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.
Sure then you wouldn't need batteries at all 🙂. Might as well just use trolley buses.
I bagsy not load sharing with that, if it plugs in to the AC43 on an old ESB triple-header. 😁
No need to stop if you could charge as you go.
This article really belongs in the Random EV thoughts thread but since we're talking about electric trucks...
Some definite good and bad points in the article
Good points are that the truck was carrying 20 tonnes of oranges (they said tons in the article but since it's Europe I'm guessing it was metric tonnes)
I still struggle to find actual payload values for trucks but 20 tonnes seems good? It's certainly better than the 6 tonnes I saw some YouTube geniuses were calculating the Tesla Semi could carry
Other good point is the company ordered another 18 trucks to be delivered this year, so despite the difficulties they must see value in them (if it was one or two trucks I'd call it greenwashing)
Bad points would be the 20 charging stops needed to cover the 3,000km distance, around 150km or Leaf30 range between charging stops 😭
It also took a week instead of 4 days in a diesel truck
Partly this was because the route didn't have many truck chargers so the driver had to use lower power car chargers. Better and more powerful chargers would presumably have sped him up
Still, it shows what can be done
True, I think some smaller trucks or buses can take 44kW AC but it's definitely gone beyond what a little 7kW home charger can handle
Two packs would be simple from a charging perspective but probably difficult from a usage perspective, what happens if they're out of balance
I think 2 CCS ports wouldn't be too bad. You can control the voltage and current from each charger so they should match. You'd need some sort of regulator to smooth out any minute difference, but it doesn't seem too costly considering the truck probably costs a couple hundred grand to begin with
Having said that, a single connector being able to supply several megawatts is definitely a cleaner solution 😁
When your looking at a vehicle with a 500kWh battery that needs overnight depot charging a 22kW AC on board charger isn't going to cut it.
The Tesla Semi currently has an MCS V2 connector but it's believed it will switch to the current 3.2 version which doesn't have patent issues.
You couldnt really fit two ccs ports to be used simultaneously for mass market use. The levels of BMS and intercommunication would be expansive. Whatever about dual AC charging, dual DC charging would be very difficult to implement beyond test bed cases IMO. How does each charger know how to regulate voltage etc. Unless you had two separate packs, or two packs that were connected in parallel for use in driving but could disconnect for charging, and have a ccs connector on each side?
Surely now with eCars finally ditching the CHAdeMO standard, the writing will be on the wall for Nissan Leaf new sales.....
But I imagine most new Leaf buyers would know next to nothing about charging standards, and the Nissan sales guys will keep schtum on the whole 'whatever is currently installed is your lot.. bar the odd token EasyGo sites.'
Delighted
I need to drive Wicklow to Castlebar in a couple of weeks to arrive early morning so taking a 20min round trip off the motorway wouldn't be great. Will probably have to stop a bit early in Athlone Ionity and top up from a fairly high SOC. Would be nice to have a motorway hub between Athlone and Tuam.
If you are arriving with a high SOC, why wouldnt you top at Kinnegad with one of the easygo 50kW chargers? You would more than make up for the time by travelling the most direct route.
It's a bit weird to think of charging at 50kW through the night
I think that some tricks with MCS connectors have been spotted (Tesla Semi) and there's EU rules coming into force around providing truck charging. So we might start to see a few in the next few years
I imagine they'll be restricted to the busiest motorway routes, M1 and M7 probably
I wonder if Ecars will even bother or will it be Applegreen and the like. Given Ecars are currently being booted out of the TII sites, which are most likely the first places we'll see truck charging, then I think they'll never get the chance
Don’t forget the Doora/Kilbreckan plaza in Clare is due to be built and come online before the end of 2023, and will also have charging facilities
CCS is seen as the overnight charging standard for electric lorries. I wonder when we'll see an MCS charging station anywhere on the island.
Off topic but I was actually wondering if they'd start fitting electric trucks with two CCS ports to charge at up to 1MW from two chargers
Looks like they just came up the MCS instead
Yup a load more. Interesting that Kinnegad plaza has easy go chargers and not ecars. Could do with faster chargers there seem to get a bit of use.
Trust me, one charger is all you need for your car, although having 2 charge ports on a car might be the future of speedy charges
The 150kW in Galway plaza will run at half power if a chademo is plugged in the other side, likewise the 100kW chargers at loughrea will do the same if 2 cars plug into one unit
Yeah I had looked at the 150kW but it's the 1x 150kW vs 4x 100kW setup which is making me jealous of the Loughrea hub. Also the 150kW seems to be running slow (40-75kW, even last summer) according to plugshare.
I didn't realise that, must be a site constraint then I guess... or maybe Galway plaza might get an upgrade to something like Tuam/Loughray soon!?
That Loughrea hub is part of the Plaza group which own Galway Plaza and another hub in Tuam I think.
They obviously think there is money to be made from EV owners which is understandable when you see the price of some of the newer EVs
It's the first CCS only yes, it's not too bad really since it's Loughrea, a town that already has a 3 car "hub" at the Galway Plaza, an easygo nearby and a 50kW triple head by the council offices
There's a 150kW CCS connection at the Galway Plaza, depending on your car it could get you up and running 50% faster than the 100kW on the Athenry road
Wouldn't it be great if that Loughrea hub was in Galway Plaza, I presume there are site constraints or maybe the plaza group is causing a delay there to upgrade?
I saw a leaf owner complaining the loughrea 100kW site has no ChaDeMo cable at all now! There are other chademo options in the town but as said the easygo one seem to be offline for months.
Is this the first only CCS only esb site, looks so.
Yes, but admittedly that started when I was driving the petrol car 😂
Same reason as eCars put chargers anywhere, they've got site owners who are willing to work with them.
Its not such a little town plenty going on there pay it a visit you might like it.
I do indeed like it.. I spent plenty of time there building the power station around the corner in Tynagh many moons ago!!
Was up north at the weekend we think we have it bad charger wise here.
Did stop in Monaghan on the way up got chargers easily but queue did build up with a Mach E hogging one after fully charging.
Chargers are great but the circle K there is a kip.
Pat Mcdonagh (Mr supermac's) would have a fair bit to do with that majority of the chargers are at his establishments. I think the easygo one (located in the big award winning SuperValu) have been shut off since the 4 chargers have been put in in the new supermacs plaza next door.
Its not such a little town plenty going on there pay it a visit you might like it. You can even go for a swim in the lake while it's charging😜.
My apologies, it does make sense as 4 spaces for 2 cars to charge was excessive.
I wonder are the Delta 100kW SL100s now the default charger where there more power to play with. Its a better balance than a 150kW Delta and a 50kW like at Monaghan.
Yeah, from pulling their hair out at why a small town in Galway has so many chargers, and they have none!!
Bald?
