Should you let your dog wee on EV charge points?
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PA Consulting's Warwick Goodall, clean and smart mobility expert, and Darren Seymour, design and innovation expert, discuss EV charge points in an article by Cat Dow in BBC Top Gear online.
The article talks about PA's EV charge point design and prototype, which was commissioned by the Office of Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV), responsible for delivering the government's plan to roll-out at least 300,000 charge points by 2030.
On this, Warwick explains that: "[EV charge point] design needs to take many things into consideration, including things you'd never think of. That includes canine urine, apparently."
Darren adds: "Design extends beyond just the person using it and how we can drive a behaviour for them to want to use a charge point. It goes to the humanity part of design where we start thinking about the environment. If there's 300,000 of these chargers on our streets, people are going to be walking past them and they'll form part of people's lives.”
Darren goes on to remark: "Of course we laugh about dog wee, but it's not just that.Modular design – like the one Lego takes in all its projects – helps replace the bits that dogs damage (the base), while keeping the rest of the device intact. That's not to say there aren't issues at the other end of the charge point."
Warwick adds: "A change that's going to come in the next few years is something called ‘plug and charge’. If you have a Tesla and you go to charge, you just plug in and it'll automatically communicate with your car. [The charge point] will allow people to just turn up and plug in without any apps on their phone.”
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