ESB eCars pricing introduction

Is it just me that does not really understand how to use the ESB rapid chargers from Monday 18th Nov onwards?

I was already registered with an 'old card' which worked fine. I re-registered on the ESB website last week and entered the number for my old card, got a confirmation email, replied to it (no answer), but see from the ESB website that my account is set up, complete with my debit card info. I even see that charges that I made in the last month or two are recorded under my account, with zero cost. So far so good.

Now - my questions - to ESB or to any Board participant that knows, or thinks they know, any of the answers -

a) Is there any physical change to the charger hardware being installed? That is, when I go across to my nearest fast charger, on the N2 North outside of Monaghan town, will I notice anything different there at all? My presumption is NO.

b) When I go to that charger today, I place my 'old card' over the reader, and the machine instructs me to proceed, I can leave my car there for as long as I feel like- if I had no care for other users, (although the connector automatically disconnects when car almost completely charged). When I go to that same charger on Monday 18th, what happens? will I notice anything different? or do I just scan my same 'old ESB card' wait until told to connect, connect up and the car starts charging. And, when I log in to my ESB account some time later, I will see that I have been charged so much for so many kWh used at that charger. Is that the way it will work? If that is correct, why do ESB eCars not make that clear, or have they and I have just missed seeing it?

c) related to the above I suppose, but if the answer to the above is YES, that is the way it will work, then I assume that I DO NOT NEED to travel with my DEBIT card or show it to the machine when I need a charge - the only card I will need is the same old trusty ESB card that I was issued with over a year ago? If this is the case, I wonder why ESB have chosen to base their charging system on debit cards rather than storing bank details? Also, I registered my wife's debit card on my account as well as my own, my own is listed as 'default' or something - so I assume that my card will be charged whenever the ESB charge card is read, and my wife's car will only be charged if I change the 'default' online. And what happens if my debit card has insufficient funds to pay for the charge? will the charge be refused? or will an attempt be made to charge the 'secondary' card that I have registered?

c) What about the 'overstay' charge, is that also being implemented on Monday 18th Nov? So, if I leave my car at that same Monaghan charger on Monday for say 90 minutes, will I find that there is an additional overstay charge debited to my account?.

So using any RFID has worked in the past, was this resolved or will it just not work anymore from Monday?

Northumberland wrote: »

I say this because my new online ESB e-cars account has a record of my charging activity over the last two months.

How did you see this information? When I go into https://myaccount.esbecars.com and access Profile > Charge History, there's nothing listed for the period (which is set to all of 2019).

In fairness, the last time I used a public charger was 28 October, but if they started gathering the information two months ago, as your data seems to suggest, some public charger use should show in my record.

Maybe I have a "stealth card" and will be able to charge for free!

ive a possible dumb question.

in work we have ecars 7kw points, activated by the ecard card.

are they going to be charged, no one in works seems to know, and our rep hasn't gotten back to us on it

Just looked again at the new ecars charging map online, which will perhaps be what will appear on the App when it is finally released. Is it just me again, or have others noticed?. On the new map, with complex colour coding, I found it impossible to quickly determine where the fast chargers were compared to all chargers. It is only when you click on a selected charger that you learn what it's capacity is. This seems to me to be a backward step. On the old ecar connect, map, which I still have on my ipad, the single most useful thing for me is to see the location of the CHAdeMO DC 50kW chargers in clear blue colour and the rest of the Type-2 AC Socket 22kW chargers in a clear green colour. If others agree that this functionality has been lost on the new map which is online, perhaps there is a way to communicate this to eCars before they finalise the app? Or is this possibly a deliberate move to 'hide' the location of the fast chargers for some reason?

Thanks, obvious once you know! I have never seen an icon showing a funnel as the toggle for showing the FILTER to select different types of charger, but remember my chemistry days now, filter funnel!

With reference to my earlier questions about how exactly to start a charge on a fast charger as from next Monday, my confusion was increased by the bold statement on the online map - CONNECT CHARGE CABLE, SWIPE TO CHARGE? Swipe what I am thinking, my debit card, my ESB card, swipe it where? But the video makes it clear, you are supposed to swipe across the 'app' on your smartphone to start the charge - very good - but it does not look like the app will be available by Monday, so in the meantime, use the old charge card, tap on the machine as before. Now I get it, I think!

Mickeroo wrote: »

Is that still working on the rapid chargers?

I’ve used it only on rapids. I’ve never got stuck needing it for a destination charger.

Northumberland wrote: »

No, Black Knight, I am not trolling - just trying to understand what I will have to do next Monday or Tuesday stuck at a fast charger in the cold and rain and hoping to start charging. I thought it might be better to learn as much as I can from my desk. OK, I see the nice big CONNECT AND SWIPE TO START slider on the new ESB online map when you select the charger. So, it looks like that IF I have a good internet connection when I am at the fast charger, and I can download the new ESB map on my phone or ipad at that time, i can plug the car in and swipe to charge - great, I will try it. But my understanding is that the new ESB app has not been released yet, just checked and it still seems to be the old one, with no Swipe to Charge, so we are still waiting for that, which will presumably be more convenient than having to download from the ESB website each time you want to charge - or stop charging. In the meantime seems more practical to just use the card I suppose.

I've found a bug. You can swipe the thingy even though you're not connected. It will make the charger stuck for a while (I'd say 1 minute) and it will show it as occupied as well in the meantime...not smart.