Electric Cars Will Turn Pavements Into Obstacle Courses

Charities have warned that the electric car revolution will turn pavements into minefields for pedestrians.

Campaigners say replacing petrol and diesel cars could leave streets dangerously cluttered with electric vehicle (EV) charging cables.

The National Federation of the Blind UK (NFBUK) and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) are calling on the Government to address the imminent safety problem.

They claim ministers have so far not provided a solution that won’t risk a rise in trip-related accidents and blind people feeling too unsafe to go out.

About 40 per cent of homes don’t have access to a driveway or garage, meaning numerous EV owners will need to trail a cable across public pavements to charge their cars, which could turn them into effective obstacle courses.

A newspaper outlet is calling on the Government to push back the prohibition on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030.

Sarah Leadbetter, 48, from Narborough, Leicestershire, who’s registered blind, said her guide dog sits down at EV cables, forcing her to try and get around them alone.

She said that the growing number of electric cars worries her greatly and that this was going to prevent her from going out, trying to find different routes to the bus, or going to the shops.

Sarah Gayton of NFBUK said charging cables will make it difficult for blind people to navigate safely.

She said it will turn pavements into a minefield and that blind and visually impaired people could get their white cane tangled or trip over cables, with the potential for them to be seriously injured or even killed.

Rebecca Guy of Rospa said that local planning authorities should incentivise EV owners to use public charge points rather than trailing cables from their homes to their vehicle.

A Department for Transport spokesman said local authorities are responsible for trip hazards and must consider the needs of disability groups when deciding on the location and operation of charge points.

The government are attempting to get electric cars out on the roads by 2030. However, established mining companies presently don’t have enough lithium to supply the automotive industry, and it’s estimated that the demand for EVs and battery storage could increase up to 30 times by 2040.

At the moment, according to ZapMap, there are currently only 42,000 charge points across the United Kingdom, but the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) advises 2.3 million charge points will be needed by the United Kingdom by 2030 to keep up with the predicted demand.

The national grid’s current demand stands at 334.2 TWh. TWh stands for terawatt-hour, which is a unit of energy that’s equal to putting out one trillion watts for one hour. This means that the United Kingdom would need to increase its electricity production by about 100 TWh to meet the demands of electric vehicles.

A typical EV battery has about 8 kilograms of lithium, 14 kilograms of cobalt, and 20 kilograms of manganese, although this can often be much more depending on the battery size. A Tesla Model S battery, for example, contains around 62.6 kg (138 pounds) of lithium.

Also, what about people who live in tower blocks? Are they going to be dropping long cables to their cars to charge them, or are they going to bungy jump out of the windows to plug their cars in at night? The entire thing is going to end in disaster, and also what happens when one of these vehicles crashes into one of these rechargers because it’s bound to happen at some point?