Juice Points

08/08/08

Posted by Lisa

Earlier this week a friend and I were walking down Wellington Street after dinner and were more than a little excited to see an electric car attached via a high visibility, yellow coiled charging cable to a recharging post, or ‘juice point’ as they have been nicknamed. Like tourists we grabbed our camera phones from our bags and snapped pictures of the unusual sighting, first of its kind for us. It surprised me, given the amount of street coverage I invariably do as a researcher in the Capital, that I have not happened upon one before. It made me wonder how many there actually are and therefore how easy it is for people to utilise this environmentally friendly alternative to petrol powered vehicles.

In the office the next day I looked into it further and discovered that so far the City Council has been focusing on getting charging points in car parks around Westminster - there are 48 - and is now working on juice points in the streets. In May ten on-street juice points were installed after their pilot project with two points, which brings the total number of charging points in the Capital to 60. OK, so there might not be that many people driving around in electric cars yet, and you have to register and pay to use them, but I still question the viability of finding a juice point when you need one. Given that juicing takes place while the car is parked, who knows how long it might be until the owner returns and the juice point is free? I have visions of poor little electric vehicles whirring along at half speed as their juice runs low, their drivers frantically hoping to find a free juicing station before power is lost completely. Mind you, trying to find a petrol station in central London is a hopeless cause so perhaps the owners of electric vehicles are better off after all?