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.
Matter of interest, what would be an ideal place for you to wile away the half hour charging? Dancing girls, circus?
The offerings there work fine for most people on their way.
I don't agree with the notion that PHEVs are entitled to charge as much as anyone and all that's needed is more chargers. It's like a 20 stone rich man taking the last donut when there is a starving poor child standing behind him. Sure he'll enjoy it and it will give him a bit energy but he would have been just fine without it. They should be banned from them.
Most PHEV drivers have common sense and don't do this but there are so many of them being sold now that there is a sizeable minority eejits clogging them up.
Nothing to do with penny pinching. The cables are a relatively low cost when compared to the overall cost of a charger. The reason cables are the length they are is down to a number of factors such as the longer they are the heavier they are making it difficult for less able bodied people, greater losses the longer the cable, there has been reports of drivers scratching their cars after having dragged the cable over the roof of the car, increasingly likely cable is damaged. Just some of the reasons.
Zevi design guidelines require longer cables. I foresee EV drivers coming on to boards complaining how unwieldy epower, Applegreen, etc etc cables are now that they are longer.
Some units in France (can't recall which providers) have swing out arms that the cable hangs down from. It makes easy to use left or right side. I don't think it was any strain to use. Longer cable but I guess the losses are relatively small in the grand scheme of things.
While the Zevi guidelines might not always be entirely feasible - there is much there that would make life much easier for many. The eCars setup in places like Mayfield , Crescent etc is almost the antithesis of the Zevi guidelines. Larger spaces, better supported and longer cables , better lighting and signage are sorely needed.
I was watching Bjorn at a trade show for charging equipment. Apparently the arms were a 3rd party add-on which is why they're often hit and miss to whether the chargers have them
Manufacturers are starting to include them as standard now so they should become more common
Really simple solution. Drive in spaces that you can go to the left or the right or have the room if you are towing something.
All well and good when there's space like motorway services, not so good anywhere else where space is a premium.
That's true.
Competition.
I'd say that the public ESB charger was pulling in punters who were charging in the private carpark for the day, so they are moving to their own chargers instead to limit what they see as abuse.
Plus, it's a very exposed site in terms of the sea only being meters away, so I hope they bought good warranties on those new chargers.
They could have just enforced parking fees in the car park.
This just seems some daft petty upmanship by a jobsworth.
5m cables will
Allow 4 people to charge
There's enough chargers in the vicinity that is really only overnight guests that would be inconvenienced by such a daft setup. The hotel couple keep a long cable for such situations.
What could go wrong
We’re excited to announce that our upgraded site at Portlaoise Plaza, Junction 17 is now live! We’ve upgraded to 4 High Power 200kW EV chargers to enhance your charging experience.
To celebrate and show our appreciation for your patience during this upgrade, enjoy 50% off EV charging from 17-19th September during the Ploughing Festival*.
*Offer available 6am on the 17th to 9pm on the 19th Sept. Overstay fees apply.
The Plaza Group
Eh, I don't want to accuse them of not knowing their own infrastructure… but it's 8 200kW CCS charging points on 4 chargers, plus two 70kW CHAdeMo. 😚
4 Chargers = correct 8 charging points = also correct.
I think what you are missing is that drivers stop and park for all kinds of reasons, even if their battery isn't empty. To shop, to eat, to have a wee wee. And if you have a chance to plug in while doing all that, then, the price of electrons permitting, it may make sense to do so.
Fair point. What price points would the electricity and petrol need to be at for your theory to add up ? I know of 2 drivers that recently got PHEV’s as company cars to replace diesels. They generally plug in at work but not on the road. Price isn’t a factor as they have fuel cards.
"...May make sense..." Can you explain how?
That drivers stop isn't in question. The question is why would a PHEV plug in.
With those Delta units once 2 cars are connected the charging drops to max 100kW each side. (250A). Not going to get 8x200kW. Also to draw more than 150kW on one plug you need 800V cars. In theory the limit for 400V cars is 160kW or 400A but I've never seen it. I saw 153kW max
I was there on Sunday, on my own, and got 72-73kW on 5% with an hour of a precondition
I'm speaking about a typical install. I mostly use Carrickmines and Blanch which are of similar config. I easily get 150kW if I'm alone at a charger and leave before it drops below 90kW. ~65%SoC.
The Delta units are reliable, years ahead of units from J14, which was a big blunder imo. I don't think they are future proofed though. I imagine in a few years 100kW would be meh as 50kW it is now. I don't remember the last time I used a 50kW. I'd probably use it if there would be one at my local grocery shop.
Here an example. I overstayed a bit but the average charging power is still above 100kW.
I can't speak about Portlaoise if it is still power limited or not as I didn't visited that site in 3 years. If you didn't already do this, please add these comments on the plugshare app which would help potential customers decide if they actually want to charge there.
Probably commercially sensitive but id love to see the data on charging sessions. See the patterns of usage. That would be interesting.
There was a website which was tracking them https://ecars-stats.com/ Unfortunately doesn't work now. The maker a boardsie, I haven't seen him in over a year.
Funny to say it is commercially sensitive. I have an interest in Fastned and they publish all of these and more. They even publish the salaries of CEO and board of management.
They even publish the gross profit per kWh along other financial indicators.
Interesting to see that even without network expansion costs they would have been at loss. If ESB ecars would publish this data, the critics would see the true costs involved. Sadly they choose not to, behind the curtain of ?? Can't find the word.
It was power limited to 50kW spread across 3 chargers, 4 if you include the AC, up until recently that is now. I once got 16kW there on the old chargers, nearby Lidl easygo were cheaper and faster ironically
False sense of security?
I could see the argument about it being commercially sensitive. Fastned obviously taking a different approach.
Quote : can't speak about Portlaoise if it is still power limited or not as I didn't visited that site in 3 years. Quote
I can confirm that Port Laois plaza is no longer power restricted. I got 138kW earlier this week which is pretty much exactly what I would get at Obama with the same soc.
11.4c/kWh is the net profit on a unit of electricity for Fastned on 29.8c gross is fairly average, in fact it's quite good for a business…
Most ICE filling stations run on a profit margin of about 1c-2c per liter of petrol or diesel, not sure if that's net or gross but still
I don't know how you worked this figures out. The point was that with 47c/kWh gross profit they have a total loss of 11.4M. Taking out the expansions costs of 10.9M there is still a loss of 0.5M. I understand they have achieved positive EBITDA which is a great milestone, but that is not the net figure. I'm missing something?
