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.
Well if the chargers are broken a lot then you're really just spoilt for expensive paperweights
Having said that, I'd say Athlone has the highest ratio of chargers to population in Ireland
Thanks all for your help, the trip was extremely uneventful. We went via Carrick in the end, got there with 40% which was far more than I expected. Someone in an ID4 was leaving when we arrived so we got straight on, popped across the road for a snack and coffee and left after 40 minutes. We arrived in Belmullet with 30% SoC and I’m charging at an SCP right now so we’ll have plenty for driving around in the rain and the trip back to Dublin in a few days.
The only glitch was the MCU crashing when the charge started first time, I’ve opened a support ticket with Tesla about that. A disconnect and reboot fixed it.
Because the SoC was quite high, I never got above 80kW charge rate, it dropped to 60 after a few minutes and down to 30 after half an hour so it averaged at 43 kW/hr. At that rate, I wonder if it’s worth using the HPCPs at all, an FCP might be fine too.
The ironic thing about Ireland is we're so small that you generally only hit a low SoC close to your destination, so HPCs at the midpoint on motorway trips are a bit pointless
I find once the car hits around 60-65%, the charge rate drops below 50kW anyway…… so there’s no need to be on a HPC.
eCars and their pricing structure is a sham. The produce should be the price, and that’s it.
A sham because faster rates of charge are more expensive? Rightly so. The cost of generating that faster rate of charge is more than a slower rate of charge. Do you complain about express shipping costing more?
It gets worse in Jan when temps are hovering just above zero! But no one tells us that.....Thats when superchargers and a pre-warmed battery really come into their own.
The lack of battery pre warming in other EVs is a bit annoying tbh. It can mean a significant difference in charging time and a better user experience, and thus feedback/word of mouth, for you and I. I don't want to be told I can get 150kW and use a premium charger like ionity, only to get 60kW because it's cold.
I did consider changing from HPCP to FCP when it slowed down but I was lazy and I knew I’d only be there for another few minutes. The pricing model makes sense for their particularly odd infra rollout. If they had more HPCPs, the infra wouldn’t be so scarce and they wouldn’t need to nudge customers in the right direction. But we are where we are…
Wait what? The cost of generating that faster rate of charge is more than a slower rate of charge????
That’s a new one!
Surely it is more expensive to buy a 350kW charger than a 50kW. And those costs have to be passed on the customer to recoup the higher investment.
That’s fine, but it costs the same to generate the electricity regardless of how fast it can be delivered to a car. The initial outlay of the charger is higher, but aren’t they heavily subsidised for such things?
Its also very eCars logic to buy expensive 350kW chargers and then limit them to 150kW
The semi state monopoly conundrum will certainly throw up oddities like restricting those to 150kW after paying for 350kW units alright. eCars have been accused of undercutting the price a private operator can survive on, on this very thread.
As I incorrectly compared the grid connection waiting times for a 50kW vs a 1.4MW connection last week, the infra costs behind those delays also has to be paid for by the end user. Transporting the electricity to site as well as delivering to the car.
the generation and charger cost aren’t the real cost issues. It’s the grid connection cost is the issue, which isn’t a one off, it’s an ongoing cost.
think of it like rent, the bigger you make that grid connection the more it costs in rent for the charge point owner as ESB networks have to guarantee that 350kW can be called upon at a seconds notice. You pay extra for that privilege.
So for the provider it cost them more to deliver 50kWh’s at 350kW than it does to deliver 50kWh’s at 50kW. Exact same amount of generation but costs more to deliver it.
Yes. The machinery and infrastructure used and maintenance of that machinery and infrastructure costs more. Or are you just trolling at this stage?
No, just coming from the power generation industry, having spent 10 years installing gas & steam turbines, I can assure you that the difference in price of generating 50kW vs 150kW on machines that generate 440MW is 0
That’d be all well and good if the car was being plugged into the generator. It’s not and there are different costs in the bits in between.
Sure the sun energy is free! How can ESB justify charging anything?
That argument worked for water charges. Maybe we should start a protest 😂
a fast charger costs more for them
to buy and Install
The connection costs more. The standing charge on a 300 KVA MIC costs a lot more than a 22 KVA MIC
Interestingly, the wind and solar generators can't engage in price setting because the fuel is free and they're all generating at the same time, they just have to take whatever the market price is
It's those pricey gas generators who determine the market price of electricity
Tried to charge in frankfield again but the charger was used by the same taxi driver I met last week. Last time after 45 min he went to reconnect again as he needed "5 more min". I said fine but esb might still charge you an overstay fee He said I don't care. So today I left without a charge since a Kona was in the queue (charging on ac for some reason - I'm sure you're charged the same price as dc and I got rate of 4.8kw last time). So I was watching the charger via the app and the taxi was still charging there 55min after the start. So I presume he really doesnt care about the overstay fee. I think it has to be raised and charged on per minute basis to stop this behaviour. Also was was parked 90° to the charger.... Rant is over.
Meh, about being parked at right angles to the charger. Just indicates the unit is poorly positioned for accessibility.
Frankfield is due to get a hub upgrade (most likely just a second unit, 150kW rated) but no ETA on it (and imo the site is poorly setup to accommodate the single unit as is so I've no idea where they'll fit this second unit). Rochestown listed to get "hub" status too. Again no ETA.
Imo, first come first served for the taxi, and you having to wait is ecars fault for their slow rollout not his. For about a year now I've been saying frankfield is the busiest paid unit outside of Dublin. If my stats know it, ecars should too. Though if he's happy to take the overstay fee, why stop charging and start again? If he's regularly doing this it feels like ecars aren't catching those who plug out and plug back in again, and he knows this.
There is plenty space to drive in in line with the charger as his charging port is in front. Just bad form. I'm not sure what esb is doing to catch the offenders but it doesn't stop them. Actually he claimed that he only got the car that day I met him. He was to clued in I have to say.
I use to charge at rochestown as it was very quiet but since the changed the unit to 50kW dc 22kw ac with a faulty card reader- I can't anymore (running down the we charge credit). I 1st reported in early August then every month after that. 3 months later - still not fixed. Called esb - we know about the problem, no new update in the notes, probably the engineer is waiting for the new part , no timeline. Lame....
I presume this is Kona charging for 55 min after the taxi left after 1h.
Fee introduction for charging initially seemed to quieten down activity on charging stations. Covid restrictions for some time did so too. Since everyone’s on the move again and EV sales have increased the shortcomings of the network have really been exposed as completely inadequate.
Amazing that after installing the hub at J14 the units aren’t doing what they were promised to do by eCars.
BlackKnight do you have the stats for J14 to show the usage of the new units?
Is the problem the units, the site connection or something else? If it’s the units you’d think eCars would be aggressively harassing the manufacturer to sort it out. I doubt it’s the case myself , but don’t understand how lacklustre the quality of service is.
It will be interesting to see how the IEVOA meet-up there goes in November.
I'm with the taxi driver (wrt parking) on this one. When I've had to use that frankfield unit I've parked perpendicular to the kerb a few times. Port is on the right side of my car, and I don't like facing into the forecourt because it can often be blocked by cars filling up. Forecourt cars don't have this issue, because their pumps are correctly setup.
Should have any stats you want. What you after? Overall usage? Overall down time? Most used plug?
Over the last 7 days, there has been 3.83 days of 150kW CCS usage (across the 5 units), 20.58 hours of 50kW CCS usage, and 16.25 hours of CHAdeMO usage (across both FCP and HPC).
Over the last 7 days the 50kW CHAdeMO (combo of FCP and the HPC) has been unavailable to use for 1.14 days, the 150kW units have been unavailable for use for 1.11 days, and the 50kW CCS unavailable for use for 6.83hours.
Funny enough, the 150kW CCS with the CHAdeMO plug is in use now, so CHAdeMO is in fault state. I'd guess most that CHAdeMO outtage above is from the HPC.
Why don't you go to the airport chargers? Is less than 5km away and there are 2 units. Pricewise kinda the same.
