ESB eCars pricing introduction

Black_Knight · 19-02-2020 08:16PM

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I had to charge at the local Carlow fast charger today and went into Supermacs to have some Grub, Got notification from the ESB app about a charger error so I looked out the window and a Leaf driver had started charging so I went out and knocked on his window and said " you disconnected my charge mate" he said "no I didn't" and I said yes, you did when you started your charge it stops the other car charging"

He was convinced, or so he said, that 2 cars can charge at the same time and I said yes only 1 AC and one on DC, so that means when a Renault Zoe is charging so can a Leaf or i3. I told him it's 1 DC charger with 2 plugs and 1 AC charger/charge point, it's not 2 DC chargers so only 1 car can use DC at the same time.

So I said " well, since I was already charging when you got here, you'll have to stop your charge." He did and I continued to 75% and left.

But whether he was a chancer or not it's a disgrace that one driver can knock off the other charge, simply by plugging in and swiping. Pure Joke.

I've only ever heard of leaf drivers knocking CCS charges off, not the other way around. Though leaf drivers have probably had chargers all to themselves for years and never had to think about this.

I know when I plug in, I only get the AC43 option if another car is charging. Perhaps just plugging in CHAdeMO tricks the unit.

fricatus · 19-02-2020 10:10PM

Deleted User wrote: »

I had to charge at the local Carlow fast charger today and went into Supermacs to have some Grub, Got notification from the ESB app about a charger error so I looked out the window and a Leaf driver had started charging so I went out and knocked on his window and said " you disconnected my charge mate" he said "no I didn't" and I said yes, you did when you started your charge it stops the other car charging"

He was convinced, or so he said, that 2 cars can charge at the same time and I said yes only 1 AC and one on DC, so that means when a Renault Zoe is charging so can a Leaf or i3. I told him it's 1 DC charger with 2 plugs and 1 AC charger/charge point, it's not 2 DC chargers so only 1 car can use DC at the same time.

So I said " well, since I was already charging when you got here, you'll have to stop your charge." He did and I continued to 75% and left.

But whether he was a chancer or not it's a disgrace that one driver can knock off the other charge, simply by plugging in and swiping. Pure Joke.

You should report that to E-Cars. It should be an easy enough matter for them to see this in their logs and report the fault to the manufacturer.

If it happens to me again, I'll do the same - if enough of us report it, they'll do something about it. Now that we're paying for it, they can no longer say "it's a free service lads, suck it up".

kennethsmyth · 19-02-2020 10:32PM

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I had to charge at the local Carlow fast charger today and went into Supermacs to have some Grub, Got notification from the ESB app about a charger error so I looked out the window and a Leaf driver had started charging so I went out and knocked on his window and said " you disconnected my charge mate" he said "no I didn't" and I said yes, you did when you started your charge it stops the other car charging"

He was convinced, or so he said, that 2 cars can charge at the same time and I said yes only 1 AC and one on DC, so that means when a Renault Zoe is charging so can a Leaf or i3. I told him it's 1 DC charger with 2 plugs and 1 AC charger/charge point, it's not 2 DC chargers so only 1 car can use DC at the same time.

So I said " well, since I was already charging when you got here, you'll have to stop your charge." He did and I continued to 75% and left.

But whether he was a chancer or not it's a disgrace that one driver can knock off the other charge, simply by plugging in and swiping. Pure Joke.

Let’s not blame users that may not know about the issue, in France it splits the charge. This is ECars fault and they need to fix it or get ready to start refunding some very pissed off people

kennethsmyth · 19-02-2020 10:34PM

Black_Knight wrote: »

I've only ever heard of leaf drivers knocking CCS charges off, not the other way around. Though leaf drivers have probably had chargers all to themselves for years and never had to think about this.

I know when I plug in, I only get the AC43 option if another car is charging. Perhaps just plugging in CHAdeMO tricks the unit.

Yep it’s the plugging in that does it - also it goes either way, ccs on chademo plugs in or chademo on ccs plugs in so it’s not leaf owners just whatever user plugs in. My one was an ipace plugging in

20-02-2020 07:30AM

kennethsmyth wrote: »

Let’s not blame users that may not know about the issue, in France it splits the charge. This is ECars fault and they need to fix it or get ready to start refunding some very pissed off people

Oh I didn’t blame the chap but at the same time there are a lot of sly gits out there who know exactly what they’re doing and play the innocent, but of course I still can’t show any form of aggression because the person genuinely may not know about the issue.

20-02-2020 07:35AM

fricatus wrote: »

You should report that to E-Cars. It should be an easy enough matter for them to see this in their logs and report the fault to the manufacturer.

If it happens to me again, I'll do the same - if enough of us report it, they'll do something about it. Now that we're paying for it, they can no longer say "it's a free service lads, suck it up".

I have reported it before.

ELM327 · 20-02-2020 10:27AM

This happened me in coynes cross before.
Same as, got notification, ran out, pesky leaf had plugged in the chademo without swiping his card and it ended my charge.
I stopped his charge and had to call ecars to reset the unit and reccomence my charge.

kennethsmyth · 20-02-2020 10:37AM

ELM327 wrote: »

This happened me in coynes cross before.
Same as, got notification, ran out, pesky leaf had plugged in the chademo without swiping his card and it ended my charge.
I stopped his charge and had to call ecars to reset the unit and reccomence my charge.

Ahh ha... This gives more info on what is happening. Like most users I plug in before i swipe card (its probably wrong but human nature is plug in then tell machine to send the killer electrons!)
Obviously I do this when no one else is plugged in - i knew about only one dc working so i have never plugged in while another car is charging.

This means that the actual plugging in of the other dc head (chad or ccs) is causing a spike or something that interuppts for a split second.

I noticed that the ccs handshake takes longer than the chademo, or at least it did with the ipace beside me and its possible more ccs people are swiping prior to plugging so therefore less likely to knock off a chademo. Whereas the chademo group probably plug first swipe second.

Or i could be talking a load of bs.

ELM327 · 20-02-2020 10:49AM

That is only my theory... but... since I was charging on CCS, if he swiped his card he would have seen only "fast ac" anyway.

I think the comms part of the ecars software is crap. This doesnt happen on these efacec units elsewhere in the world

MJohnston · 20-02-2020 01:17PM

Part of the problem is with the new ESB app:

If you open that screen, I guarantee that most people will think that they have to connect the charger before swiping - the smaller text below the big blue action is going to get ignored most of the time.

And if you see that, you'll start doing it at all the charging points, even before you've got your phone out to look at the app.

Which means that you won't see that you can't activate because someone is using the other DC charger. Which means you'll kick the other DC charger off, without knowing you're doing something wrong.

Black_Knight · 20-02-2020 02:20PM

Did I see somewhere that someone had a note/sign they could attach to the other DC head stating that only 1 DC can charge at a time etc. etc. , so when they started charging up, they'd stick the note on and walk away.

mp3guy · 20-02-2020 11:19PM

I was at a fast charger today with just a Leaf using the DC, on the app it said both DC ports were occupied despite just the one being plugged in. This seems contrary to others experience?

Kramer · 21-02-2020 12:02AM

I haven't seen a car charging at my nearest fast charger for ages - I think there literally is moss growing on it

. The utilisation must be tiny, maybe 1%, an hour or two per week.

There is no way any private company would consider investing with that level of return. This is at just 29c/kWh :eek:.

Then I passed & saw this...........

Black_Knight · 21-02-2020 06:25AM

mp3guy wrote: »

I was at a fast charger today with just a Leaf using the DC, on the app it said both DC ports were occupied despite just the one being plugged in. This seems contrary to others experience?

Not occupied, but both DC ports were unavailable for use, since only one can be used at a time.

21-02-2020 01:18PM

I drove nearly 400 Kms yesterday in the i3, airport run, back home then another Dublin trip. The weather setting off at 4:30 am was atrocious, heavy rain, wind and lots of surface water and about 7 deg C.

Got back to the new charging "hub" on the M9 and charged to 95%, i put back 28.5 Kwh into the battery which tells me that if I plugged in at 7% and finished at 95% and put in, according to the charger 28.5 that I must have lost no battery capacity at all in 3 years and 80,400 Kms, that's pretty impressive I have to say, the battery kappa max is back to 29.1 Kwh usable, but I feel from that there is more than 29 Kwh usable. But it shows no loss in battery capacity and that's amazing.

God Bless the Rex too, I drove pretty fast and needed to use it, lots of surface water have an impact on range but Rex saves the day again.

Airport charger was as usual in use, a Leaf charging at 10 Kw according to the charger so I said to myself, I'm not hanging around here, it's getting too close to rush hour so went on and fired up the Rex near Naas.

Trip back to Dub was done all on battery, needed to charge on the m9 again, I didn't need to go so fast and the roads were wet in places with sleet and hail showers and 3 Deg C.

Highest battery temp I saw with 2 Good fast charges and fast driving was 28. something deg C.

There was no slow down in charging speed either with pre-heated battery + driving fast.

After 2nd trip got back to M9 "hub" and there was a leaf parked in EV bay but not charging, I plugged in at free charger and another Leaf came and used the other bay and started charging, however, if a Zoe came, the leaf that was plugged in not charging would be blocking it from charging. I wouldn't mind only there was tonnes of parking spaces.

I would hate to be a Zoe owner trying to explain that if there is 1 car using DC and another car waiting that the car waiting should move to allow the Zoe to charge, I would hate to have to try explain that to someone waiting.......

liamog · 21-02-2020 02:07PM

One of the days I was at a charger, the person remote disconnected just before the overstay fee. Took them another 15 mins to make it back to their car.
Very tempted to phone eCars at dob her in.

MJohnston · 21-02-2020 03:01PM

Had another frustrating experience with ESB’s charging cable length today. This was a charge point on the N2 Finglas Road, which is a FCP, but only has a single marked bay for parking in.

This was occupied by a woman in a Leaf who then proceeded to spend ten minutes on the phone to eCars because she couldn’t figure out how to work the charger.

I was going to just plug into the AC43 while she wasted her time, but of course, with the i3 the cable was about half a metre short of reaching the charging port.

I really wish ESB hadn’t cheaped out on what appear to be the shortest charging cables possible.

ELM327 · 21-02-2020 03:24PM

liamog wrote: »

One of the days I was at a charger, the person remote disconnected just before the overstay fee. Took them another 15 mins to make it back to their car.
Very tempted to phone eCars at dob her in.

That's very annoying.
Surely they can apply the fee when the car is connected but not charging, too?
Like the Tesla overstay fee

Kramer · 21-02-2020 05:52PM

ELM327 wrote: »

Surely they can apply the fee when the car is connected but not charging, too?

Naa, too complicated that.
KISS is the appropriate acronym when it comes to ECars

.

Stay charging 46 minutes & you get hit (rightly) with an overstay fee.
Plonk your ICE or van or non connected EV across the bay(s), completely blocking the charger = zero consequences :rolleyes:.

mp3guy · 21-02-2020 06:01PM

Kramer wrote: »

Naa, too complicated that.
KISS is the appropriate acronym when it comes to ECars .

Stay charging 46 minutes & you get hit (rightly) with an overstay fee.
Plonk your ICE or van or non connected EV across the bay(s), completely blocking the charger = zero consequences :rolleyes:.

You'd love to see some initiative in enforcement, like ANPR at the stations that automatically send out fines to ICE cars parked there.

Dempsey · 21-02-2020 09:15PM

Was at a FCP the other day, Tesla on it. In fairness he only was charging enough to get to J3. I plugged in afterwards and went into get some food, another Tesla had come along and plugged into the AC. Got just enough charge to get home.

Could Teslas kindly f off :pac:

ELM327 · 24-02-2020 09:54AM

No.

Kramer · 24-02-2020 01:13PM

Dempsey wrote: »

Could Teslas kindly f off :pac:

ELM327 wrote: »

No.

Tesla privilege

.

ELM327 · 13-07-2020 11:55AM

McGiver wrote: »

I'm in, I'll just expand it

"I am saying by 31 December 2020 stats to show as the BEV fleet (not including HEV/PHEV) will be 50% +1 or higher, capable of charging at >50kW."
If that condition is met, you must donate 10€ to a charity of my choosing.
If that condition is not met, I must donate 10€ to a charity of your choosing.
The donator shall provide proof online of said donation.

So this is the bet.

MJohnston · 13-07-2020 12:42PM

Worst possible year to do that bet!

scudodave · 22-12-2020 07:28PM

ecars have started to charge a monthly fee of 4.60 as the introductory offer has run out,I was unable to change to pay as you go on the ecar site but I was able to change by phoning ecars,they require 20 euro credit from a card, no refund on unused membership

I only used the ecars chargers on 3 occasions during 2020 so membership makes no sense for me.

postsnthing · 22-12-2020 07:46PM

scudodave wrote: »

ecars have started to charge a monthly fee of 4.60 as the introductory offer has run out.

Sneaky they send no notification they are beginning billing. Not able to reach them on their 247 customer care line rings and goes to voicemail / disconnects

Eventually got through and looks like they have caught me for 2 months no usage, no notification, and haven't received a bill yet all very strange. Just oh the contract states...

ewj1978 · 24-12-2020 12:22PM

aye, seen it on my app. Sneaky bastids.

darrenheaphy · 26-12-2020 04:10PM

Using the ESB fast charger this evening in a quiet area, is there a way to avoid the overstay fee? Like could I stop and start the charge point after 40 minutes via the app?

Bixler3 · 26-12-2020 04:32PM

darrenheaphy wrote: »

Using the ESB fast charger this evening in a quiet area, is there a way to avoid the overstay fee? Like could I stop and start the charge point after 40 minutes via the app?

Exactly, just stop the charge after 45 minutes and then restart.

ESB eCars pricing introduction

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