Random EV thoughts.....

not far from cahir. plenty of charging options along the m8 and m7 including the tesla suc at ballacolla which is why the m3 is tempting.

the m9 is also an option albeit a 15 min longer journey, no tesla suc though.

What mileage do you do? With a 7.4kW charge point, you get about 20kWh into the car after losses if you have a 3 hour cheap night rate slot. If the car averages say 16kWh / 100km, that means an annual mileage of over 45k km. Do you do a lot more than that?

And remember, the 5c rate and €100 bonus allow for a lot of high day rate use, before you break even compared with a much higher all day rate of say 20c or 20c

Of course it helps if you not only have an EV, but also a battery that you can charge up at night. And it would further help if you run appliances at night, heat water, run storage heater / heat pump, etc.

50-55k per year. because of this WFH craic the majority of the mileage will be across sporadic days e.g. monday, wednesday and thursday meaning the car won't do a lot of mileage the other days, perhaps at most a cumulative 200km per week on top. i'd love to get a battery but a new kitchen is getting priority over my toys for the time being lol.

Maths checks out, you're so close to not having to stop for a charge, I'd probably look at options that would help that.

4 hours driving a day is tough, you don't wanna have to wait around for a charger aswel

Reminded me of this

Biggest single order yet and includes 105 heavy trucks and 60 medium ones

This is on top of 100 electric trucks ordered by XPO in 2022

Things are picking up steam (or voltage) in electric freight

Okay, last one for today 😁

20 megawatt chargers, 10x 400kW chargers and 125x 100kW chargers

I'd say there'll still be a queue 😭

I did say a few years ago that when truck charging becomes a thing it'll build up a lot faster than car charging. Truck drivers won't be happy to sit around and wait for the 1 HPC to become available and motorway services will jump on the bandwagon to ensure they have a solid customer base

I hope they upgrade some of the facilities as well, I've heard some of the horror stories from truck drivers about the quality of rest stops

An post is already using a few medium trucks for Dublin - Athlone nightly trips and they have their own private CCS chargers at sorting offices. The route is very fixed and defined, the same each day so it makes.

I believe some trucks have 2 X CCS ports that are both used at the same time to double the charging rate. The batteries can be really massive and take max power from CCS chargers for hours. On CCS there are fixed amp limits on the connectors and given it's standardisation 2 X CCS makes some sense. I can imagine that set up would require specialised layout if chargers. I have seen some complaints about Dublin bus using public chargers while they were being delivered. In many cases the layout of the charger and short cables would prevent even one CCS cable being plugged in. They really need to standardise the drive through petrol pump type layout, especially at motorway services. Even Ionity has not done that in Ireland. It's very short sighted. If space is a problem then put multiple chargers overlapping but at least when quiet a truck could block the second space. With the normal Ionity layout one truck could end up blocking all chargers.

Hi. I have a type 2 granny charger.

I also have a type 2 to type 1 EV adapter.

can I use this setup to charge my type 1 leaf? (Not a long term solution)

They kind of look like they're designed for smaller rigid trucks rather than HGVs

Might suit local delivery companies that don't want to splash out on their own charging equipment yet. Or sole traders who don't have a warehouse but can't really install a 50kW charger at home

Not sure about apps, but you can activate chargers on the BP website, or use Google Wallet/Apple Pay to get around the 50gbp tap limit that Irish cards can't do.

In theory yes if it works. The usual granny charging guidance is to slow charging rate moreif you can, check house end plug does not get warm, avoid extension leads or fully unreel them, ideally fit a brand new 3 pin socket on the house side and avoid old heavily used sockets that may be well worn. When stopping a charge unplug car end first. Try not to unplug house end instead leave it plugged in.

A type 2 (or type 1) cable locks at both ends, there is no way you can disconnect it while charging. But you can simply not lock the 3 pin plug of a granny cable, so you can pull it out while charging, which is not a great idea, but not likely to cause damage either. Better to unlock / unplug at the car end first as @zg3409 said

You can do that as long as you own the car parking space. And you need planning permission for it. Several regulars on this forum, including our very own moderator, have done so over the years.

Saw this recently. Apparently a Dutch product

The arm folds back into the post when not in use. I imagine it costs a bit though.

Yeah I remember that one, it's a nice idea although I'm sure someone will manage to strangle themselves on it and try to claim compensation

We definitely never miss an opportunity for a lawsuit in this country 🙄