities,
and everything you would need from a charging site
is missing one thing.
A canopy.
Now, why is that?
I mean, every single petrol station you go to
has a canopy, right?
But with only a number of exceptions,
most charging sites don't have canopies.
And today, I want to talk about why that is
and what the CPOs say about it.
But first, let's set some parameters.
There are over 75,000 charging sites
across the UK at the moment.
A huge number of these are AC only,
and a lot of them are single sites
such as lamppost chargers
or a couple of connectors attached to a car park base somewhere.
Likewise, there are a large number of DC sites
that have one or two chargers located
in the car park of somewhere like Starbucks or McDonald's,
and I'm not talking about them,
although we would like canopies there.
But I am talking about the hubs
of which there are now 673 in the UK.
Large sites custom built by CPOs to entice
EV drivers to their location.
And this is where the issue starts
because there is no consistency
amongst CPOs regarding the provision of hubs.
Take BP Pulse, for example.
They have a great DC ultra-rapid charging hub at the NECs,
has great canopies over the top,
as does their newly converted Cromwell roadside
in West London.
But the next largest BP hub, by number of units,
is actually in Stafford,
and it has zero canopies.
Not any of the other hubs in the West Midlands,
and I know because BP invited me up there
to film them last year.
In fact, the BP Hammersmith hub,
which was one of the first hubs in central London,
and is located less than two miles
from the Cromwell roadside,
has five units all sitting in the open air,
despite the petrol pumps located
20 yards away on the same site
being covered with a canopy.
And we look at Shell.
Most of their locations are extensions
to existing fuel four-corts,
which already have canopies.
But, do the Shell Chargers at these four-corts
have canopies?
No, the only major one that does
is the Shell Four-Cort at Fulham.
This is a converted petrol station,
so it had a canopy already prior to it being converted.
And they pulled that down and built a different one.
Now, there are one or two other ones
with canopies across the network.
I was passing the Shell garage in Borenwood recently,
and noted that they had one.
But generally, they don't.
And then we look at Instavolt.
They have several major hubs,
Stroud Park and Winchester Spring to mind.
They took Greenfield or Brownfield sites
and had pretty much full range
for what they could do there.
In Winchester, they got planned permission
for a huge solar array on-site battery storage,
a brand-new coffee shop as well as 44 Chargers.
But did they get a canopy?
No.
Now, GridServe, we all know them
as the company that took over from Ecotristi
and did such a great job with the charging
at the motorway service areas.
Now, I can give them a pass for not putting canopies
over the one or two units they inherited
and upgraded from Ecotristi.
But they've since embarked
on a large slate of new installs at the MSAs,
offered up to 12 units at a site,
and none of them have canopies despite the fact
that they're all on locations with wet-fuel dispensers nearby
that have canopies.
However, when they've gone for the electric four-courts,
of which there are four open and at least one in progress,
they've put fantastic canopies on there.
Osprey charging.
Similar story to Instavolt,
canopies may not be inappropriate,
but they've also opened their own site
at Strawberry Fields in Devon
and didn't put a canopy there for planning reasons.
But some locations do have canopies
as a matter of course.
Most of the MFG sites have canopies,
and again, this is probably due to the fact
that their chargers are usually co-located
at wet-fuel sites that already have canopies.
Although they do have several sites,
particularly one on the A3 near Wimbledon
that has no canopies.
But that's at a car wash,
not a wet-fuel station.
Now Fastead are the other charge point operators
that tend to put canopies on most of their locations.
But not all.
The Angel of the North in Newcastle
is a standalone set of chargers
in a lay-by near the statue.
No canopy, and according to ChargeSafe
when they went to evaluate,
no lighting after dark.
But that is an exception rather than a rule,
and then not all like that.
Now I was at the BEV Charging Oasis
at Manchester recently.
It's a lovely little site
which has replaced an old petrol station
that used to be located there.
And however, despite the fact that
there was already a canopy there back in 2008
when the petrol station was closed,
there is no big canopy
on the finished charging hub.
What they do have however
are small individual canopies
at each charger.
They move behind the charger
and extend out over the top
to provide a nominal level of protection
from the elements.
Now this policy of adding
unit-specific canopies is something
that a couple of other charge point operators
have gone for in a couple of sites.
I could think of Arnold Clark charging
as an example.
So of course the question that comes out
of all these situations is
why don't CPOs add canopies
to their charging locations?
Why not cover the pumps?
Why not chargers?
Or at least charging hubs?
So let's hear what a couple of the
charge point operators have to say about this.
Now last season I spoke with Andreas Atkins
from Ionity about their charger hubs.
He told me
quote
of course we have tested a few
we don't have any in the UK
and I guess it's
does the customer and are they really asking for this?
I would never install a site
we always work with site partners.
There's always the opportunity for the customer
to go inside the building, the site
partner that we're working with whether it's the
Starbucks drive-thru, the hotel
or a retail park.
If there is this question mark
is it actually what the customer wants?
There's always a trade-off between that
and extra costs.
Every site is like a business, it's a PNL
the lower that we can keep the costs
the more advantageous that we can be
on the end price for customers
and particular work that they pay.
End quote.
Now we also had Tom Hearst
country manager from Fastnet on the show
back in season 7, episode 140
quote
so since day one Fastnet as a company has been
building and designing and delivering and operating
what I can only call
I simply call petrol stations
but for electric vehicles
so you'll recognise our solar canopy
with a yellow wing trim
it's fully timber frame for example
where we sit on top of ultra rapid charges
today
I mean it started with 50 kilowatt charges
back in the day but now we're talking
essentially high power hubs
with several ultra rapids from day one
again since the mission
that we have then is still the mission that we have today
and it's just as relevant
it's all about getting you on the road again
as quickly as possible
and that's the area that Fastnet plays in right?
We exist to allow you
to complete your journey
whether you're carrying out a long irregular journey
or a regular commute
whatever it might be
get on the road again as quickly as possible
and as comfortable as possible
and so for us part of the story then
is it's sitting underneath the canopy
for example
why should you as an EV driver feel any less comfortable
than
a driver of a petrol vehicle
who literally as a given
expects a canopy
for example
from the discussions and those comments you've just heard
is that there are different views on canopies
between charge point operators themselves
and between charge point operators
and customers
Andreas basically questioned whether we actually need canopies
you're not standing outside in the wet
he said except of course
as in the example I quoted at the top of the show
you are standing out in the wet
the fact was the Starbucks on site
when you're connected and charging doesn't
remove the need for covers
while you're doing that important bit
now this is especially
important if you're a disabled driver
who might need to extract a wheelchair
from your vehicle transfer into it
grab the cable place it on your knee
pay for the charging navigate around the charger
in your wheelchair carrying a potentially
heavy and cumbersome cable
and connect it to the car in the limited
time period before the charging
session resets
there's also another aspect to this which feeds
into the bigger charging narrative about
cost simply put
would you rather have hubs
with canopies on them
or would you rather have hubs where the price
of the canopies is put towards
reducing the cost of charging
I've heard a CPO say that to me
at one point on the face of it
it seems to be an appropriate trade off
but in reality none of the
CPOs that have installed canopies
have increased their prices
at these sites nor have they reduced
their prices at locations
with canopies
what do we think canopies at a set price
or no canopies
and lower pricing would you go for that
link to that is the related question
which is given a limited
budget for putting in a hub
would you rather that budget went towards
installing more charges at a site
or installing fewer charges
but with a canopy over them
and that's an interesting trade off
planning for a charge in hub or site
is a complex process
and needs input from many different people
if energy needs to be brought in from the grid
a substation will likely to be built
and this needs to be included
cabling needs to be planned for
as well as the onsite facilities such as shops
and additional parking
all of these things are common across all charging hubs
more or less
but when you then start to include things such as
totems and canopies
it throws the planning into a different level
for canopies you have the additional
issue of site lines
and foundations
so when Osprey Charging put their site in at the Paisley Pair near Silverstone
they originally wanted
a canopy but were unable to add one
due to the nature of the ground
on which they were wanted to put it
there were things under the ground that couldn't be disturbed
when putting the canopy support foundations in
so they had to abandon the idea
I've also been told
that as soon as you add a canopy into
a plan
it immediately lentens the planning process by an additional nine months
for CPOs who need sites to be
up and running ASAP
to start repaying their capital investment
a nine month delay can be an issue
it's often quicker and easier
just to not add the canopy
but I wonder how much of this plays into sites where there are
already existing canopies
but the charges are installed out in the open
there's obviously the cost issue
but how much does planning come into this
let's take a good example
I've already mentioned the BP Pulse site
on the Cromwell Road
this was an existing wet fuel station
that was decommissioned
and converted to a charging hub
as a wet fuel station
it already had a canopy
but this canopy was removed and replaced
with a different canopy design
in a slightly different location
now my understanding from speaking with members of BP Pulse
is that because the canopy was there
the planning permission
was almost built in for the new canopy
they had to justify why it had been moved
the new design had to be approved
but it was less of an issue than adding a canopy
at a site when none existed previously
I suspect this is the same thing that happened
with a shell recharge site
at Fulham
incidentally those two sites also
have the large totems in place indicating
that these are charging stations not petrol stations
and this was also because
they existed in the old site
and their placement couldn't be changed
at the Cromwell Road site for example
the totem is placed at the exit
of the site rather than the entrance
because moving it further forward
to be near the entrance would have cost
sight line issues apparently
so we know the sites with existing
canopies can have new canopies added
or at least get those canopies replaced
so why in places such as
Watford Gap
which has both a petrol station canopy
and a drive through costa canopy
why did the grid serve chargers there
not have any covering
I contacted Gridsurf for comment
but they weren't able to provide
a response before we went to record this episode
now this is something
of a Marmite question
some people want canopies because
they're used to them from petrol stations
some people want canopies because
they've been caught out with chargers that don't work
and they spent too long out
in the elements trying to get them to work
but some people think the money that we
could spend on canopies
could be better spent reducing tariffs
or improving charge reliability
so that we could all charge
first time every time
with no issue
so what's your thoughts
canopies or not
let me know info
at evmusing.com
it's time for a cool EV or renewable thing to share
with your listeners now but many people
are 30 kilowatt-hour Nissan Leaf will have been their first
4A into electric vehicles
fantastic cars, really reliable
and great for pootling around town
but the limited range
of around 100 miles on a really good day
meant that they
weren't much used for anything else
unless you wanted to spend more time at chargers
than you do driving
but an enterprising young
home mechanic
decided to change all that
and he did it by swapping his Nissan Leaf
30 kilowatt-hour battery out
for a newer Nissan Leaf
62 kilowatt-hour battery
and he did it all
on the driveway of his house
in about three hours
he's pretty impressive
he ended up doubling the range of his car
and he loves the result
check out the YouTube video
showing what he did and how he now appreciates
slow moving vehicles on the road
as it helps him get better efficiency
from his battery
I hope you enjoyed listening to today's show
together this week with the help of
Andrea Sackins and Tom Hurst
if you have any thoughts, comments, criticisms
or other general messages
to pass on to me I can be reached
at infoadevmusings.com
I'm on the socials
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thank you why not let me know you've got to this point
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with the words
is it can appear
or can appease
nothing else
thanks as always to my co-founder Simon
you know he's sitting this one out I reckon
thanks as always to my co-founder Simon
you know his latest entrepreneurial initiative
is a mobile canopy
for people on the electric unicycles
keeps them dry in wet weather
and shelters them from sun in hot weather
after I've made our walls skeptical
I mean a canopy on a unicycle
surely that's very close
to being a completely different sort of vehicle isn't it
I mean does it work
can I get to see one in person
thanks for listening
bye
About this episode
Exploring the curious absence of canopies at many UK electric vehicle charging hubs, this episode delves into the practical, financial, and planning challenges behind their scarcity. Host Gary shares real-world examples from major charge point operators like BP Pulse, Shell, Instavolt, and GridServe, contrasting sites with and without canopies. Discussions include customer needs, cost trade-offs, planning delays, and accessibility concerns, especially for disabled drivers. The episode also highlights differing industry perspectives and invites listeners to weigh in on whether canopies should be prioritized or if funds are better spent on more chargers or lower prices.
Original notes
In this episode Gary explores the lack of canopies at electric vehicle charging hubs across the UK.
Despite the presence of canopies at traditional petrol stations, many EV charging sites—especially newly built hubs—lack this basic weather protection.
Gary examines various Charge Point Operators (CPOs) like BP Pulse, Shell, Instavolt, Gridserve, and Fastned, highlighting inconsistencies in canopy installation. He discusses the practical implications for users, especially in adverse weather, and presents arguments from CPOs regarding cost, planning, and customer demand.
The episode concludes with a call for listener feedback on whether canopies should be a standard feature at EV charging hubs.
The EV Musings Podcast is sponsored by Zapmap, the go-to app for EV drivers, helping you find and pay for public charging with confidence.
Links in the show notes:
- Upgrading a Leaf and doubling the range. - Cool thing
Episode produced by Arran Sheppard at Urban Podcasts: https://www.urbanpodcasts.co.uk
(C) 2019-2026 Gary Comerford
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The EV Musings Podcast
Gary Comerford
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