Random EV thoughts.....

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121889151#Comment_121889151

I'll take a stab at answering the questions

Answer 1: Those sums don't sound bonkers. Without knowing consumption figures it'll be hard to be 100% sure. However you can do better than 20c night rate, Flogas have a deal open at the moment which gives something like 12c night rate

There's also the savings on road tax and maintenance to consider

Answer 2: I don't think there's any known issues with a Model 3 with that mileage, but I'll let some owners weigh in. It'll obviously have some wear and tear with that mileage, but beyond eating a few tyres there shouldn't be much to worry about

Answer 3: I'm not sure you'll make up the coat outlay of an LR with the electricity savings, even a second hand one. However it'll save you that charging stop which may be good on a cold rainy day when you just want to be home ASAP

Answer 4: It's a crazy world out there, but as far as plans go it seems a decent one 😉

the_amazing_raisin

Here's the Flogas deal, officially you were supposed to have signed up to the BWG deal last year but I'm not sure they'll actually stop you from signing up

https://www.flogas.ie/price-plans/bwg-affinity-rate-res-offer/detail.html?id=47&availability=renewal_customers&fuel_type=electricity

ColemanY2K

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121889386#Comment_121889386

I'm currently on a smart plan so no going back...... I fired the pinergy and energia smart ev plans into my spreadsheet yet the flogas deal still comes out cheaper due to the high day rates on those plans.

Redfox25

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121889386#Comment_121889386

They will stop you, I tried.

:)

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121889512#Comment_121889512

Darn, I'm renewing so I'm okay, but it's a shame they aren't allowing new signups

I'd love to know the number of customers on the BWG plan versus employees across the group. I suspect there's a lot more customers than employees

Reminds me of that line from Gangs of New York; "the monk already has 5,000 more votes than there are registered voters" 😏

ColemanY2K

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121889376#Comment_121889376

That's great thanks. Good to know I'm on the right track.

I just thought of another variable. The Byd seal rwd has a 82kwh LFP battery. There'll be a few of them floating around second hand in three or so years time and should, i reckon, be retailing at 25 to 30k range by then. That car would rule out the need for a stop by solely being able to charge from home.

It's a pity they weren't launched three years ago 🤣

joe1303l

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121889151#Comment_121889151

Maybe consider a used 77kWh ID.4 or ID.3 instead ? Should get one for similar money.

ColemanY2K

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121889767#Comment_121889767

Actually you're spot on, never thought of VW.

There's loads of second hand 77kWh ID4's out there, not so many 77kWh ID3's though which would be more fun to drive.

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121889443#Comment_121889443

The trick is to never use any high day rates, just the 5c night rate and of course take their €100 welcome bonus 😁

zg3409

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121889151#Comment_121889151

You don't mention where you are starting off. Ideally you need multiple charging options as backup and in case your plans change. The sums might be ok. Compare to diesel car consumption too.

Depreciation is probably biggest cost, you want to minimise buying cost, cost of credit, yet with high mileage any car will be worth far less in no.time.

ColemanY2K

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121890047#Comment_121890047

impossible not to use day rates with a 7kW charger in my case 😫...oh how i wish there was a three phase nearby when i was building the house, a 22kW charger would hit the sweet spot.

ColemanY2K

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121890049#Comment_121890049

not far from cahir. plenty of charging options along the m8 and m7 including the tesla suc at ballacolla which is why the m3 is tempting.

the m9 is also an option albeit a 15 min longer journey, no tesla suc though.

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121889767#Comment_121889767

Deffo an option but one to consider for the OP is that it will do the same range as the Model 3 but use more battery. The M3 will be more efficient in doing the miles so recalculate for that.

Model 3 RWD should average 15-16 kWh/100km on that trip. Maybe less.

Maybe someone can confirm the ID4 figure for a similar trip?

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121890140#Comment_121890140

What mileage do you do? With a 7.4kW charge point, you get about 20kWh into the car after losses if you have a 3 hour cheap night rate slot. If the car averages say 16kWh / 100km, that means an annual mileage of over 45k km. Do you do a lot more than that?

And remember, the 5c rate and €100 bonus allow for a lot of high day rate use, before you break even compared with a much higher all day rate of say 20c or 20c

Of course it helps if you not only have an EV, but also a battery that you can charge up at night. And it would further help if you run appliances at night, heat water, run storage heater / heat pump, etc.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121890187#Comment_121890187

ID.4 could get anything from 17-22kWh/100km on a long trip depending on weather. ID.3 will do a bit better

Saw over 25kWh/100km in mine once when driving at motorway speeds against a gale with 2C outside temp and the heating on toasty settings. That was a bit painful to watch I'll admit

ColemanY2K

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121890201#Comment_121890201

50-55k per year. because of this WFH craic the majority of the mileage will be across sporadic days e.g. monday, wednesday and thursday meaning the car won't do a lot of mileage the other days, perhaps at most a cumulative 200km per week on top. i'd love to get a battery but a new kitchen is getting priority over my toys for the time being lol.

wassie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121889151#Comment_121889151

Great question for pondering. Really keen to hear other opinions.

I'd have no concerns about the battery as there is enough evidence to show that Tesla M3 batteries lasting well beyond 300K+ km.

After 120,000km and 3.5 years, most serious issues Ive had is having a bent front track rod replaced (under warranty) and ball joints replaced. 2/3 of my driving would be M and N roads. But I dont think Tesla's steering/suspension system is robust enough for the harshness of Irish R roads. These issues are well publicised and 'apparently' Tesla have addressed the issue with the latest revision of the ball joint - time will tell.

But it makes sense with any car budget for some repairs in order to reach the 200,000km mark. Coming from a Toyota I never had these issues with high milers.

SteelyDanJalapeno

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121889151#Comment_121889151

Maths checks out, you're so close to not having to stop for a charge, I'd probably look at options that would help that.

4 hours driving a day is tough, you don't wanna have to wait around for a charger aswel

zg3409

In NI, CCS, not my pic

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121893813#Comment_121893813

Reminded me of this

https://www.electrive.com/2024/03/13/renault-delivers-165-electric-trucks-to-xpo-logistics/

Biggest single order yet and includes 105 heavy trucks and 60 medium ones

This is on top of 100 electric trucks ordered by XPO in 2022

Things are picking up steam (or voltage) in electric freight

the_amazing_raisin

Also, some more electric truck news

https://www.electrive.com/2024/03/13/eu-parliament-wants-to-allow-higher-maximum-weight-for-zero-emission-lorries/

The proposal is to allow an extra 4 tonnes for electric and hydrogen trucks

I guess an extra 4 tonnes of batteries is always good, but I'm also wondering if it's needed as the current generation of electric trucks don't seem to be having any issues with weight limits

the_amazing_raisin

Okay, last one for today 😁

https://www.electrive.com/2024/03/14/bp-pulse-to-build-truck-charging-stop-in-southern-england/

20 megawatt chargers, 10x 400kW chargers and 125x 100kW chargers

I'd say there'll still be a queue 😭

I did say a few years ago that when truck charging becomes a thing it'll build up a lot faster than car charging. Truck drivers won't be happy to sit around and wait for the 1 HPC to become available and motorway services will jump on the bandwagon to ensure they have a solid customer base

I hope they upgrade some of the facilities as well, I've heard some of the horror stories from truck drivers about the quality of rest stops

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121894049#Comment_121894049

Let's do some maths on that 4 tonnes. I have some 10 year old Tesla slabs here, 5.3kWh and 26kg or thereabouts each. So 4 tonnes of those would give an extra more than 800kWh compared to what they could normally put in, taking away the engine, fuel tanks etc. of a diesel truck, probably the guts of 2 tonnes, so 400kWh, giving a total of 1.2MWh

That should give a very decent range, the Tesla Semi does 450 miles, or about 725km with a 900kWh or so pack in a hilly drive at the US speed of 60-70mph (vs European speed of no more than 90km/h)

zg3409

An post is already using a few medium trucks for Dublin - Athlone nightly trips and they have their own private CCS chargers at sorting offices. The route is very fixed and defined, the same each day so it makes.

I believe some trucks have 2 X CCS ports that are both used at the same time to double the charging rate. The batteries can be really massive and take max power from CCS chargers for hours. On CCS there are fixed amp limits on the connectors and given it's standardisation 2 X CCS makes some sense. I can imagine that set up would require specialised layout if chargers. I have seen some complaints about Dublin bus using public chargers while they were being delivered. In many cases the layout of the charger and short cables would prevent even one CCS cable being plugged in. They really need to standardise the drive through petrol pump type layout, especially at motorway services. Even Ionity has not done that in Ireland. It's very short sighted. If space is a problem then put multiple chargers overlapping but at least when quiet a truck could block the second space. With the normal Ionity layout one truck could end up blocking all chargers.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121895701#Comment_121895701

I think the planning application for the SSE hub in Ballycoolin has several truck chargers. Could be a smart move for the future considering all the businesses in the area

I imagine the majority of companies will try to have on-site charging, I imagine it'll work out cheaper in the long run, plus you minimise downtime if you can be loading the truck while it charges

obi604

Hi. I have a type 2 granny charger.

I also have a type 2 to type 1 EV adapter.

can I use this setup to charge my type 1 leaf? (Not a long term solution)

crl84

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121895769#Comment_121895769

SSE hub in Mullingar has a few spots for trucks too (albeit ground markings make them look more like car spots).

For cross-country truck trips, it might make sense in a location like Mullingar to charge for a little while, as part of the enforced driver rest periods.

https://www.plugshare.com/location/455013

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121902890#Comment_121902890

They kind of look like they're designed for smaller rigid trucks rather than HGVs

Might suit local delivery companies that don't want to splash out on their own charging equipment yet. Or sole traders who don't have a warehouse but can't really install a 50kW charger at home

JohnC.

As the official app isn't available in the Republic, do any of the other apps work to activate charges on BP Pulse chargers in NI/UK?

crl84

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121904567#Comment_121904567

Not sure about apps, but you can activate chargers on the BP website, or use Google Wallet/Apple Pay to get around the 50gbp tap limit that Irish cards can't do.