Someone who installed this told me it’s in a month and Circle K still haven’t activated it. Fermoy.
I think there's a separate thread for the Circle K installs?
The one at Tinryland in Carlow is in since July or August last year and it's still not switched on.
Can't see why Shell, Statoil, Topaz, Circle K or whatever they will be called next week, would be interested in diverting cash from the oil industry. I expect a statement such as "these don't work, electricity is not the future, switch back to diesel" or such from them in the near future
CircleK aren't part of an oil company, they're part of the Couche-Tard group which is a global convenience store business, they own petrol stations to get you into the profitable part of the business.
exactly, its not about the pesky fuel, one of their outlets does 2500 coffee a day on average, 1m a year.,
Considering Circle K and Shell are both expanding charging networks in Europe I'm not sure that's the case. I imagine they're under significant pressure from their home governments to invest in green technology
Frankly I think they're both seeing the writing on the wall and are trying to diversify or get left behind
They've certainly far from heroes but I'll put them ahead of the likes of Exxon or Texaco who are still very much doing nothing
Regarding their lack of chargers in Ireland, I assume that's the usual story of us being down the priority list and there being more lucrative business elsewhere
We get paddy spec cars so I guess we'll have to suffice with a paddy spec charging network from some providers
How do you explain the Circle K chargers that are ready to go for months but not turned on or the 15kW some drivers get from the Applegreen chargers?
ESBN taking ages with the grid connection, been talked about before
I'll admit they make a great whipping boy for all the charging networks problems, but it's been noted on many occasions that the timeline for installing a 300kW connection can be months, if not years
It's a pity we don't have a publicly owned electrical utility that can fix these problems isn't it?
Not with the right bribe😎
We do, but here's a thread discussing why it's not so simple https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058286273/study-shows-public-charging-infrastructure-inadequate#latest
Easygo installed a charger at a lidl and only 6 months later was it powered up, so I think petrol station owners underestimate the amount of time needed for a grid connection upgrade. Some got canvas covers over them to stop them rusting before being turned on.
Back on topic one of these had a rain cover added. Most are listed on plugshare app as "coming soon" but it's a handy place to add photos and a status over time. You can sometimes see planning reference, ground works, charger in place, charger on timelines, which can take multiple years.
Couldn't find the Circle K thread so posting here for the moment.
Oh yay, another SPOF site. 300kW isn't much use if the charger is broken or iced 🙄
€7 million doesn't seem like a lot tbh, how many chargers is that going to buy at 150kW each, considering the grid connection will need upgrading? 🤔
Circle K set out their stall…
Was just commenting on the Random EV thoughts thread, but I'm not particularly impressed. Circle K installing SPOF chargers isn't a good start.
300kW is nice, but useless if someone parks a truck in front of the charger
30 sites with €7 million is around €230k per site. Maybe enough for 2 chargers per site? Would make sense given Circle K have said next sites will be 150kW
It also mentioned that these 2 ‘flagship’ sites are 300kW, but that all the other sites will be 150kW…
These first two locations will offer charging speeds of up to 300kW, with future chargers to offer 150kW
It's not very clear whether it'll be 150kW per charger or per site
Hopefully per charger, we've seen from the Clonsaugh planning permission that they're planning multiple units on some sites at least
Hopefully they at least go for something similar to Applegreen with 2 chargers serving 4 spaces, that's a decent starting point
Yeah, we all win, and it’s great to see Applegreen & Circle K added to eCars & Easygo in relation to putting in DC chargers…. We’ve desperately needed a roll out at this sort of level….. and need it to continue… (Ionity need to start sh1tting now too and start expanding their offerings…)
I’d bet as well AG & Circle K will be the first of the providers to start expanding the sites too when they see how busy they get and how much revenue they generate…
If it's anything like their fuel prices I shudder to imagine what the unit rates will be...
You'd hope CircleK would have the most experience of any forecourt charging operation given their experience in other jurisdictions.
I've seen some UK operators indicating that they see higher customer satisfaction from multiple 150kW chargers instead of fewer 350kW units.
150kW is perfect, I've rarely seen the charging curve of any EV sustain higher for any worthwhile length of time.
At the moment I agree, chargers aren't ubiquitous enough that you can be sure there's a charger available when you're at the ideal conditions for getting your fastest charging speeds
However, it'd be nice to see motorway service stations being a bit more ambitious and maybe installing 300kW capable chargers and upgrading the grid connection later when the cars catch up
Then again, it wouldn't be too difficult to replace 150kW units with 300kW ones and move the old units to somewhere more useful, so maybe I'm future proofing too much
I dunno how much communication there is between the different groups in each country.
I've generally got the impression that it would only be the senior management of each country reporting into managers in Norway
I'm not yet convinced there's a group handling a single user experience for all Circle K chargers throughout Europe
Following on from the post in the "new charger locations thread" I felt a new thread for these chargers would be beneficial
Currently 2 operational locations, Rathcrogue in Carlow at M9 J5 and Fermoy in Cork at M8 J14
Existing sites are capable of power levels up to 300kW, new sites that are not on motorways will reportedly be 150kW
Reported pricing according to plugshare is €0.69/kWh. Payment is via credit card which also does a €20 pre-auth.
There are 2 CCS and one Chademo available at each of the two location so 2 cars at a time can charge, cables look long enough to reach most cars
No. It's not future proofed. With the advent of silicon anodes and Na-ion both of which increase fast charging rates 150 kW will be in a situation where 50 kW DC is now (inadequate) in few years max.
Kia EV6 charges above 150 kW up to 80% SOC and maxes out at 230 kW at 50% SOC.
Even MG4 maxes at 143 kW (averages 100) and that's a cheap Chinese car. And then you have load balancing etc. 150 kW is too low if you make a long term relationship strategic investment.
It's not a good strategy.
Circle K in the news.
I couldn't help but laugh at the fact that they used a picture of a Norwegian hub. They must not have been impressed with the Irish ones
A) No hubs planned ✅
B) Broken road surface, stupidly designed parking bays, cows in the process of making a cow dung in the background? You don't want to put a photo of that in a press release 😎
The alternative was Eamonn with a single charger not connected to the grid.
