Random EV thoughts.....

Looks to me like a case of build a better mouse trap.

This could be a good solution for apartment blocks and other residential areas with shared parking. With 100kW shared, that's 50kW and a charge time of <1 hour to get to 80% depending on battery size and SoC. So over night, all ten cars would likely be fully charged (to 80%) by morning.

Unless I'm reading it wrong of course.

Well that seems to be the setup shown above. Everybody plugs in, but it's first come first served (in twos), so later arrivals are queued to charge after the earlier arrivals have reached 80% SoC.

That's my reading of it anyway. Could be wrong.

Again, this is my understanding of it, so don't take it as gospel. There are 10 stations, you plug in to whichever one is free when you arrive and your charge session is queued to when those before you are finished.

The car should be able to start a charge session when power comes to its station. I know mine will do that, assume others are similar.

There is only one charger here that selects up.to 2 cars at a time to be connected. Each post is basically a long cable going back to the charger. In an apartment 7kW x 10 would achieve similar and be cheaper.A full fill overnight for most cars. AC can also variably share better

or just install 14x 7kW chargers….

I was driving through Dublin Port earlier and got a look in the new car delivery lot

Spotted a bunch of Maxus pickups, the T90 I think it's called. At least a dozen but maybe more behind them

Demo models maybe, or something a county council might use?

Not sure they fit in the with typical pickup drivers here who all seem to do high enough mileage

100%, I think once you're likely to be staying longer than an hour or two then massed AC chargers makes more sense

It does. But that assumes nobody wants to splash and dash and this setup will work for both scenarios.

I found this article to be a very interesting discussion on the EV market in China

https://www.electrive.com/2024/05/04/electric-cars-five-lessons-from-the-motor-show-in-china/

Quick summary, EU manufacturers are absolutely f**ked and have been completely overtaken on EV components and battery production

One of the main things I've often heard about Chinese consumers is that they're more interested in digital features rather than drive comfort or range

I never really understood it until reading the article, essentially many Chinese urban drivers spend most of their journey stuck in traffic so driving dynamics don't really come into play so much as in car entertainment

You'd think they'd be promoting bikes or public transport over there but apparently there's a strong desire to exercise their newfound wealth from China's economic boom over the past decades

Anyway, on the battery front it looks like CATL are completely dominating the market. The author was very pessimistic about EU manufacturers like Northvolt being able to catch up, particularly since many Chinese companies are setting up in Europe and will waterfall their manufacturing technology to those plants, giving them a tariff free option into the EU market

The main question is which if the brands in china will survive the current price war there

My experience of ABRP is that it was slightly pessimistic in good weather and I arrived with more battery than projected

Aside from that, it's generally very accurate

You can set preferences on networks if you'd prefer to use Ionity or Tesla networks, however I'm pretty sure there's no other hubs around that would be as convenient

The Ecars sites you're looking at is actually 2x 200kW units with two plugs each, making 4 charging spaces

If two cars are plugged into the same unit they'll get 100kW max each. I'm pretty sure those units can't intelligently split the load, if one side is pulling 50kW the other side is still limited to 100kW and not the remaining 150kW

As such, budget some extra time for charging than what ABRP gives, since it will always assume you're getting the maximum available power from the charger

It seems as good a location as you're going to get for charging near Knock, no risk of a single busted charger ruining your trip

I wonder what is the reasoning behind EV designs being so loud and scream 'I am driving an EV'

The Ioniq 6 and Nissan Arya have to be one of the ugliest cars every designed along with the new Range Rover Sport and Mercedes GLC/GLE Coupe

I have charged in Charlestown a few times. They are very new 200kW units, so quite reliable. Services are ok on site (SuperMacs, deli, etc). The last day I was there (about 2 weeks ago), there was some construction in the forecourt, but all four chargers were accessible. It's about 3 or 4 minutes off the N5, so would be a good choice for Knock Airport.

If the four ESB chargers were in use and you were tight on time, there is also a 50kW EasyGo unit in Charlestown which is generally always available.

I'd love to. Heading to Heineken cup final in London meeting their brother who lives in Mayo and flying from there. Bargain to fly from Knock actually, saving about 1200 euro between the 4 of us. Never flew from there before.

I was thinking it'll be easier than Dublin airport alright. Might not even take me much longer to travel overall.

As for herself, she drives an EV too and has only ever plugged it in once, very reluctantly, on a work trip to Waterford when we had only 1 car. That includes home charging. It's my job to keep them charged apparently ! Drives an EV, loves how it drives and knows zero about charging.

I had to talk her through it and monitor the charge on the app from 200kms away while she constantly said I'll just leave now will I? No you'll leave when you've enough charge!

That's why I know they'll be moaning if the chargers act up.