Random EV thoughts.....

Nothing really new here from a technical standpoint, it's just a covered channel the cable sits into

Basically the problems with on-street charging were never technically challenging, they just required either funding for public chargers or councils to change their planning laws

Methinks obtaining blood from a rock would be an easier feat that either of those two 😑

I know but even if scaled for population (Ireland is about 1/20th the population of Germany) that's give us 50 charging hubs with at least 200 fast chargers, more than double what we currently have

I get that Germany is geographically larger and has a lot of international road traffic as well as domestic road users, but even if we halved that for Ireland it would still be €50 million of funding, more than twice what is currently available

The thing I find most frustrating is the level of thought going into the plans in Germany, how they're taking measures to ensure the chargers are well spread along both autobahns and urban areas. Whereas in Ireland we have the vast majority on HPCs clustered along 2 routes and a veritable wasteland of chargers in the entire northwest of the country

Just received this email from EasyGo (highlighting is not mine). I thought the eCars overstay fee only applied once per session?

Dear xyz

As you know, we continue to provide access onto all EasyGo, ESB and Ionity / Circle K chargers across Ireland. 

Where EasyGo customers charge at partner sites, we are obliged to apply the fee according to the access rules they apply on their chargers. The rates applicable at each charge-point location are clearly set out on the EasyGo app. 

We have had questions recently in regard to ESB policy of applying an overstay fee (of €5 +VAT) where users continue charging on ANY eCars Charger (AC & DC) for more than 45 minutes and for every 45 minutes thereafter. This charger access rule and associated fee is decided upon and applied by ESB.  

By comparison, where you use an EasyGo charger, no such rule and associated fee is applied.  

Should you have questions or issues in relation to this ESB policy, we suggest you contact ESB eCars directly. 

We hope this information is helpful and should ESB eCars change this policy we will update you.

Kindest Regards,

EasyGo Team

“the cables are six-metres-long and spring-loaded, so they’re easy to lift and should reach the far corner of your car no matter which way you park – no more awkward U-turns having realised that the cable doesn’t reach! The “dispensers” are very compact, so they can be installed in more locations than some conventional chargers, and the cables’ temperature management negates the need for liquid cooling, reducing maintenance requirements and improving reliability.”

I think Kempower deserve a prize for the design of the charge points if nothing else. The way the cables are kept high up by springs and don't fall on the ground to end up damaged is pure genius

I must admit I never heard this excuse before and it is a good one. In the meantime Dublin charging map looks like this Sunday morning @08:00

The available ones are "power limited" so if you're lucky you get 22kW out of them. I refer here to Honey Park and Templeville. Dublin Port is just to cumbersome unless you're getting of a ferry but it is close to ecars headquarters.

Dublin beside being one of the few capitals in EU without a subway does not have a single HPC. we're still on the same rapids as in 2016. Some people are waking up @3am to charge, it seems here

which kinda shows a bit of desperation if you ask me.

Now that I'm thinking I believe I heard the excuse that we are among the few countries in the EU where we pay VRT up to 36% just because there is no automotive industry here. So maybe not that new at the end.

I would have thought that the government would be incentivised to reduce import of hydrocarbons? Every additional EV would probably reduce HC import by about 10 tons over its lifetime. 20,000 km p.a. @ 5l/100km over 15 odd years. Take away the HC used for electricity generation and you get in that ballpark. 100k EVs per annum will reduce hydrocarbon import by a million tons over their lifetime.

Yes it is odd alright. Still the charger is used at all hours of the day all the days of the week. You'd normally expect no utilization during the night on the fast chargers. That shows a big demand in the area. I used to use this charger a lot.

Here is yesterday @2pm. That is pretty mental.

From your stats. around 1000 sessions per day right now. A session gets max 10 quid but let call it 5. That is 5k a day or 150k a month. And this is only the rapid charging. I know there are operating costs but still is not bleeding money for a business which got 10M to revamp their operations. Anyway all that could have been avoided if the gov really wanted to build an infrastructure to sustain the desired 1M EVs on the road. Because even if we believe the "80% charging at home" and 20k km average driving in a year that still leaves 4 billion km to be "fueled" buy a public network (Monday morning my math could be off 20k*1M*0.2).

Also in UK, Shell aim to install 50,000 on-street charge points. Earlier in the year, they bought Ubitricity, who are a supplier of local authority charge points. They currently have a network of 3,600 in lamp posts and bollards. This is to expand that. The government pay 75% of the installation costs of these for local authorities. Shell/Ubitricity will pay the rest (subject to commercial terms, of course).

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/sep/01/shell-on-street-ev-charge-points-2025

That must be a recent development. I used one of those about 2 weeks ago and there was an ID.4 on the 350kW side and I was on the 200kW side and we were both charging. It was busy the same day with some of the other units with both cables being used too.

How many years does a battery on an EV last? Will it just die eventually like a phone? Does that render the car useless or is getting a new battery installed simple?