Transporting vs driving leaf to ireland

proponent

Hi all,
Popped a deposit on leaf today in UK.. Delighted and can't wait to get it.. Only challenge now is getting it back to Dublin..
Just thinking aboit the 390 miles I need to cover to get to Holyhead. Looking at realistically getting max 80 miles on each rapid charge(would that be right?).
It's not likely I can do this all in and out in a day. In trying to weigh up my options on flight, Hotel and ferry.. Approx €350 all in and a very very long day of driving and charging.
What's the best price anybody knows of to have a leaf transported dealership in UK to door in ireland?

Has anybody else imported one and drove it back? Or had it transported?

All thoughts welcomed

oinkely

350 plus vat was as cheap as I could get. Driving and ferry was a lot less, as I was going the Belfast cairnryan route. Flight was less than 20, but it was a very long day. Left home at 4.30 am and got home at 6.30 am the first time and about 3.30 the second time.

proponent

oinkely wrote: »

350 plus vat was as cheap as I could get.

That's a decent price.. Can you send me details

oinkely

fraid i can't remember exactly who it was. I googled 'car transport from uk' and rang all the numbers that came up. There was a thread about it in the motors section too and i think the price above was from the person mentioned in that thread.

oinkely

And if IIRC, that was to a Dublin address, anything outside was extra.

KCross

proponent wrote: »

Hi all,
Looking at realistically getting max 80 miles on each rapid charge(would that be right?). It's not likely I can do this all in and out in a day.

No, you wont get 80 miles at motorways speeds as you wont be driving from 100% each time. You will only be driving from 80% to probably 20% which means you really only have 60% to drive with. If you do drive it back you need to gauge 50 miles per charge at motorway speeds to ensure you dont get caught.

Obviously you will get further when you leave the dealer as you will have 100% charge but it will be 80% after that.

proponent wrote: »

In trying to weigh up my options on flight, Hotel and ferry.. Approx €350 all in and a very very long day of driving and charging.

I did my run in 24 hours. No hotel required. Can you catch a few hours on the ferry? It depends on the timing of your flights and ferrys I guess.

proponent wrote: »

Has anybody else imported one and drove it back?

Here is my experience with importing and driving it back.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=99372631

Scottie99

Where in England are you traveling from? I've traveled up and down Scotland/England in my Leaf going and coming from Ireland.

Also charging cost can be included from certain providers..

proponent

Southampton,

its a good shlep from Holyhead and have a pretty limited window in and out, kids and work etc.

Scottie99

proponent wrote: »

Southampton,

its a good shlep from Holyhead and have a pretty limited window in and out, kids and work etc.

Have you tried Pembroke or Fishguard ports. I know it comes in at Rosslare but charging options in Ireland from there is free and good. Just another option..

https://www.esb.ie/our-businesses/ecars/charge-point-map

KCross

proponent wrote: »

Southampton,

its a good shlep from Holyhead and have a pretty limited window in and out, kids and work etc.

I have no idea of your times but take a look at Pembroke-->Rosslare.
I reckon it might be easier to come into Rosslare and drive to Dublin than to try to make it to Holyhead and then Dublin.


Check both routes and see how many charges are required. From Southampton I'd say the Pembroke route would be easier. Maybe the times dont suit you?

Ecotricity now also charge for charging so you need to factor that in and ensure you are setup on their network and that their network has enough chargers on the route. You might have to use multiple providers. I know the route to Pembroke (M4) is fully covered by Ecotricity as that is the route I took.

ei9go

Have a look at https://www.shiply.com/

You can specify from where to where and companies compete for the business.

Suggest that maybe you should get the leaf transported to the port on the UK side and you go across as a foot passenger and pick it up

there.

Expect around one pound per mile.

proponent

good shout,

thanks all

DrPhilG

I flew from Derry to Liverpool, caught the train to Leeds and collected my car in Pontefract.

Drove back to Liverpool and caught the overnight ferry back to Belfast.

It was an adventure, plus I brought my Dad and he enjoyed the run.

zoom_cool

I think you maybe better to get it transported the likes of Harron Transport are over in the uk everyday of the week

makeorbrake

No need to get it transported. You just need to plan your route and organise ahead of time.


Going over in 10 days - booked one way flight for 10 euro - ferry back is 70 from Liverpool. Ecotricity account setup.

ei9go

makeorbrake wrote: »

No need to get it transported. You just need to plan your route and organise ahead of time.


Going over in 10 days - booked one way flight for 10 euro - ferry back is 70 from Liverpool. Ecotricity account setup.

Saw a post in the Facebook group a couple of days ago saying that the Ecotricity chargers would not accept an Irish Credit Card.

makeorbrake

ei9go wrote: »

Saw a post in the Facebook group a couple of days ago saying that the Ecotricity chargers would not accept an Irish Credit Card.

Can anyone confirm that as an issue (or was it a one-off problem with a particular card)?

samih

I setup my Irish Visa (AIB) with them no problem.

ei9go

makeorbrake wrote: »

Can anyone confirm that as an issue (or was it a one-off problem with a particular card)?

Here's the post:

Through a lucky set of circumstances I stopped at Cheiveley services on the (English) M4 in a borrowed i3 this evening and met a gentleman and group member called Colm taking a Leaf to Ireland.
He couldn't start the charger as the new Ecotricity app wasn't accepting his Irish credit card.
Luckily we were able to start a charge with my account. Right now he is on the way to the ferry and I'm remotely starting charges for him.
The Ecotricity situation is a mess. Please be warned to check this out if you are planning to use their network in future.

Further down the thread it does say, it was a credit card problem. Only saw the post when it was initially posted.

samih

I haven't actually tried to initiate charges with my app so maybe there would be a problem. The IKEA Belfast charger has "finally" been converted so somebody with an Irish card could try it I guess.

proponent

samih wrote: »

I haven't actually tried to initiate charges with my app so maybe there would be a problem. The IKEA Belfast charger has "finally" been converted so somebody with an Irish card could try it I guess.

I will pop an email to ecotricity.. Don't want to get caught badly here

makeorbrake

proponent wrote: »

I will pop an email to ecotricity.. Don't want to get caught badly here

When are you going over proponent?

proponent

makeorbrake wrote: »

When are you going over proponent?

Heading over on 23rd

makeorbrake

proponent wrote: »

Heading over on 23rd

I'll be over there before you. I have 2x cards linked to my ecotricity account - so I'll let you know how I get on.

proponent

makeorbrake wrote: »

I'll be over there before you. I have 2x cards linked to my ecotricity account - so I'll let you know how I get on.

Please do,, I'm worried about the journey back.. Trying to plan on zap map.. Seems fine

proponent

makeorbrake wrote: »

I'll be over there before you. I have 2x cards linked to my ecotricity account - so I'll let you know how I get on.

Well?? How did it go?

makeorbrake

proponent wrote: »

Well?? How did it go?

Hi. Went fine. Had 2 cards associated with the Ecotricity app/account - just in case one wouldn't work. The other concern I had was that I had registered initially with them (prior to them moving from the free charging model and from card to app) using a Parcel Motel address. Was concerned that this might cause a conflict in putting through the payments against my visa/mastercard debit cards (given that real address registered against them) but that wasn't an issue.

Flew into Manchester - took direct train from there to Blackpool. Dealer collected me from the station. Paid them via bank transfer within minutes (was using an old UK account - so was that bit faster). Charged it up to the max at the local Nissan dealership - which was a minute away.

Drove from there to Manchester (topping up charge at an Ecotricity CP along the way) - to pick up a 30amp home charger from a guy for £150. He happened to have charging facilities at his work - so gave it ten minutes worth of a top up there.

Decided on taking ferry from Liverpool rather than Holyhead - just to cut down on the amount of driving (and potential to have some sort of charging issue whilst over there) - although the sailing takes a hell of a lot longer. That said, it was much cheaper than Holyhead and they include 2x meals in the price). Topped up in Warrington Ikea on the way. Again, the app worked fine - and they didn't apply the £6 fee for that one (the guy in Manchester said that would be the case...either they have not converted fully or maybe they have some agreement setup with Ikea...). Lastly, I charged just a few miles from the ferry at a Nissan Dealership - just before they closed.


Had to wait for others to charge in front of me at both Nissan chargers. The amount of charging I did was probably overkill - but I didn't want to take any chances. The Guess-o-meter doesn't reflect reality - it's going to take me some time to figure out what it can do safely.

Don't know what deal you have re. data with your irish phone but in my case, I picked up a UK pay as you go SIM for the day on arrival at Manchester Airport (WH Smiths stock a range of SIMS) so that I could use the Ecotricity app (and call them if necessary, call the dealer, the guy with the home charger, etc.) May or may not be relevant to you - if it is, just make sure that your phone is unlocked.

So....it's all do-able. You just need to plan ahead - and work out what charging stations you can hit. Get an early morning flight - so that you can get stuff taken care of eg. travelling to dealership, final payment (if bank transfer or using transfermate, etc). I was conscious of the fact that IF I ran into trouble with Ecotricity, there's the option of calling them (in which case, I'd imagine they could either accept payment over the phone or provide a free charge under the circumstances) - but only until something like 5.30pm.

Have a look at fall-back chargers you can use just in case a certain charger is down. Others had suggested I get a CYC card (for other chargers) - I didn't, but their advice is still good.

Not a very enjoyable couple of days (I'm a few hours from Dublin - so had that to contend with also - as well as getting up to Dublin overnight in order to get an early morning flight) - but it served its purpose.

Of course, you can avail of one of these services that bring the car back for you. Whether it's worthwhile to do so depends upon how valuable your time is. All in, it cost me €155 to collect and get it home (that's everything - bus to airport/flight/uk train ticket/ecotricity/ferry home/sim card). If you can afford to do the run mid-week, then ferry/flight prices will be cheeaper (given that right now is peak travel time).

Hope that feedback helps and best of luck with your purchase. Let us know how it goes.

One last tip...

Explain to the dealership before going over that you will be taking the COMPLETE V5 away with you. If they're not used to dealing with irish customers, they may be hesitant about this. However, it's important that you get this through to them. My purchase got held up for weeks as I insisted on the dealership getting the v5 in its name before I bought it (don't know if that really was necessary but felt more confident in buying from the actual official owner!). That process took the DVLA in Swansea WEEKS to sort out! - hard to understand why - but that's the way the DVLA roll. I've known this to happen to others also. You need to be able to produce the v5 when getting it re-registered in IRL - and revenue/nct centre don't care if you have to wait on the DVLA.

k123456

Great post makeorbrake. v useful for someone like me, who intends to buy from UK

What year spec leaf did you buy, and approx, what did you save in Euro vs an Irl reg leaf

makeorbrake

k123456 wrote: »

Great post makeorbrake. v useful for someone like me, who intends to buy from UK

What year spec leaf did you buy, and approx, what did you save in Euro vs an Irl reg leaf

It's a 141 Leaf Acenta model (it's just a day away from being a 142). It has 6.6kW on-board charging. 45K miles - for an EV higher than average mileage - but all 12 bars still intact on the dash display so battery not degraded yet. Got Nissan to certify the battery also.

Price was approx. €9100 + €155 travelling costs (+2 days off work if you want to factor that in. I'm not - but others may find their time is more valuable).

Nearest I could find here was an SV model (which I believe is the irish equivalent of an Acenta) with 49K on the clock but without 6.6kW charging. Thats on the market here for €12K. I wouldnt have been swayed in any event (6kW charging was a deal breaker for me) but told them what deal I had lined up and they just said they couldn't come anywhere near that price. So saving of €2745 + 6.6kW charging (which if you buy from new as an option is pretty expensive - something like €1200 extra I think). Irish dealers tend to be prepared to take more off the price - presumably they would have taken something off - so factor that in. Additionally, I'd imagine local dealerships will include some level of warranty whereas I'm just depending upon the manufacturers warranty with my UK purchase.

Notwithstanding that, there's still a significant saving - bearing in mind there's no VRT in play either.

DrPhilG

Congrats on the purchase.

I actually enjoyed my collection. I took my dad with me and came back on the overnight ferry. He loved the trip.

proponent

superb post makeorbrake.. fair play.. and well ware!!
I will be doing precisely what you did next week. I think I have covered all bases.

The only thing I am a bit worried about is putting 12k sterling on my card using chip and pin..its a UK account so thats not the issue I am just worried that it has some limit on debit card chip and pin.

now its off for the import NCT with you.. has anyone else any stories on the import NCT process?

Greenhills and northpoint seem to be always booked out so I might try arklow.
I am a little confused about something that somebody could clear up.. is the whole process of import and registration now handled by NCT.. so no trip to the VRO in tallaght any more?