Random EV thoughts.....

I might be wrong but to me there seems to be a slight whiff of I'm alright Jack off this and let those for whom new EVs don't work eat cake. Possibly a utopian sentiment given the view expressed in last para

I think some of the EU manufacturerers may be supplying europe already. HGV drivers have regulated drving hours so in theory they could work well but on road charging is important.

Applications where the vehicle is back to base each night and can be fully charged for the morning they make perfect sense especially if covering a local area as kms covered isn't a problem. They are ideal fo An Post, Amazon, local couriers covering set routes etc.

The downside is that the E-Transits L3 H3 payload is down 400kg over the equivalent ICE which could be a consideration for some users. I guess trucks may suffer similar in terms of load capacity, it will be an issue for some but not others.

Volvo are already supplying HGVs and other trucks to EU market

Mercedes definitely have a medium truck, might have a HGV ready to roll as well

Traton group also have medium trucks available and HGVs in the works

I think the biggest problem is how tight lipped all the manufacturers including Tesla are being about payload

I haven't been able to find it written down anywhere for any HGVs

I saw some YouTube genius work out the Tesla semi had a max payload of 6 tonnes which is apparently half what a typical HGV will carry

I definitely agree a bit of a reduction is worthwhile for the fuel savings, but of its a 50% drop in payload then it might make some buyers think twice

But where does that leave the car owners whose used ices are at end of life and need to upgrade?

Grand but what your saying is that someone driving an old knackered ICE must just keep driving it until they can afford a new or used EV. At this point new EVs are in very short supply and used EVs are way over priced due to lack of supply.

I would agree with your last paragraph but I would add in 'In a ideal world'

Surely the elephant in the room for private EV ownership is charging. It's a hard slog if you don't own your own house with a driveway. Giving the housing crisis in Ireland, surely apartments and high density housing in cities is the future. What do you do if you live upstairs in a duplex or apartment block?

I keep half an eye on some YouTube channels and the UK councils seem to be making great strides in rolling out 'neighbourhood' charging points along residential streets and in lamp posts. Some even allow digging a small trench from your house to the kerbside for your charging cable. "Build it and they will come" (with their new EV's) seems to be their attitude. We're doing the exact opposite in Ireland.

And just to make a small point about commercial EVs mentioned above. My brother travels the country doing crazy miles in a diesel min-van. He works with large multi-nationals on equipment worth millions of euro. He would be out of business by the end of the week if he started turning up 2 or 3 hours late because he had to stop and use the only AC charger in the local town/village. He (and most other travelling businesses) need to know with absolute confidence that they can travel from A to B without any obstacles. I would suggest they need real HPC hubs dotted along the motorways etc in Ireland.

Would most of these multinationals not have banks of chargers? The last 4 I've worked all do. There are DC chargers on most motorways already, obviously more are needed though.

There are grants (recent development) for apartment blocks etc to install chargers. It's only a plug at the end of the day shouldn't be as complicated as we make it. Bit of joined up thinking needed for residents in built up areas with on strett parking only, e.g. chargers in local shops, church car parks, parks or any other car parks that are normally empty overnight etc .. for overnight charging. For urban dwellers most of them would only need to charge once a week or so.

For service agents and mechanics etc in commercials it's a totally different practical use compared to a privately owned passenger car.

Colleague of mine has a company Hilux and does 1,200km per week, vehicle cost for BIK is €36k. Not his vehicle so if it was an electric Hilux all charging may well be public adding extra grid demand during peak times. Value of a notional electric Hilux for BIK, maybe €60k? Why would he choose electric and be worse off, or commercial BIK would have to be waived as an incentive.

Consuming over 35kWh/100km in winter could be a real world motorway range of 200kms. Could be starting each day with 50% battery might need 3 charges that day if doing a long run. Some days he does 600km so days 120km. Does the company install a home charger and pay for the leccy? Will a separate meter be needed for this, and then the employee up and leaves the company!

I don't think the commercial fleet can be electrified unless they can charge in under 5 minutes, which is solid state not yet widely available technology. A large capacity PHEV or my beloved REX would just be ran on petrol the whole time in reality.

DHL and DPD bought several electric long haul trucks, so the model must work somehow?

Ah sorry, I saw unkel and raisin's posts about EU limits/roads and I thought the context of the discussion was broader than Ireland.

Not going to happen. And if the mean Irish Government attempted it, it would be a complete disaster. It can't be done without synergistic massive infrastructure development, both charging as well as the grid, energy storage and power generation etc. The Gov won't do it unless forced to do it by an international treaty or the EU. The EU has it set to 2035. So that's what their playing and hoping it will be postponed. There are currently 5 EU countries that are pushing for extension to 2040 (Bulgaria, Romania, Italy, Portugal and Slovakia).

The crunch time is coming, the government will have to invest massively in the energy transition. It appears that they didn't get it or got it and want to keep avoiding it until the last minute. The latter will make the situation much worse and it will cost much the taxpayer more than if the investment started now (or in the past). The Gov wants to cheapskate it and it won't work anymore - there are no cheap skates 😎

The overall taxation (income+consumption+social taxes) is very low in the EU comparison (in average) so either taxes go up or the Gov has to borrow. The latter is not recommended with 110% debt:GNI...

The money is needed either for direct investment or for tax exemptions for private players to make it happen. There's no cheap way out. How the Gov used to deploying cheap-easy solutions is going tackle that... I don't know.