Irish Trip Thought Experiment

GreyDad

So thinking about EV's and journey planning I was wondering as an exercise if we could re-create our two week summer holiday to County Kerry of a few years ago

Our friends live in Killorglin but we rented a house in Kenmare to use as a base to explore the Ring of Kerry and the coast and all the lovely places around there.

So just for a laugh let's plan to do it again but this time in a Leaf

I just found from the US MyNissanLeaf forum the excellent EV Trip Planner:

https://evtripplanner.com/index.php

Originally developed for Tesla owners in the US it now also covers Europe and has data for the Leaf (in beta version at the moment). Well worth a play and nicely thought out.

So lets get from Somerset to Kenmare, just for a wee laugh. EV Trip Planner says we'll cover about 530km by road, take 11 hours of travel including 4 on the ferry and use about 81kWh of juice based on 350kg of humans and luggage, so lets say about 4 tankfuls.

We start in Somerset and have plenty of rapid chargers up the M5, across into Wales and west all along the M4 - they're about every 12-15 miles. The last one is just past Swansea and there is then the longest stretch between chargers:

- End M4 to Pembroke Dock - 72km

We went from Fishguard to Rosslare last time but Pembroke is closer and easier for an EV I think although a slightly longer crossing. There is a 7kW public charger at the dock so provided we get there in good time we could get a bit of a top-up.

On a hunch I checked the Irish Ferries website and - yes! - they actually have EV charging on board their ferries! How civilised is that! Unfortunately, it's only to Dublin and Cherbourg so for our trip we will have to last until we get to Rosslare.

Once off the boat there seems to be two rapid chargers not far away:

- Rosslare to Killinick - 10km
- Rossalre to Drinagh - 16km

So first questions:

does 'rapid charger' mean 50kW DC (chademo) over there?
And how would I get an ESB card to use the charger?
Can visitors get them?
Are type 2 public chargers all 7kW?

Last time we travelled from the ferry to Waterford and stopped overnight at a lovely country hotel there so let's do that again:

- Drinagh to Waterford - 65km

Should be possible if charged at Drinagh to 80%.

There are chargers in Waterford including a rapid charger and anyway we should be able to get full overnight charging at the hotel (need to check) so next morning it's the long stretch to Kenmare.

First hop is 122km to Cork,maybe just ok on one charge but there's a rapid charger at:

- Waterford to Dungarven Nissan - 45km

and then a longish stretch:

- Dungarven to Rochestown - 75km

or one of the other rapid chargers near Cork.

The final stretch is 100km to Kenmare and here it gets a bit more of a problem. There are no rapid chargers if we take the pretty way along the coast like we did last time so to be safe we could head for:

- Rochestown to Killarney - 90km via Macroom (44km)

which has a rapid charger if we need it. From Killarney it's a short hop to either Killorglin or Kenmare and anyway either one seems to be reachable on one charge from Macroom (50-70km).

I'd be really grateful if any locals would comment if this plan has any chance of working based on their local knowledge?

We'd be on holiday so not in a rush and anyway it seems like an adventure doing it this way

We'd have to work out what we did once we got there, of course If we could charge overnight wherever we stayed that would be great and use the rapid charger at Killarney or Tralee when day tripping but the lack of rapid chargers out side of these is the biggest limitation. There's public chargers at Sneem, Dingle and elsewhere, all of which we visited and would go back to but it looks like we'd have to be prudent.

Cheers

Neil

cros13

GreyDad wrote: »

On a hunch I checked the Irish Ferries website and - yes! - they actually have EV charging on board their ferries! How civilised is that! Unfortunately, it's only to Dublin and Cherbourg so for our trip we will have to last until we get to Rosslare.

Yes they have EV changing on the Irish Sea routes but only on Dublin Holyhead. They fitted a tethered J1772 podpoint charger and got quite a negative reaction from owners of EVs who use the proper european mennekes, as a result they haven't been in a hurry to add more chargers. I'm going to London in my i3 for the Formula E the end of next week via Holyhead.

GreyDad wrote: »

does 'rapid charger' mean 50kW DC (chademo) over there?

Yup, though they get very confused with terminology. For example they have the term "Fast Charger" painted on many of them. All rapids in Ireland provide ChaDeMo at a minimum... since 4 out of 5 EVs here are Leafs.

GreyDad wrote: »

And how would I get an ESB card to use the charger?
Can visitors get them?

Apply to the ESB with proof of purchase and a utility bill (yes, even for foreign visitors *facepalm*). Just email ecars@esb.ie

GreyDad wrote: »

Are type 2 public chargers all 7kW?

Nope, even better, almost all of them are 22kW. The only 7kW I've seen are fitted to hotels/campsites.

GreyDad wrote: »

First hop is 122km to Cork,maybe just ok on one charge

You won't have any trouble, all slow roads along your route.

GreyDad wrote: »

The final stretch is 100km to Kenmare and here it gets a bit more of a problem. There are no rapid chargers if we take the pretty way along the coast like we did last time

There are more than 10 rapid chargers due for install along the west coast this summer, they've already been purchased and are being warehoused in dublin until the sites are ready... but keep an eye on the map. At the moment you would need to go via Macroom.

GreyDad wrote: »

I'd be really grateful if any locals would comment if this plan has any chance of working based on their local knowledge? :Dl

Not a local, but Macroom is working for ChaDeMo but not for me on CCS. ESB is waiting for parts. Every ChaDeMo rapid in the country (with the exception of the second SGTE rapid at Dun Laoghaire) is up AFAIK. Status of the chargers on your route are updated on the app or on the online map. Any issues just call the number on the charger 24/7

pwurple

I did the ring of Kerry in a Leaf, starting from Cork city, with 5 people in the car, and found it really easy to do. Kenmare's easiest to access charger is in the Kenmare Park hotel. Good spot for a lunch or afternoon tea there as well. There are supposed to be two other chargers in Kenmare, but I couldn't find them (granted I didn't look very hard either)

We went Cork-Macroom, fast charge for 15 mins, and then went to Sneem on our first spin. Popped it on charge overnight there.

Sneem is a lovely town to stop in, the charger is outside the local priests house, he pops out for a chat sometimes. There are a couple of good pubs there, and places to eat.

Dromquinna manor has a charger as well, and is a gorgeous spot on the sea for food or to stay. Run by the brennan brothers, and I highly recommend the glamping site there too. Midweek it's more reasonable money.

GreyDad

Thanks! Loads of info, cheers.

cros13 wrote: »

Yes they have EV changing on the Irish Sea routes but only on Dublin Holyhead. They fitted a tethered J1772 podpoint charger and got quite a negative reaction from owners of EVs who use the proper european mennekes, as a result they haven't been in a hurry to add more chargers.

That's a shame, I hope they aren't put off completely. It's such a cool service to provide.

I'm going to London in my i3 for the Formula E the end of next week via Holyhead.

I'll be watching it on TV

Yup, though they get very confused with terminology. For example they have the term "Fast Charger" painted on many of them. All rapids in Ireland provide ChaDeMo at a minimum... since 4 out of 5 EVs here are Leafs.

Clearly a lot of sensible people in Ireland Yes, I know you have an i3...

Apply to the ESB with proof of purchase and a utility bill (yes, even for foreign visitors *facepalm*). Just email ecars@esb.ie

Sometimes, just sometimes, the mysterious processes of bureaucracies work in our favour. Thanks for the link.

Nope, even better, almost all of them are 22kW. The only 7kW I've seen are fitted to hotels/campsites.

Cool, but I guess this doesn't help a Leaf, which will just draw 7kW from a single phase??

You won't have any trouble, all slow roads along your route.

Good news, I remember most of it but it was a while ago.

There are more than 10 rapid chargers due for install along the west coast this summer, they've already been purchased and are being warehoused in dublin until the sites are ready... but keep an eye on the map. At the moment you would need to go via Macroom.

This is great news, I'm sure it will make quite a difference especially if it let's us take the southern costal road which is the way we went last time. Fingers crossed they get them in before we get to try the trip

Not a local, but Macroom is working for ChaDeMo but not for me on CCS. ESB is waiting for parts. Every ChaDeMo rapid in the country (with the exception of the second SGTE rapid at Dun Laoghaire) is up AFAIK. Status of the chargers on your route are updated on the app or on the online map. Any issues just call the number on the charger 24/7

The online map is very useful now I've found it. I'll download the app as well - my phone is becoming cluttered with EV charging apps

Thanks a lot! It seems do-able and quite exciting!

GreyDad

Thanks, I think it was an earlier post of yours about this trip that got me thinking about the whole idea in the first place

pwurple wrote: »

I did the ring of Kerry in a Leaf, starting from Cork city, with 5 people in the car, and found it really easy to do. Kenmare's easiest to access charger is in the Kenmare Park hotel. Good spot for a lunch or afternoon tea there as well. There are supposed to be two other chargers in Kenmare, but I couldn't find them (granted I didn't look very hard either)

I found them on the ESB map although one is shown as being out of action. Kenmare Park hotel looks dead posh, we didn't go in when we were there last time so this would be a great excuse for some nosh

We went Cork-Macroom, fast charge for 15 mins, and then went to Sneem on our first spin. Popped it on charge overnight there.

We liked Sneem.

Sneem is a lovely town to stop in, the charger is outside the local priests house, he pops out for a chat sometimes. There are a couple of good pubs there, and places to eat.

It's a great place, we stayed there quite a while and took a ton of photo's, there was a nice local grocery store there too as I recall and we stocked up there.

Dromquinna manor has a charger as well, and is a gorgeous spot on the sea for food or to stay. Run by the brennan brothers, and I highly recommend the glamping site there too. Midweek it's more reasonable money.

We went past it but didn't go in. I did notice on the ESB map that they had a charger but I guess you could charge at any campsite with a mains electric hook-up if you had an adapter?

I've just been on their website and showed the site and the tents to my missus - I think she was impressed but strangely seemed more interested in the Manor...:D would be fun for the kids though and the waterside location is amazing. Probably cheaper than a cottage too.

Cheers

Neil

pwurple

I took a look at that link, I'm not sure it's working for me... is it supposed to show chargers on the route?

Here's a screenshot of a trip from Cork to Dublin, which is outside my range on a leaf, and should require at least one recharge.

GreyDad

It was first written for Tesla drivers so it defaults to showing Tesla Supercharger stations only. I guess there aren't any between Cork and Dublin so the route shows as empty.

If you look on the lower right of the screen there is a small box with two tick-boxes, one for Superchargers and one for other public chargers. Only the Tesla box is ticked by default. Tick the public box and they should all come up on the screen.

pwurple

I had both ticked on, still nothing showing. Might be my browser, I'll give it a go on another few later on.

GreyDad

I'm on a train coming back from London and a bit bored so I thought I'd try it on the iPhone. Put Cork to Dublin in and it came up with a sh*tload of chargers along the route.

Did you register and log in? I tried it after I logged out and it only showed the route and car data but not the chargers, so it seems you need to be logged in to see them on the map.

pwurple

Tried it on a few browsers and got it working on one. Would like it to give a bit more info, or suggest which charger to go for. My cork Dublin trip might be three recharges along the way... I was expecting to click on a charger and see something like 'distance from source' or 'distance from destination'. Also, it doesn't give a different symbol for fast chargers or the slow ones.

Not bad, but about the same as the nissan website route planner.

GreyDad

Yes agreed, there are a load of tabs above the map which provide more info, the one called Steps gives you detailed route information but what I really want is route information from start to charger to charger to destination with the ability to pick the chargers I want to stop at. I can't find this in EV Trip Planner and was going to suggest this to them - do you know if any others work like this?

DrPhilG

I'm doing Donegal-Cork next week so I checked that site out. Not really any help without identifying the standard/fast chargers.

The ESB map is better IMO. Don't have my car yet so haven't tried the Nissan version!

GreyDad

Yeah, I'm going to send them some feedback on this - even if it just showed in red where there was a rapid charger it would help.

I used it in conjunction with the ESB map to cross reference the route and chargers

reboot

Northern Ireland has Electricity!

Dexter1979

Should be perfectly fine. The route via Pembroke is easy. Take it handy to the Ferry and you should be fine.

egomap.eu might be a handy route planner. But Rosslare to Kenmare should be fine.

GreyDad

reboot wrote: »

Northern Ireland has Electricity!

Yeah, but do they want me up there?

GreyDad

Dexter1979 wrote: »

Should be perfectly fine. The route via Pembroke is easy. Take it handy to the Ferry and you should be fine.

egomap.eu might be a handy route planner. But Rosslare to Kenmare should be fine.

The Irish leg of the trip looks fine - it's the last wobbly bit after you drop off the end of the M4 in Wales that has me bothered

For a non-Tesla EV Pembroke dock looks like a safer option than Fishguard.

reboot

GreyDad wrote: »

Yeah, but do they want me up there?

Its only a joke, you must have a Leaf?.

GreyDad

reboot wrote: »

Its only a joke, you must have a Leaf?.

He he I know Almost!!

Dexter1979

GreyDad wrote: »

The Irish leg of the trip looks fine - it's the last wobbly bit after you drop off the end of the M4 in Wales that has me bothered

Charge to 100% at the end of the M4 and you should be fine. It's a slow road (50 - 60mph speed limit) with lots of downhill. I took the Pembroke option as well and arrived in Wexford town with plenty to spare. You and your Leaf have 2 rapids close to the port in Rosslare which I couldn't use. If in doubt a overnight from Liverpool - Dublin is also an option.

GreyDad

Dexter1979 wrote: »

Charge to 100% at the end of the M4 and you should be fine. It's a slow road (50 - 60mph speed limit) with lots of downhill. I took the Pembroke option as well and arrived in Wexford town with plenty to spare. You and your Leaf have 2 rapids close to the port in Rosslare which I couldn't use. If in doubt a overnight from Liverpool - Dublin is also an option.

Thanks. Yes, the two rapids near Rosslare are the get-out-of-jail cards. We'd rather go through south Wales as it's by far the shortest and quickest journey for us in the south west rather than going via Liverpool/Dublin.

I'm doing some project work near London with a company based in Cork and was chatting to a couple elf their guys last week - made me want to have a go at this little adventure even more