I can remember a time, not so long ago in Glasgow when saying “you tube” was an invitation to a fight. Now the shifting sands of our digital culture have declared YouTube as the source of all knowledge, good and bad.
Ask any teenager what they spend half their waking life doing and I’ll wager it’s watching some pretentious manicured kid espousing the virtues of a phone he’s spent 20 minutes unboxing, or some other coiffured nit-wit whose mum and dad have deep pockets.
However, among those YouTube items are occasional gems. Whenever I meet someone who asks me about electric vehicles, charging systems or government policy, they are amazed that I know so much.
Sometimes I even surprise myself. I don’t pretend to be an expert, but its amazing how much you pick up from YouTube. My go-to channel at the moment is Fully-Charged, a factual channel dedicated to all things EV and has terrific production quality – a match for the stuff that you watch on Sunday night
on BBC2.
The channel was started by Robert Llewellyn (the actor who played Kryten in Red Dwarf) and it regularly debunks urban myths about EVs and charging infrastructure. The channel gets somewhere in the region of three million views per month.
This month’s content featured an incredible new invention by a company called Urban Electric.
Click the image above to watch this video
This is a crowd funded start-up which has designed and manufactured an innovative pop-up EV charger. Basically, it’s a fully functional vehicle charger that, when not in use, sinks seamlessly back into the ground to leave a fully flat profile.
Watching this, my mind was racing with ideas for possible applications for this charger. Perhaps on a street pavement where space is at a premium? Or a development in a conservation zone, where planners might decree no permanent fixtures?
Click above image to learn more about Newton's 2020 vision
Newton Property is rolling out EV chargers to our customers’ developments and this product, when it comes to market, could be perfect in those situations where currently available kit just doesn’t fit in.
Anyway, the moral of the story is, if I hadn’t subscribed to Fully Charged I wouldn’t have known about this new product. So my top tip for the week, if you are interested in EVs, subscribe. You won’t regret it.
Also, coming soon – the Newton Property YouTube channel. Three million hits a month? … hmm.
Derek MacDonald is joint managing director of Newton Property Management.
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