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.
That wouldn't be the charging pattern for someone who lives in the local area and needs to charge their car for weekly usage. You'd be spending closer to 40 mins charging instead of a 20 min top up.
Funnily enough I've been checking on the chargers randomly today to see how busy they were, didn't see more than two cars charging at one time
What was really weird was that the old hub was fully in use at that time
Word must not be getting around about the new chargers, or else people are such masochists they'd rather queue for the small hub than use the bigger one nearby
I think it's worth appreciating that for possibly the first time here we've a choice (or will very soon) of two HPC hubs very close to one another
For example if you're heading out of Dublin and there's a tailback on the Blanch exit then you just head on to the next exit and detour to Maxol, or the upcoming SSE hub in Ballycoolin if you're up for the extra driving
In other words, you've the same experience as an ICE driver. If the petrol station is busy or closed then just go to the next one that's a few mins away
It's hopefully a sign of good times ahead
To be fair on a fast charger either Blanch or the maxol garage are much of a muchness. You're literally only going to be 15 or 20 minutes. You'd barely have time to get a coffee at either location and you'd be moving on again.
Thanks, I guess that makes sense.
I assume that in this case, it was probably ESB approaching the landowner about locating chargers on their land, rather than the opposite way round so.
Also assume that from ESB's perspective, the CapEx costs of 4 x 200KW units, groundworks and connections, are cheaper than for 16 x 50KW units.
There's also a public bathroom behind Starbucks and a Hotel if that goes back to being a hotel.
No doubt if a company that does want to provide charging services to cinema goers for longer periods approaches the landowner they'll also agree to a commercial lease to make money on part of the car park.
I'm not aware of any company whose business is selling electrons targeting these customers in Ireland yet. The long charge companies seem to be making money by acting as a service provider for the site owner instead of selling to consumers.
Yes, and that's exactly why they're inconvenient for anyone who wants to charge while shopping or spending some time in the centre.
To be clear, I'm all for 200KW+ chargers all over the place. Somewhere where the vast majority of people will be spending a few hours away from the car though, would benefit a lot from chargers that people can leave for longer. No different to destination chargers.
Given the liklihood that the 8 spaces would be full, and the inconvenience of adding more time to specifically charge the car, I probably just wouldn't bother charging there.
Of course, I doubt ESB give a f--k. They have to source the space/land from somewhere though. Who owns that land? I assume the company that owns the shopping centre. It's in their long-term interests to have people in the centre for longer, spending money. Instead they'll have people charging for max 30mins, probably sitting in their cars. The Starbucks a few mins away might get some extra visitors. Noone is going to be sitting down for food in Captain Americas or Wagamama beside it while charging.
As you say, these will be handy and very busy with the nearby apartments and people who can't home charge in the area. Inconvenient for people who want to charge while they're shopping/eating/cinema in the centre., assuming the 8 spaces aren't full anyway....
Is there a Starbucks there? That might help with the on demand aspect
I suppose in your case you could do one of those things, return to your car to unplug and move to a parking space and then do the rest of the things on your list? I'd recommend the shopping first as then you can put the shopping in the boot while you do the rest of the things.
eCars don't want to be in the business of charging your car whilst you're in the cinema. They do want to be in the business of providing charging services to people who live in D15 and don't have off-street parking to charge at home. The chargers at Blanch have been consistently busy for a very long time, their main use seems to be people in the immediate area who need to charge their car. I used to live in Ongar, if I couldn't charge at home I'd rather drive to Blanch and charge the car than sit a Maxol garage on the N3. Blanchardstown is a retail destination and district centre.
You're too busy doing nothing to waste time doing nothing.
I'd assume at a busy location you want to rotate people off chargers as quicky as possible. Not have them blocked for hours. As such a SC is different to a hotel.
Any way there's a mix of both now. Has anyone use the 7kw chargers at blanch. I've never bothered myself.
Unfortunately I can't poo in demand!
And if I'm in the centre for a few hours shopping, eating, or going to the cinema, having to add on an extra 30mins while I babysit the car on a 100kw+ charge is a poor use of my time.
eCars don't want AC units. They have a small AC hub in Swords at pavillions shopping centre, multiple units on multiple floors.
The new Blachardstown hub is because Blachardstown 50kW+ sites were busy 24/7/365 and they are being blocked from nearby motorway national route sites by competitors. They did what they could to maximise revenue. They should have moved the new chargers forward and redesigned the parking properly but that might of needed planning or obstructed passing cars if cars parked forward in the spots.
Well indeed, it would be better to have both. But if the centre is giving up space and having a charging provider install chargers in their land, I'd much rather the above setup, or something that could accommodate 32 cars charging at 25KW (ie 16 x 50kw units), to be installed first, as that's actually more useful to the vast majority of people that will be visiting the centre.
Clearly the centre don't really care about providing charging facilities for users of the centre. This is just a fast charger, no different to the ones that will be 5mins down the road in Maxol, or scattered at various other points just off the m50.
None of this is ESB's problem though.
Can you not shoot a quick poo and grab a takeaway coffee at blanch?
True. Noticed this at Liffey Valley a lot of chargers are in closed car parks. The ones beside TGI Friday. Seem to be open late.
I used to think the poor planning and layout could be fixed by doing it better.
I think traffic has increased so much now that it didn't really matter.
I rarely use a public charger. Never really needed to use one after I had a home charger installed. But I've used Blanch a handful of times not because I needed to but I had time to kill and wanted to test how they worked. I'm never in Blanch for hours so wouldn't have a need for a slow one. It's handy to have a fast one near by in case you need faster charge than home charging for some reason.
If you were travelling long distance to Blanch or passing by it, on a long journey then perhaps you'd get more use from them. It's best they are besides facilities. Toilet, food drink, shops. Makes sense.
Sometimes I just top up the battery because I happen to be near a fast charger and waiting for something. I've been at events at the NAC and popped back to Blanch for a quick top up. Things like that a fast charger is handy.
Exactly. Its not a binary argument of one or the other. Blanch Shppping Centre could easily install something like what they have done in the multi-storey car park at Kildare Village where there are 14 x 7kW chargers. (photo from plugshare)
One thing that's slightly frustrating is how they close off the AC chargers after the shops close. Could be handy to grab a slow charge when heading to the cinema
Yeah that would be ideal for taxi chargers with the rank nearby
I think the biggest issue with the area is the traffic, the whole shopping centre is often a complete jam with tailbacks all the way to the dual carriageway
It can be pretty frustrating to have to spend an extra 15 min trying to get to the charger
Otherwise it's a good location, and I've no doubt it'll see plenty of use, it just has a few drawbacks
It makes sense to have a mix of both fast and slow changers. I can see reasons where both are useful.
I'm rarely in the center long enough for a slow charger to be useful. But I've used a fast charger there on a very rare occasion for a short top up. But tbh never really needed to charge.
The plans for redevelopment of Blanch involve turning the old charging location into the taxi area. It could make sense to leave chargers in the area for taxi use.
There's a big difference between the eCars model of we're a charging network, we need to find a site host that we can pay rent to host our charging infrastructure and sell electrons vs the business model of a retail park that wants to offer charging services as a way to entice customers to the site.
eCars are in the business of selling charging services, not running infrastructure to incentivise shoppers.
23% of that from the UK business
I think it is a very accessible location from both N3 and M50 traffic. West bound leave N3 at J3 keep left and you're there. Eastbound again J3, take right at the Liberty building roundabout and you're there. Not as easy as a service station but better selection of amenities. For locals allows for a quick dip in a shop like dunnes or woodies. We need to accept that it is one of the best hubs in Dublin now, and once the Carrickmines one is also connected, M50 would be nicely covered. I could moan about their prices but it is fair to let that go for the day and praise them for a job pretty well done.
Welcome to living on an Island
The Maxol is only directly accessible eastbound, but going westbound there's a flyover bridge a few hundred metres once you pass Maxol, so it's basically a 2 minute detour. Then a few minutes detour going back eastbound to the next bridge to do a u-turn. If i was going to be travelling on the M3, I'd 100% be using Maxol instead of these chargers.
If I was using the shopping centre, it's much of a muchness, as I'll have to wait with the car either way.
If they had been lower speed, I could leave the car on charge and actually go and do whatever I came to Blanch to do (assuming there's an overstay fee).
As you say, likely to get lots of use from people in the town and apartments nearby, so with only 8 spots it will be busy. Hopefully there's a large overstay fee, although I can't see any mention of one on the ESB app...
Almost as if different locations are better suited to different types of chargers/speeds.....
