CircleK Chargers

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

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

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.

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? 🤔

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'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

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

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