... adding that in-car karaoke machines and the ability to craft avatars were among trends its China-based software division Cariad was developing.
Ahh.. Give me strength! They are looking at flipping avatars! They need to focus on the basics like sorting out OTA and scheduled charging, not karaoke for the Chinese!!!
That's the verdict, and I'll grant them that finding a charger with the Leaf satnav is basically useless
However they were able to use the app for the car, implying some level of technical awareness
And if you were sitting at a charger for 3 hours would you not once try googling chargers nearby and suddenly find zap map or an equivalent?
Pure user error, and like I said I sympathise. But there's no story about inadequate charging networks there either
Karaoke and avatars…..
https://www.ft.com/content/64b52fa1-6db9-48ae-86fb-69c15f346a9e
VW ramps up investments in electric car transition with €180bn injection
Money will be used over next five years to produce batteries and fund expansion in US and China VW chief Oliver Blume aims to use investments to strengthen the carmaker’s position in China despite pressure to diversify supply chains and sales away from the country
Volkswagen is ramping up its investments in electric vehicles, committing €180bn over the next five years to manufacture its own batteries and expand in the world’s biggest markets in the US and China. It is a 13 per cent increase on last year’s pledge of €159bn with just over two-thirds of the money set aside for the transition to electric vehicles and software as the car increasingly becomes a connected device, where the smartphone links with the functions in the vehicle.
Chief executive Oliver Blume said the world’s second-largest carmaker by volume would use the investment to target growth in “key markets”, adding that 2023 would be a “decisive year” for the group. Despite pressure to diversify both supply chains and sales away from China following rising geopolitical tensions, VW aims to use investments to strengthen its position in the country, where it makes half its profits. It has taken the view that China is unlikely to invade Taiwan in the short term because of the shock this would cause to its own economy, according to one person who has been part of internal discussions.
Blume said that VW had to “listen to the Chinese customer more strongly”, adding that in-car karaoke machines and the ability to craft avatars were among trends its China-based software division Cariad was developing. An in-car avatar would be like a passenger that could be used to visually give the driver guidance and assistance on directions and hazards.
The German carmaker’s announcement comes as the industry steps up the switch from combustion engines to battery-powered vehicles. VW has gone further than rivals with plans to not only assemble batteries but also manufacture cells. It recently announced plans to build an electric vehicle plant in the US and a supporting battery factory in Canada, lured by US president Joe Biden’s $369bn package of subsidies and tax incentives for green energy in the Inflation Reduction Act. Blume said on Tuesday that he had hashed out plans with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, welcoming the country’s approach to investment “risk sharing” as it agreed to offer VW tax incentives based on sales. The owner of brands such as Porsche, Škoda and Audi also revealed it had taken a €2bn hit related to the sale of its business in Russia.
They must have used the sat nav in the car.
Good old Andy calling out The Sun for it's bullsh!t articles on EVs
TLDR version, a couple supposedly went in holiday for two weeks and found their Leaf had lost ~40% of battery somehow, possibly after leaving the preheating timer on (even though the Leaf won't allow you to preheat below 20% SoC)
They then somehow failed to search for any rapid chargers in the area and ended up at an AC charger and had to charge for 3 hours to get home. Now they own a BMW instead
Right...
The "journalist" in question seems to get their articles from social media, always a very reliable source 😏
I'm willing to bet the writer also posted the story to social media under a fake name. Nothing like making up something on a slow news day
As Andy correctly pointed out, 30 seconds of fact checking would reveal that, if true, the couple just f**ked up instead of there being a deep problem with EVs.
While I sympathise, this is the equivalent of writing an article saying you can't use a petrol car long distance because someone got stranded after leaving their engine idling for a week and then driving past 4 petrol stations
If it smells like bullsh!t, and looks like bullsh!t, then it's probably bullsh!t
Don't you have an app?
Just copy what already works in other countries. No need for reports or trials.
I was watching an interview with Mariana Mazzucato, one of two authors of The Big Con which is about how management consulting firms are basically scamming governments out of millions and hollowing out the civil service
She made a great point in that when public services make a mistake and something doesn't work out it's a huge scandal and there's public outcry. So there's not much incentive for very dynamic thinking and risk taking
And given that the government may change in a few years and completely change direction there's not much reason to get hugely invested in something
So it can be easy to see why there's a bit of a lack of enthusiasm in public services. And as you say they'd much rather just let the market sort out a solution, that way they can take some credit if it goes well and shrug their shoulders if it goes wrong
While I agree with her to some degree I'd much prefer if civil servants exercised a general degree of caution and didn't try to have the startup mentality.
If you think of Amazon or Google, for all their success there's been a lot of failed ideas. While it's fine for companies to lose their investors money, if a government sinks a whole load of money on something that messes with a lot of people's lives
Isn't that the model for any Irish Government initiative, if you do nothing for long enough eventually the market will solve the problem on it's own.
It looks to me as if Declan and others want to do as little as possible....
That doing the job properly is too hard for them.
They need to be replaced by people with the skills to get things done properly.
Who'd actually love and relish the challenge of doing things properly.
Edit.....
Its like the job of managing the EV transition has been given* to unenthusiastic people who are doing something they've been told do.
But don't actually want to do it....
*at official level
I absolutely agree, but if home charging is the objective, and we can take it from the SEAI spokesman that it probably is, then AC chargers on footpaths will be the solution
And unless councils dramatically change their opinions on having homeowners put a charging pillar the kerb, or cut a covered gully for cables across the pavement, then it falls to the council. In that case it's likely to be a "public" charger even if it's outside your house
Oh I agree to all the above, and the SEAI guy shouldnt have said it, but just saying thats where he got it from. Power of YOOTOOB and all that lol
In my experience people in the modern housing estates with townhouses and "shared" parking will go to war over having to park on the wrong side of the street. I don't think the same crowd will be willing to walk more than 50m to charge their car instead of parking outside their door.
Fair point, but I think it's fair to say the majority of EVs sold in Ireland in the past few years would need a charge
And I also think it's fair to say that the SEAI should be catering to the masses
My main issue with the comments is the total lack of ambition being demonstrated by SEAI, ESB and the government in general
Saying we don't need hundreds of thousands of chargers when mass deployment of AC chargers to on street parking and encouraging overnight charging is way better for the environment and grid than using HPCs during the daytime
And drivers need reliable charging hubs, something which ESB Ecars is not. Turning up to a 150kW charger to find it blocked because there's a car plugged into the 50kW beside it and the cable doesn't reach is just not good enough
I think his dublin to mayo and back is a specific reference to a recent EQS coast to coast video from Derek Reilly where he said he could go coast to coast to coast in it
And it won't take 3 years either waiting for the ESB 😂
I'm going to go even further out on a limb than before and suggest that painting "Ionity, high speed EV charging, located at Cashel and Kill" on a couple of trailers and paying to park them in a few fields along the M7 is definitely cheaper than getting a 1.5MW grid connection 😁
RTE news : EV sales on course to deliver 'a step-change' in 2025
Trying to figure out if the guy from SEAI is a genius or an idiot.
He claims the charging network isn't holding back EV adoption, 80% of charging will be done at home and drivers will only be stopping for short breaks to charge.
He also said that someone could drive from Dublin to Mayo and potentially back in one charge
I'd say the last point is pretty optimistic, maybe in a Model S in the height of summer but pretty much everything else will need a top up
I think he's correct that the majority of charging will be done at home. Although unless there's major changes to allow people without driveways to install a home charger then that "home" charging will in reality be public charging, in which case we're back to needing hundreds of thousands of AC chargers
I very much disagree that the charging network isn't holding back sales. As has been discussed before, Ecars have zero ambitions regarding the charging network and seem content to roll out inadequate facilities and call then hubs. Seriously, boasting about a 100kW charger in 2023 🙄
More players are joining the game but we've seen from Applegreen that installing chargers and then getting power to them are two different challenges
And compared to the scale of the hubs being installed in the UK and Europe, ours are just way behind.
I mean, we're getting excited about 2 chargers at Castlebellingham and a 6 car hub in Belfast when there's a 20 car BP pulse hub just opened in the UK and two 16 car Ionity hubs just opened in France
Tesla at least seem to be willing to install decent hubs in Ireland, Ionity seem to treat us like the forgotten child
I've no doubt the network is improving but I think there's a lot of people hearing horror stories about queues and are deciding to hold off for a few years
So I guess my conclusion is that he's an idiot 😬
TII won’t give permission to put advertising signs along a motorway. (I’m not sure about their policies for Dual Carriageways like the N7.) That’s why you see advertising painted on the side of trucks parked in a field.
How long after the grant is "granted", do they send you the money? Got notification Monday
I'm going to go on a limb here and suggest that it's probably cheaper than a 1.5MW grid connection 😉
Call the council and ask them how much is the yearly cost to put a sign up on the motorway.
I guess it's to do with the fact that they're renting the land from a forecourt operator. The likes of Circle K might not want to advertise a charging network which will likely be a competitor in the next few years
I wonder will this change with Ionity going for bigger hubs like Mornas which have a shelter and a big Ionity sign on the top
It'll be a long time before we see that in Ireland however
Agreed - it is very easy to miss the turn off for the Ionity chargers at Kill North and South.
I often wondered why there isn't a large Ionity sign just before the turn-off.
Fair, I do see site limitation at times there, sometimes the chargers are limited to 3kW each side. Strange setup. I have been there recently with all 4 in use though. It's one of my favorite park and charge locations as there is a tesco and dealz on site so good for doing the shopping if I'm in dublin.
Typical southsiders, not a moment's courtesy for the common folk 🙄
😉
Wouldn't work for me on Monday. Once one car was charging it wouldn't start a charge on the other side. Happened a lot there recently.
Clearly couldnt charge 2 cars when @mfceiling was there!
I suspect that driver switched from disabled car bays to EV bays when she got a new set of wheels.
It does do 2 at a time there, I'm often there and have no issues charging when another is actively charging. I even checked and we were drawing 11kW each!
Just a gentle reminder to any new EV drivers.
If you park at a charger and don't plug in, you are blocking that charger from being used by someone who may need it.
I was charging at the chargepoint outside Dealz in rathfarnham recently. Even though it has 2 connectors only one works at any time. A lady pulled in beside me so I jumped out to tell her that her side wouldn't work while I am actively charging. She replied "oh I'm not charging. I just park here to do my shopping". I told her it's the same as blocking a petrol pump and leaving your car there. She just went "yeah I suppose so", and then walked off and left it there.
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