ESB eCars

So, yes, Ecars and EI are the same group and their relationship is well documented. However putting that to one side my comparison was made because EI have the largest base of home customers of all the suppliers and Ecars are in the title thread although also worthy to note that they have the highest number of chargers of all the operators.

TL;DR My comparison was based on popularity of supplier, not ownership of said suppliers

Same electrons filling the battery though. Both EI and Ecars buy from the same open market for the same price, one sells for at least double the price of the other but can't profit from it. Sure, Ecars have to supply the public charger, or more accurately, the socket, but this idea of charging double the home rate and not profiting is a questionable one

The obvious answer is that faster DC is simply more profitable than AC, which makes sense as there are going to be more kWh being sold in the same amount of time and, rightly or wrongly, people are much more willing to pay a premium for the faster charging

it’s been a building site for over a decade but yeah it wasn’t affected. You can see fresh concrete where it used to be.

Privatisation in the electricity market is a linked problem to the multiple CPO problem. The fact that you have multiple generators and multiple suppliers instead of 1 company overseeing everything simply can't be good for the consumer.

The same is true for CPOs. Imagine if we had 1 CPO, 1 app, 1 RFID card and the same price across all sites. That singular CPO could buy equipment and electrons cheaper through economies of scale, all good for the consumer

I'll say from a selfish point of view public charging is something I've used so rarely the cost is more annoying than a deal breaker.

But I can see where people do use it a lot, either through travel or no access to a home charger its an issue.

Don't forget that with AC your revenue is limited by something that's out of your control - many vehicles currently only support AC charging rates lower than the capability of the charger. Either 7.4kW/hr or 11kW/hr. So at best you're limited to 11 times 52c unless a Zoe pulls up!

Good point. There are a few more with 22kw then Zoe's but its less common for sure.

Again selfishly from my own perspective public charging at 7kw isn't something I've needed over a DC charger. But absolutely recognise it's merits.

You are comparing the cost of providing electricity to you (Electric Ireland) with the cost of providing EV charging facilities to you (eCars). They're not the same service so they don't come at the same cost. Your EI electricity charge does not include the cost of the home charger, the cost of repairing or replacing the home charger when it breaks, the cost of having a call centre operational 24x7 and having engineers on-hand to investigate or repair any problems or the cost of collecting payment from you by card which is significantly higher than a monthly direct debit.

It's also ignoring the fact that they might be leasing the land that the ESVE sits on and paying the council to do that, the fact that installing the hardware in the first place likely involved ground works on a public footpath with higher public liability insurance and the requirement from ESBN to have a meter fitted, just for that one charge point.

I have noticed that EasyGo have been installing 24kW DC instead of 22kW AC at some locations - similarly Weev have done this too. It makes sense to me that ESB should think about this also. Maximise the 24kW energy to the EV and increase throughput as you are not constrained to 7kW/11kW by the car. Maybe have overstay fees after 2 or 3 hours to incentivise release of the location to the next user?

Also there's no such unit as a kW/hr

😂 I was trying to make the distinction between kW units sold in an hour rather than energy (kWh), so hence the use of kW/hr.

your home rate is not from ECars. It excludes the standing charge , the cost of the charger the cost of the land the charger is on. The support staff.
thats just a stupid comparison

Standing charge for Electric Ireland is about €20/month, equivalent to about 85 units of home electricity per month. So for every 85 units filled at ecars you've paid the difference of a monthly standing charge

You aren't investing in a charger with AC, you are investing in a socket, most of which are located in public parking spaces

I think you'll find that the home rate includes the support staff.

You need to pay for the unit aswell as the standing charge…..

Do you ever go out with food or drink? Do you complain when the restaurant charges you more than a supermarket?

state of play in Sutton SV

I understand why you call these dual charger locations, but I think tri-charger locations is more accurate as 3 cars can change simultaneously…

In 2015 these would be considered a hub but today I think 8 simultaneously charging cars is the minimum to be considered for that title

Sometimes I think whatever I say you have to find a little something to disagree 😂

2 chargers with 3 usable plugs, whatever you want to call it, it's not a hub!