Random EV thoughts.....

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120852490#Comment_120852490

That's pretty awesome, never thought it'd actually hit €0. Must be when the price goes negative, so the charging company is still making money by taking power off the grid

Were those Supercharger prices or a different company?

I think it would be good to have some flexibility in public charging prices to reflect the price of electricity on the grid. Not sure we'll ever get fully flexible tariffs since the suppliers apparently don't even know how to do that with a smart meter

But if there was a day/night/peak public charging rate then that would definitely encourage people to charge at easier times for the grid

creedp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120852009#Comment_120852009

At this point I'm past caring. Reality is that it only has 11km range at best so I either use the full range or leave it at home most days and drive the diesel.

creedp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120852820#Comment_120852820

Damn phone 110km which is bad enough😂

CoBo55

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120852829#Comment_120852829

I was wondering 😆😆 I was thinking jaysus a scooter from Lidl would be better than that☺️

the_amazing_raisin

Amazingly I could probably manage most days with 11km of range, it'd be enough to drop the kids and go to the shops

Just shows how little range you really need most of the time

CoBo55

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120854774#Comment_120854774

Just a pain in the nuts plugging it in every day especially in this weather.

liamog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120854790#Comment_120854790

If your more careful with the cable you can avoid any impact to your pelvic area, I recommend using your hands instead of your groin, in which case plugging the car in is not the huge ordeal some people think it is, it's about the same level of difficulty as remembering to plug a phone in.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120854790#Comment_120854790

Tbh I'm used to plugging it in all the time to try and grab some solar

I even plugged it in yesterday on autopilot and afterwards I was wondering why I bothered considering I couldn't even find the sun in the sky 😅

But yeah, 11km range wouldn't really be practical, if you forgot to plug in you'd literally have a brick

CoBo55

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120854815#Comment_120854815

It would always happen the morning you really need it🫣

CoBo55

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120854796#Comment_120854796

It got you one thanks, har har har you're hilarious, don't give up the day job,(if you have one).

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120854796#Comment_120854796

At least it wasn't a CCS plug, you'd probably be hospitalised if one of those hit you in the gentleman's area 😵

creedp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120854774#Comment_120854774

Yea I could drop kids off but they would have to walk home. Probably shows that some people need more range than others. Presumably though you live in an urban setting while I'm a little bit more out in the sticks

zg3409

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120850883#Comment_120850883

While 20% on a big battery car is a lot, I don't recommend attempting the first public charge with only 15km range left. For example today I was in the Midlands. Only about 30km range left arriving at the charger. On the way I checked on the esb app if it was in use. Arriving at petrol station another car was just pulling in ahead of me to start a charge. I had a choice, wait, go in wrong direction for around 30km to nearest 50kW+ single charger, head around 35km wrong direction to multiple ionity units, or go about 2km to the event I was heading to and come back later. When I came back to same site about 35 minutes later owner was still charging with car. They said trying to get to 80% which took 2 minutes, then they spent 10 minutes trying to disconnect the CCS. I was cutting it fine, not ideal, having about 26km range at this point.

The moral of the story is stop when you are down to 60/100/120km (unless you can make it home) and top up a bit. Dont arrive with 30km range unless multiple 50kW+ units are within 30km. It's not the first time I have arrived second to a public charger. I passed Longford later, 2 cars on the one 50kW charger...

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120860323#Comment_120860323

Why didn't you aim for the Ionity units in the first place? 😉

Seriously, they're not that much more expensive anymore and there's a better chance of getting a free charger

Okay, fair enough, it sounds like they were a bit of a detour which is annoying, but personally I'd probably have just planned to head there on the return and use the Ecars charger if it happened to be free

I would say balance your arrival SoC against the likelihood of getting stuck waiting. I've pulled into Ionity sites with 15% remaining confident there was a charger available that would deliver full power, and worst case there were a couple of slower sites nearby if disaster struck and the whole site was offline

If I was heading out somewhere that had a single Ecars fast charger for the whole town (i.e the entire city of Waterford) then I would definitely engage in some opportunistic charging before I arrive

liamog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120860323#Comment_120860323

That's why I'll always target multi CCS chargers, I'd rather pay the extra knowing that it's more likely to be available or that with 3+ chargers I'm queueing for 1 of 3 which is going to be a much shorter wait. We're in a much better position these todays to plan routes like that.

zg3409

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120860472#Comment_120860472

Ionity was 30km out of my way in wrong direction. I probably should have charged earlier on the trip but I was hoping to arrive with a low charge and quickly fill up to travel on. I started off at 100% and I needed to charge twice today due to distance and small battery EV, so it's always a compromise of number of stops and risks. There is no guarantee next charger will be available nor work. As I said Longford was crazy busy, I'm glad I was well charged up passing there. Easygo units tend to be quieter when available as not many people know about them.

unkel

@zg3409 - "Ideally as a driver aim to end your trip with 20% spare"

There's no need for that at all, well depending on the car. If a Tesla says it will bring you home with 1% or 0% left, that's good enough for me, there is typically a decent enough buffer. I've gone on trips home where the car told me up front I wouldn't make it. Just drive a bit slower than the speed limits and you'll be fine. But I guess this gets easier the more experienced you are as an EV driver. I've never run out in near 7 years of driving EVs

CoBo55

Can anyone use ionity, is it an app like all the others? Should be getting my EV this week I've always noticed ionity chargers are mostly empty which would be handy the odd time I'd ever need a public charge.

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120861058#Comment_120861058

For sure anyone can use them as long as you don't have a Nissan Leaf with obsolete CHAdeMO DC fast charging. What EV are you getting? I've seen you around on this forum and on the classic cars forum for many years, you were fairly sceptical at times about EVs, delighted you have finally made the jump into EV ownership :-)

CoBo55

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120861096#Comment_120861096

Cupra Born, should be ready this week. Do the ionity use a standard credit card? In reality I'd be rarely using public charging but it would be handy to be setup before trying to use one.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120861185#Comment_120861185

Not exactly, you'll need to download the Ionity app and then select a charger to pay by card through the app

Seat probably have an equivalent of We Charge for VW and it's probably easier to register that and get a card if it's free

AndyBoBandy

For Ionity I use ChargePoint as they send you a physical rfid card as well, which I like having in case of ever encountering network/app issues on the phone….

CoBo55

Thanks lads, another app for the EV folder on the phone🫣

markpb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120860921#Comment_120860921

The battery charge can drop further after you get home as the fans continue to run and the battery cools down. This is even more noticeable in winter. If you have an overnight timer on your home charger, you may need to charge a little immediately.

innrain

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120861357#Comment_120861357

I would ask the dealer about the Cupra charging and some introductory tariffs.

CoBo55

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120861704#Comment_120861704

Will ask when I'm collecting the car, thanks.

AndyBoBandy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120861459#Comment_120861459

I had this a few years ago on a particularly cold winters night...

Plugged in at about 6-7pm at 16%, checked it a few hours later and the cold had brought it down to 7%... and it was still falling.... so I gave it a bit of a top up to about 15% again as my scheduled charge wasn't due to start till 2am, which was still 2-3 hours away...

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120861185#Comment_120861185

Well wear! I have only tried Ionity once when they were new and it was a novelty. That was years ago and I can't remember what I used, might have been a German app on my phone. I started the thread in this forum when Ionity announced that they were going to launch in Ireland and with this new boards setup, I can't even unsubscribe from that thread 😂

In truth I almost never publicly fast charge as my car has about 300km motorway range, that is almost always enough for a day trip

silver_sky

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120861989#Comment_120861989

I had this issue with another thread here. Its buried deep but I found the option. I'll dig out the link later for you.

CoBo55

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120861989#Comment_120861989

According to the lads on the Born thread they're getting similar range too so I'll rarely, if ever need to use public charging. Flogas have submitted my request for a D/N meter and with 14.75c night rate I'm well sorted. The deal includes servicing, a set of tyres and front discs and pads, it's going to be cheap motoring ☺️