Agreed
Sure option to register for lower rates/ whatever
But tap to pay or whatever should be mandatory, at least on fast charger.
Forgot, to register obviously you need your name and address too. No wonder folks are reluctant to make the change.
Needed to download the Epower app today, to use the chargers at Fota Island Resort in Cork. No complaints with the charger, it worked very well. Pricey though, and had to give my email address and phone number which is bullshit. Imagine being asked for your email address and phone number to use a petrol pump🤔
I've seen pinergy chargers at the Celtic Ross in West Cork.
I haven't used many hotel chargers yet but many I've seen are managed by a CPO, so yet another app to download
I think there's an EU directive coming into force which says they have to allow on the spot payment without registering an account.
It doesn't need to be a card reader, a QR code linking to a payment portal is sufficient as I recall
Personally I'd be happy enough if there was a single card terminal for a bank of several chargers
No brainer then.
Businesses can already claim the cost of chargers against tax, shouldn't be any excuse for not installing them. Hotels in particular can benefit from having an extra pull for customers
Perhaps then the strategy should be better provision of destination chargers. Make sure every hotel/pub in the desired areas have banks of low-power AC chargers that don't need extensive construction works to turn into a reality.
Have used the Tesla destination chargers a few times and they've worked well when you're not in a rush somewhere.
Same here when we moved to wexford first. Was staying in an Airbnb for a few weeks between sale of our house and closing on the new house. No charging in the airbnb (they were iffy about the amount of electricity and also the state of the wiring didnt inspire with confidence) so we relied on the one 50kW locally. In a 28kWh Ioniq for local runs that actually worked fine. But if that charger was OOO we were on scps for 4 hours. You'd always get a charge, even locally, if you have no destination charging, the problem is you may be waiting!
Ideally you have charging at your accomodation but this isn't always the case
A few months ago I was on holiday in Wales and the campsite didn't have any charging so was reliant on DC charging
Thankfully there's a reasonable number of chargers around northern Wales now so wasn't any hassle
You'd be surprised how quickly you'll go through 400km of range when doing a few day trips around the West, so having some decent charging options makes life much easier
When I was younger there used to be a challenge to get from Finglas to Dundrum or similar without passing a pub.
Maybe the modern day equivalent is a meaningful 300km route in Ireland that doesn't pass within 5km of a HPC?
The problem is if you're touring around rural areas for a few days and can't charge at your accommodation. You'd need a charger somewhere along the way. Very very few places where this is an issue now.
Most of the driving in the barren wastelands/there be dragons/etc, will be at 80km/h or less due to the roads. So if drivers topped up to 80% or at the last HPC before driving off the map, a lot of those EVs could get 300+ more kms which would easily see them to the next HPC on their travels.
What % of EVs on the road can do 400km. Kinda ignoring all the older and small battery EVs with that.
From personal experience 95% of my driving is from the home charger. But on the few occasions I've been on a long trip a public AC charger for a top up on a day trip has been useful to me now and then.
Even at home I'll often top up for 30-50 mins because the car is just sitting there and its useful to shorten my charging time later, or handy in case of unexpected journey. But perhaps that's a small battery older EV habit.
I just think let's not ignore cheap and cheerful because we can't get high speed.
90% of EV charging occurs at home according to the ESB. The other 10% - in places like Connemara - would mainly come from visitors who in the majority of cases would be Irish residents taking their EV on their holliers out west. Many of these visitors will in the future charge at the place they are staying and I'm sure some do already, again driving down demand for public chargers.
Now, if you plan on doing a day trip then the need for a HPC might become necessary but again given many EV's are capable of 400pppkm the need might not be all that great.
While I'm all for public AC the question is who will use them. Locals can probably access home chargers, and tourists would be looking for a quick charge passing through or an overnight charge at their accomodation, so not much use for on street chargers
The charging operators can only really get data from the sites they already have, which is difficult to interpret at best
For example if the charger at Clifden is always busy then that tells you there's demand in Clifden but it might be met by the current charger already
The people who have the data needed are the car manufacturers and probably the likes of Google
No doubt the CPOs are trying to plug into that analytics data to plan their network. If for example there's a bunch of Google searches for "EV chargers near me" from around Louisburgh in Mayo then that's an indication there's unmet demand in the area
Well that's why the ZEVI scheme exists in the first place, to ensure there's chargers in areas there is need but not the business justification. I assume they have some priority order they're working off so we'll just have to see what areas are included in the next phase
I'm not saying charging infrastructure will not exist in the future in these locations, it's just at this moment in time I think it's unrealistic to expect private organisations to invest in chargers in locations which haven't a hope of making money.
I will be shocked if at the turn of the decade the N59 is not served by a number of HPC's along with 50 or 60kW chargers located outside libraries etc. I bet my bottom dollar the state will have subsidised the installation.
I can't see the ONLY demand being from tourists.
I think it's a bit early with EVs a tiny % of cars on the road to utterly dismiss the idea that more rural and remote locations won't eventually get better charging infrastructure structure.
If the state provide a similar deal as they do through ZEVI to potential CPO's along the N59 then 2 or 3 charging pools would appear I have no doubt. 50 or 60kW units in the likes of Roundstone, Louisburgh would cover off a lot of the demand in the future. The only issue is the winter when tourism dries up...the installation of these units would need subsidies to make them attractive to potential CPO's.
Even for a commercial company if you get people used to your chargers, get them on a loyalty card, discounted rate, consistent interference and reliable theres a good chance of becoming the preferred network for that customer.
CPO's are in it to make money. If the business case stacked up they would do it.
It's highly unlikely local residents in Connemara would use the HPC regularly. The vast majority would have their own charger at home. It's not like in Dublin where HPC's have a steady stream of taxis and couriers charging up. That same clientele does not exist in rural Ireland.
If the state wants a pool of HPC chargers in Clifden or wherever they are going to have to pony up.
I'm not personally concerned about the viability but any private, commercial company must be. They won't remain in business very long if they don't. I agree that there are valuable intangibles to installing there, but only for a state owned network provider.
While I understand the policy is to install high speed charges. I wonder if public AC chargers are easier to implement in rural or remote areas and villages.
https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122757894#Comment_122757894Consider not just to providing for current EVs but encouraging the take up of EV for future demand.
I'm not sure why your so concerned about the viability. Even a charger running at a net loss had other benefits. This is always going to be the case when providing infrastructure in rural areas. You made me think about profitability. I found this...
"... Forecasting the profitability and cash flows Due to low variable costs the active use of station services is the key to profitability. We notice that the most important factor of charging station success is committed customer who visits the station constantly.
This can be achieved by providing the customers a service that serves their needs (right plug, acceptable duration of charging) where they prefer (shopping centre, parking house) rather than trying to minimise the investment costs or imitate the gas station infrastructure.
Table 2 illustrates that to run a single quick charging station profitably doesn’t necessarily require high EV rates, but rather a handful of dedicated customers. The break-even number is roughly 2500 full charges (20 kWh) per year, which means less than seven customer visits per day. Seven daily visits means either 21 customers visiting every three days or less than four customers visiting twice a day..."
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318306674_The_business_case_of_electric_vehicle_quick_charging_-_no_more_chicken_or_egg_problem
Separately...
This is a possiblity. It would be interesting to see if the numbers stacked up. Location would be key of course.
I was reading the TII document for the latest grant scheme. Interestingly battery technology was mentioned. 200kVa is the minimum requirement and it a bank of battery's are to be installed they could not be used to supplement a lower connection. Presuming a future ZEVI scheme was to include the N59 then the requirements would like be similar.
I haven't looked at the ESB link above regarding available power but 200kVA would need to be available nearby to keep costs to a minimum. 200kVA would get you two 150kW chargers or one 300kW. Not huge but a 2 or 3 of those pools of chargers between Westport and Galway would likely do the trick in the future when demand increases.
This is actually a situation where a battery backed charging hub would work very well
You could fit a lot of power into a relatively small grid connection
During the summer months you've enough power stored up to cater to the tourists, then in winter you generate passive income by storing up night rate electricity then selling it back to the grid
Couple it with a solar canopy or nearby ground mounted array and it'd be a nice setup and income generator
Most people traveling home at the weekend would stay at least a couple of hours and a granny charge would likely give them enough to get back to civilization and a DC charger. There will be some edge cases, but given the low EV ownership in the country, I can't imagine there's the business case yet for a HPC in that area.
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