A charging lead like this
still costs £269, but as with all charging points the question is what is in the little box? This one states type A RCD and charge rates 10, 16, 20, 24, or 32 amp, nothing about loss of PEN detection, however inside a garage that is not really required.
To get a charger which will vary charge rate depending on the power used by rest of house you can't use these leads, and the leads clearly don't connect to the DNO to allow them to turn them off, but is this good or bad?
My house has a 60 amp supply, if I could get this upped to 100 amp clearly I would have 40 amp to play with, and so using one of the leads shown in a garage would be in many ways better than using the fixed charger as the DNO can't remotely turn it off or down. And one would want a lead which can be used with all outputs, so in an emergency you can use a 13 amp outlet, so why not have a lead which one can fit adaptors to use any 230 volt outlet, it makes sense.
It also means the same outlet can be used for other things, like welding sets.
Some EV's only have the option to plug into a 16 amp Schuko or CEE 7/3 sockets needs an adaptor to fit any other type, OK classed as a quad not a car, Citroen sell them. So why not have a charging point that can be used with all EV's?
If charging outside one will want some loss of PEN protection device, and if your supply amps are low, then will want some auto charge rate adjust, but in many cases the set up shown is better as DNO can't turn off the charger, so big question why not do it that way, nothing to do with being cheaper, it also has other advantages.
But the big question is if even 32 amp is enough? The idea is to charge while sleeping, so that means around 8 hours, so around 60 kWh. Now some cars are only 40 kWh like the Nissan LEAF so that's OK, but some Tesla's can have a 100 kWh batteries, these will need 13.5 hours to recharge, and one is hardly likely to pay the extra for the large battery if you don't need it, so having a charger the DNO can't turn off independently to whole home makes sense.
There was a 22 kW charge point in my village, which could be used over night, however due to abuse, this is now turned off at night, it seems POD point chargers give first 15 minutes free, and people were sitting in their cars unplugging and plugging back in to get the free 15 minutes repeatedly. So the money POD point were giving the premise owners was less than the owners were paying for the power used. I am sure POD POINT could remove the 15 minutes free, but until they do, people are turning off the charge points, so it is getting harder to recharge EV's.