The key elements include six high speed charging hubs on motorways capable of charging eight vehicles simultaneously; 16 high speed charging hubs capable of charging four vehicles simultaneously; additional high power chargers at 34 current 50 kW locations; upgrading over 50 22 kW chargers to 50 kW, and replacing up to 264 locations with 528 charge points at the pre-existing pilot grade of 22 kW to next generation high reliability models.
Now that would be a backwards step 😬
Oh ffs that's insane. It's Ionity and 3 pin charging for our trips around this island from now on. F*ck this nonsense.
Sunday morning. We decided to go to Ardgillan castle which is about 140 km return. The car is charged at about 40% which could get me there but I'd like some buffer. So I checked ecars. I better overshoot to Ionity which adds another 15 km than face this
Dublin really is flush with DC chargers isn’t it….. and everyday I see more and more EV taxi’s on the road!!!!
of course you could always stop off at the largest eCars hub in the country for a slow top up……
Haha, 2 hours free parking and a cinema, with Krispy Kreme coming soon 😁
Dublin alone got 3800 new EVs this year on top of the 3600 which were registered in 2019-2020. Is the same period since this thread started and we wrote 4.5k posts about the subject. Dublin got 1 DC charger since and that it is a replacement of an AC unit. So 7400 new cars vs 1 new charger.
Ended up going to City North Ionity as the friends we were suppose to meet said they want to switch to an EV soon and wanted a demo so figured I can do that while charging. Stayed 20 mins and charged 32kwh. We didn't need to stay that much but time flies when you're having fun. Must say both Ionity were occupied when I left so even 2 are not enough. The difference with Ionity is that the turnaround is much faster.
City North is a bit of a joke by Ionity standards, only 2 chargers and one of them seems to break a lot from what I've seen
Hopefully they put another 2 units in to bring it to the same level as the rest
They're still way ahead of anything ESB have rolled out though
Sites in Ireland where 4 cars can fast charge simultaneously;
Ionity: 5 sites
Tesla: 5 sites
eCars: 1 site.
If you define fast as above 50kW then ESB is back down to 0 since Mayfield is 3 HPCs and a 50kW (unless I've misremembered again)
The 3 HPC’s can allegedly each charge 2 cars at once, but it’s been very hit and miss…
I’d say they look at Dublin and say everyone can charge at home. No need for fast charging, tourists can charge at hotels , others can slow charge while going about business
Blanch Sc will have the first HPC for Dublin. Or at least this is the hope. There is an announcement of upgrade works on their FB page starting Monday next.
They confirmed it in a subsequent reply. I wonder though will the 150kW unit be limited to 50kW?
Also, Blanchardstown Shopping Centre........ This is where the 3 spaces where 4 cars can charge will haunt them (haunt us EV Drivers really as eCars don't care).
Can almost guarantee one of those 3 spots being occupied by someone on AC for hours on end, as there's no overstay on AC.. rendering at least 1 of the DC plugs useless...
The solution there is to move the pedestrian entrance to the left and allow for 4 EV spaces. Can be done with minimum effort. Considering the HPC costs whats 75k?
The solution is to not offer slow AC charging at fast units. Put in some dedicated AC units at their own locations and give yourself a bonus for an ingenious idea.
Anyone else think Blanchardstown for 150kW is a bit of a crazy idea. It's horrible to get in and out of for a quick top up, and probably better suited to slower fast charging, or maybe Ecars just want the overstay fee.
100% a terrible location for a 'Tier 1' hub with 150kW unit........
Go out the N/M3 about 2km beyond Blanchardstown and you have the brand new shiny M3 Services, with not a charger in site.
Anyone coming into Dublin from the NW direction, stops in for a nice top up before entering the M50...... but no, eCars logic is queue for 30 minutes to get to the 'hub' then queue up for another 30 minutes to get back on the N3.....
They're a fcuking joke at this stage. They really are a fcuking joke.
My advice to anyone asking me if they should buy an EV... NO (unless its a Tesla). The network is getting smaller by the day in relation to number of EV's on the roads.
LoL, good luck getting a charge there anytime around XMas/busy weekends, will be ICED for sure
September Update
CCS/CHAdeMO split
My stats say, over the last 2 weeks:
CHAdeMO has been occupied 30.4% of the time. (11.78 weeks of use) (down 1.1%)
CCS the other 69.6% of the time (26.92 weeks of use)
Unit counts
0 Ultra fast chargers (ESB downgraded them to FAST)
76 Fast charge units installed (ESB for some reason reclassified loads of Fast units to SCP - they've slowly moved a few back ???)
588 Slow charge AC units installed (ESB moved loads of FCP to SCP for some unknown reason - they've slowly moved a few back ???)
283 of the newer 22kW AC units are now in place.
112 of the old units yet to be replaced, and 11 of those single socket AC units to be replaced too.
AC updates to the new Evolve Smart T unit
Adelaide Street, Belfast, Antrim
Public Parking, Palace Demense Park (A3), Off Friary Road (A3), Armagh, Armagh
DRD Car Park, Abbey Lane, Off Linenhall Street, Armagh, Antrim
Public Car Park, Quay Street, Bangor, Down
BCC Car Park, Cromac Street, Belfast, Antrim
BCC Car Park, Hope Street North/Bruce Street, Belfast, Antrim
BCC Car Park, Little Donegall Street, Belfast, Antrim
Tourist Office Car Park, Market Street (R173), Carlingford, Louth
Lower Crescent, Belfast, Antrim
Riverdale, Off High Street, Larne, Antrim
DRD Car Park, Benson Street, Lisburn, Antrim
Public Car Park, Bridge Street, Newry, Down
Hill Street, Newry, Down
AC units upgraded to DC - 38 of the 50 delivered Bit of a vague number, this is 38 of those units installed, but they're being installed at the "hubs" too.
New FCP
Texaco (Mace & Supermacs), N4, Ballinalack, Westmeath X2
Londis O'Briens Mullingar, Lynn Rd, Ballinderry, Mullingar, Westmeath, Ireland
Public Car Park, N67-Milltown Malbay Road, Lahinch, Clare
Something i've never really reported on before, the Tethered Type 2 usage is up at 7.62 weeks over the last 2 weeks of usage. Not far behind the 11.78 weeks of CHAdeMO usage, and type 2 tethered is end of life from ecars. From what I have there are 125 Chademo units, and 73 TYPE 2 tethered. Per unit that's pretty even usage.
I'd totally recommend an electric car to anyone, but as always, not if they'll regularly have to public charge. Ours (not a tesla) suits all our needs and covers 300-450km on a charge. I've public charged on it out of embarrassment of plugging into my parents house for 30 hours, and both times I had zero queues. I public charged at Decathlon with no queue. Ionity Athlone with no queue. So for someone like me, i'd completely recommend an electric car.
There probably wont be any more AC at those spots though.
AC is a dead standard at FCP and is not being installed at the HPCs
yeah, maybe if public charging will be a rarity, but by the time next summer rolls around, there’ll be another 10,000+ EV’s on the road…. So even that rare charging occasion could be a pain in the hoop if you need to wait 45-90 minutes to just get on the charger….
the most common upgrade eCars are doing is changing some sites from 1x CCS & 1x CHAdeMO to 2xCCS & 2CHAdeMO sites, so basically doubling capacity at random sites that previously had a single 50kW unit… all of which have a serious flaw in that they don’t have a dedicated AC charging space….
I don't have to. Just take them for a spin on the slip at exit 13 joining M50 northbound
It is being installed though…. The 50kW units they are installing beside the 150kW units all have an AC (bring your own cable) socket on them…..
This is the newly installed Ballacolla hub…..
22kW AC as standard at these new sites….
I can park in any of the 3 spaces, and get my cable out and AC charge there for many hours if I so choose.
I know id be fairly alone in doing so, but if I were AC charging at those places, I'd park outside of those 3 bays if I could, and run my cable to the unit. Same with the standalone circontrol raption 50 units
I saw a charger online somewhere recently where it had a cable on each corner. This allowed for 4 vehicles to charge ie 1 at each corner. Would this not work here on the HPC's or is that too much like common sense?
Anyone do Dublin -> Belfast regularly? Am set for the ferry at silly o clock on Wednesday morning and am trying to figure out best spot to get a 'guaranteed' charge at before the ferry.
Had a look at ecars-stats and looks likes most chargers beyond Dundalk are either extremely rarely available / broken. Best bet to get my last juice @ Dundalk and then top up again straight across the other side?
Yes, see plugshare for status. You don't mention car and range. Newry has no CCS and ChaDeMo is broken long time. I would allow loads of extra time to charge and queue if needed and even slow charge near Ferry to board ferry with lots of range. Many many chargers in NI are broken so check plugshare app
Ioniq28. Reckon i can charge back to 80% at dundalk and make Belfast port with 25/30% left of juice. Will get topped up somewhere in Scotland just after getting back off the ferry hopefully!
yes, you juist need to remember in your head that there are no fast chargers north of the border in NI. If it were me, and I have an Ioniq 28 also, I'd probably charge to 90 at castlebellingham as it would be cold in the morning and the Ioniq28 loses some of its amazing efficiency in the cold