Guess what Mad_Lad got this time?

peposhi

peposhi wrote: »

LOL‚ What was your OH driving one more time ?!?

She's driving an Outlander, lol why ?

peposhi

[Deleted User] wrote: »

She's driving an Outlander, lol why ?

You could not convert her yet after so many years and EV mile behind.
Now imagine someone twice more stubborn

peposhi

peposhi wrote: »

You could not convert her yet after so many years and EV mile behind.
Now imagine someone twice more stubborn

Twice as stubborn ? haha no no, you see my Woman doesn't dictate to me haha. :pac:

She works don't know if your Wife does so she might be more cautious with money.

No she has no interest in electric cars and she just can't get her head around charging , plugging in out, setting timers, all stuff she can't or won't be bothered with, same as house cleaning, can't be bothered !

unkel

Deleted User wrote: »

she can't or won't be bothered with, same as house cleaning, can't be bothered !

So this is Mad_Lad on his day off from work

ewj1978

Deleted User wrote: »

Do you mean what would I get on battery + Rex together ?

Aye, whats the maximum range?

I do a few trips to Belfast and just wondering about stops etc.

unkel

unkel wrote: »

So this is Mad_Lad on his day off from work

Haha, only I'm better looking

ewj1978

ewj1978 wrote: »

Aye, whats the maximum range?

I do a few trips to Belfast and just wondering about stops etc.

Rough figures, expect about 120-130 Kms at 120 Km/h and another 90-100 on the Rex., give or take, But I've not paid too much attention to this because it's of no importance on the rex really because it can get you wherever you want to go without having to baby it.

The difference is that unlike topping up at a fast charger for 30-40 mins it takes 8 seconds to fill the tank and off you go again or bring 2 x 5 litre petrol cans and you don't have to stop at a petrol station at all.

You can get about 170 Kms handy enough at 100 -110 Km/h , older national routes in Summer you can get up to 230 kms. 60-80-100 Km'h as you'd expect on these roads.

You can use all the battery and let the rex kick in at 6.5% or you can turn the Rex on from 75% charge and keep as much energy in the battery as possible then use battery for slower routes, town driving etc.

You can top up at a fast charger for 10-20 mins and keep some more energy in the battery or just keep going on the Rex.

The Rex gives you a lot of options.

If you stuck to 100 Km/h you could get about 170 Kms handy enough and then another 100-120 on Rex but I'm not really bothered because I can charge for some time at charger or fill up with petrol in seconds.

If you got an AC point near your destination , say 3 phase 22 Kwh you can get from 10-90% in about 2.5 hrs, very handy as the i3 has a 3 phase 11 Kw charger.

ewj1978

Work has just installed a 7.4kw charger. (12 hour shifts so easily do-able to refill the car)
I've a 150km round trip to work, mainly at 100kph.

peposhi

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Twice as stubborn ? haha no no, you see my Woman doesn't dictate to me haha. :pac:

She works don't know if your Wife does so she might be more cautious with money.

No she has no interest in electric cars and she just can't get her head around charging , plugging in out, setting timers, all stuff she can't or won't be bothered with, same as house cleaning, can't be bothered !

LOL I can imagine

She actually has her own business and I can’t complain there’s no bread on the table.
But when it come to changes... good luck!
Another issue would be that she takes my Leaf for longer journeys. If she’s to take the i3 we may well start the WW3

rolion

Lads, do your wifes knows you are back talking them !?

I can slowly in small fonts say that my wife,very sceptical at the begining, has totaly embraced the EV car but, i still have to charge it every day,cable in and she disconnects in the morning...easy life i guess.

@madLAD
Have you serviced the engine in the REx ?
Any idea what type of "service" it needs,can be done by local guy or only by dealer ?
How much and how often ?
Do you have any indicators for the engine such as coolant,oil or anything, as events related to malfunction ?
Pointless to have 5 litres of petrol if the engine will not start... i guess.

My main "rex anxiety" is you leave it until 6% and it will not start firing !!!

mordeith

ewj1978 wrote: »

Work has just installed a 7.4kw charger. (12 hour shifts so easily do-able to refill the car)
I've a 150km round trip to work, mainly at 100kph.

You'd never even need the Rex with that charger at work. I daresay the 94ah might even make that on a single charge in the summer.

ewj1978

ewj1978 wrote: »

Work has just installed a 7.4kw charger. (12 hour shifts so easily do-able to refill the car)
I've a 150km round trip to work, mainly at 100kph.

That's great, I can make my 143 Km commute at about 100 Km/h no problem and still have about 20% to spare, or rather about 14% because Rex does not allow you to use the last 6.5 % as it's kept as a buffer to ensure you don;t loose power when you put your foot down.

I can make my commute at faster speeds in Summer no problem.

I also have plenty of charge points in work, some 7 kw, and 22 Kw.

If I drive it hard on the motorway 130 odd I might need 1-2 hrs top up at home, that's about 14 cent worth of electricity so as you can imagine, I don't drive it slow much at all.

Most of my commute is 120 Km/h Motorway from M9 Carlow/Castledermot exit to Naas then 100 to Kingswood turn off on the N7 then 60-80 last 4 km to work.

But I go faster on the N7 usually, that has a ridiculously low speed limit especially off peak, it should be 120 off peak, I work shift too and heading up at night having a 100 Km/h limit is a joke.

mordeith

mordeith wrote: »

You'd never even need the Rex with that charger at work. I daresay the 94ah might even make that on a single charge in the summer.

No problem in Summer at the OP's speeds of around 100, he'll get home with plenty to spare.

I don't think Winter would be much of a problem at that speed either.

dloob

A question for the i3 owners.
The satnav has charger locations on it, but how are these updated?
For example ecars replaced the old Shannon and Thomandgate rapids with triple head units a few days ago, how long before the i3 realises there are now CCS rapids there?

rolion

rolion wrote: »

Lads, do your wifes knows you are back talking them !?

I can slowly in small fonts say that my wife,very sceptical at the begining, has totaly embraced the EV car but, i still have to charge it every day,cable in and she disconnects in the morning...easy life i guess.

Haha Shhhhh and they won't find out !

I think it's the plugging in and out and setting timers every day she wouldn't like but in fairness you can just set it once in the i3 if you got a normal Mon - Friday job and have the weekend off then you only need to set i3 timer once, for weekdays and weekends and that's it.

rolion wrote: »

@madLAD
Have you serviced the engine in the REx ?
Any idea what type of "service" it needs,can be done by local guy or only by dealer ?
How much and how often ?
Do you have any indicators for the engine such as coolant,oil or anything, as events related to malfunction ?
Pointless to have 5 litres of petrol if the engine will not start... i guess.

My main "rex anxiety" is you leave it until 6% and it will not start firing !!!

Rex needs service once every 2 years regardless of mileage however mine is telling me I need a service in January so that would be 1 yr 10 months.

They will replace oil/filter in the Rex not sure what else they do, firmware updates if needed, pollen filter , inspection, that's about it, cost , no idea yet.

I'll have close to 50,000 kms on it at that stage.

Brakes are as good as new, battery is as good as new, showing no signs yet of capacity loss @1 year months and 42,755 Kms so maybe the fact the battery cells have amazing long charge/discharge life is to do with it but I'll reserve judgement for when it has about 3 years and 80,000-90,000 kms.

dloob

dloob wrote: »

A question for the i3 owners.
The satnav has charger locations on it, but how are these updated?
For example ecars replaced the old Shannon and Thomandgate rapids with triple head units a few days ago, how long before the i3 realises there are now CCS rapids there?

No Idea how that works, I just use the esb cars app and send the GPS coordinates to the i3 and can then store them for future use.

It's actually quite hard to navigate to charger from the sat nav itself , but it's very easy to navigate to petrol station lol

jhegarty

dloob wrote: »

A question for the i3 owners.
The satnav has charger locations on it, but how are these updated?
For example ecars replaced the old Shannon and Thomandgate rapids with triple head units a few days ago, how long before the i3 realises there are now CCS rapids there?

It's an automatic OTA update. But they take years to add chargers and still have chargers that are gone for two+ years on the map.

dloob

jhegarty wrote: »

It's an automatic OTA update. But they take years to add chargers and still have chargers that are gone for two+ years on the map.

Had the feeling that would be the case. They aren’t the fastest at updating the regular maps.

You can't beat google maps except for actually navigation where it fails unless you want to go from point a to b with no intervention.

For finding places though Google maps is great, I just copy the coordinates in google maps, paste into the i3 app and send to the i3 and I can go anywhere. it's leaps and bounds better than the crap NAV that was in the Leaf 2015. Night and day really.

rolion

@my_lad

Thanks.
How do you find safety ?
How safe is to drive in a so small car...
What if someone hit you side or head on ?

Seen one today and it looks really tiny and so, dunno...too thin !?

unkel

rolion wrote: »

How do you find safety ?
How safe is to drive in a so small car...
What if someone hit you side or head on ?

The i3 has a carbon fiber frame. That's stronger than steel.

Small doesn't always mean unsafe either. Here's a modern small Renault vs big old Volvo tank. Guess who gets out alive and who dies?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBDyeWofcLY

The i3 compares well to most modern cars check out the NCAP tests for the i3 and various other cars.

I3 lost a star due to poorer pedestrian safety.

It's a small car no doubt but very spacious inside, handles great , Has a decent bit of poke , plenty of grip and feels very spacious for front occupants, has a very deep dash comparable to say, a caddy or transit connect. It's great for town and city driving too and absolutely loves Irish back roads, it's a lot of fun !

Get into a Kona, ioniq + a lot of other cars and the windscreen feels in your face compared to the i3 it seems a mile away.

DrPhilG

https://www.electrive.com/2018/12/13/fastcharge-delivers-high-power-charging-at-450-kw/

A 15 min charging 60 Kwh i3 ? not that would be something, so they can fit 60 Kwh in the i3 haha, nice.

It makes me wonder why the 42 Kwh i3 is still limited to 50 Kw ? is it due to the voltage ? can only get xx current from xx voltage = 50 Kw , so it's either up the current or up the voltage. Battery chemistry may well be a limitation too.

Depends on the charger too what voltage and current it can provide.

Imagine a 400 HP 4WD 60 Kwh i3 that can charge in 15 mins ? wow !

ELM327

Deleted User wrote: »

A 15 min charging 60 Kwh i3 ? not that would be something, so they can fit 60 Kwh in the i3 haha, nice.

It makes me wonder why the 42 Kwh i3 is still limited to 50 Kw ? is it due to the voltage ? can only get xx current from xx voltage = 50 Kw , so it's either up the current or up the voltage. Battery chemistry may well be a limitation too.

Depends on the charger too what voltage and current it can provide.

Imagine a 400 HP 4WD 60 Kwh i3 that can charge in 15 mins ? wow !

The i3 is still nominal 350-400v right?
All chargers can provide that. But you'll be limited on the amp side.
Our "50kW" chargers in reality output 120/125 amps. so the max you will get is 350-400v multiplied by the amperage 120-125. Even if the car can take 175a/200a it won't be able to do so at our chargers.


Bjorn tested the i3 at a 150kW charger as far as I recall and it still took only 45kW so its a limitation of the car not the charger. Probably an amp limitation.

Oh yeah our chargers can't output more than 45 Kw but whatever bjorn was testing on it doesn't tell the whole story, we need battery temp readings. Perhaps if it were a bit warmer it could have got the full 50 Kw.

i3 is around 360 volts.

BMW say i3 is 50 Kw max and I believe it lol. even the 42 Kwh is handicapped , there needs to be progress here, the ix1 will charge at 150 Kw if I remember correctly so most likely higher voltage. It's easier to go higher voltage, more current = more heat and larger cables.

KCross

That Porsche and i3 article was just a photo op with research vehicles. A 57kWh battery would be quite large based on what you see under the Kona and eNiro.

I doubt it would fit into the existing battery space of the i3. I bet the boot was full or no back seats or something!

Based on the wording of the article it also appears they reconfigured the battery for higher voltage which is how they managed the super fast charging time. Thats my interpretation of it.

BMW converted an i3 and equipped it with a high-voltage battery...

Its a good sign of how they plan to achieve faster charge times.... its all based around higher voltages, not higher currents... i.e. Ionity.

liamog

The most I've monitored from our chargers is 129A at the ABB charger in Banbridge and upto 127A at Efacecs.
Ioniq will max start to reduce it's charge rate from 75% (BMS) 77% displayed. at this poing the battery voltage is just under 390V.

I've seen plenty of occasions of >45kW charging on the Ioniq, this is BMS data, not eyeballing the chager electricity reading. It's never breached 50kW.

It will be interesting to see what the I3 voltage is at peak charging.

ELM327

liamog wrote: »

The most I've monitored from our chargers is 129A at the ABB charger in Banbridge and upto 127A at Efacecs.
Ioniq will max start to reduce it's charge rate from 75% (BMS) 77% displayed. at this poing the battery voltage is just under 390V.

I've seen plenty of occasions of >45kW charging on the Ioniq, this is BMS data, not eyeballing the chager electricity reading. It's never breached 50kW.

It will be interesting to see what the I3 voltage is at peak charging.

What does the BMS say on yours when 100% is displayed?

liamog

ELM327 wrote: »

What does the BMS say on yours when 100% is displayed?

Display SOC 100%, BMS SOC 95%, Battery Volts 396.1

I travelled to the Airport this morning to drop off the outlaws, finally ( jump for joy ) the house is mine again

Anyway, 190 Kms and I was going to charge at the garage just outside the Airport, one leaf charging and a 40 Kwh just pulled in before me, I moved on, the charger at Clonshaugh is down, Naas is down and I just checked the map a second ago and the one at the airport is still in use so the next available charger on this route N7, M7 is Waterford hahaha this is a joke, Newlands has no CCS, Carlow has no CCS.

I wouldn't normally use Naas any more because I have the Rex and it's too difficult to get to but I said today, I would give it a go because I'm not in a rush and I was on my own.

The Rex saved me probably 1 hr waiting around but if I had a BEV only I was screwed.

The state of Ireland's DC infrastructure is a horrid joke at this stage.

ELM327

In fairness quite a few of the fast chargers in Dublin are offline at the moment, combine that with the numbers on the road for the holidays (a lot of people took this week off too) and it's bound to be busy.

I did over 2k km over the holidays visiting family members and I queued once for 15 minutes. Rest of the time, chargers were free and working. Gorey, Coynes Cross, J14M7, Navan, Enfield, and (i think) longford amongst others. I had to call ecars for the longford one but the rest without issue other than 15 mins queue in Gorey.

It's crap compared to other countries and it's going to get worse before it gets better.

Not the point, they're shouldn't be so many off line and there shouldn't be queues not at this stage of the game. No new chargers since 2015, it's not acceptable any more.

Dublin is where you'd think there'd be a lot more chargers working but the amount of chargers is ridiculous, and none in the city at all, 0.

If I were to drive say from Dublin port to Waterford, there are 0 chargers along that route, absolutely 0 working chargers, even if Naas were up that leaves only 1 charger between Dublin Port and Waterford and the Naas charger is extremely busy and very inaccessible at the best of times.

So what's going to happen when there are 2 chargers on site, will there be 1 down and we'll be told we should be thankful that there is one working while 3 cars are queuing ?

The Government should make all garages install chargers, there isn't a single garage owned charger in Ireland that I know of.

It's looking more and more likely I'll need to hang on to the Rex for a lot longer than I thought, not a bad thing either really. I was actually thinking that if I'm still on shift then I could give the car to the OH and she can drive it to work when I'm off, I work 14 shifts a month the rest I'm off, or, if I take 4 holidays I get two weeks off. It has it's advantages but I'd be clocking up a lot more mileage if I had a regular 9-5.

It all depends on the battery really , currently it's showing 100% capacity after 1 year 9 months and 44,000 odd Kms.

rolion

Ha, a good one...you are talking driving Dublin to Waterford as there are no online chargers... to be honest, i am afraid sometime to drive inside Dublin's M50 !!! Saturday,D15 offline, Clondalkin LUAS offline, others occupied.

I think, day after day, since i got the LEAF, that the only realistic way I save money is that I haven't drove around the Country as used to do with the MPV, hundreds of kilometres and sleeping weekends in hotels, spending hard earned cash.
With the EV, i barely spend few euros at the charging points for a beverage and a scone.

With current state of charging points availability, i will say that's the really fcukign savings I make...

unkel

Sell the Leaf, go back to your house, lock the door behind you, stay right there and your savings will be even more savage.

mickdw

The leaf was the best thing ever. Range was never an issue until rex was bought.
Now the rex is the life saver.... If this trend continues, petrol will be the fuel of the future.

NIMAN

...and they wonder why people won't invest in EVs.

Shocking infrastructure. Government not taking it seriously at all.

unkel

mickdw wrote: »

The leaf was the best thing ever. Range was never an issue until red was bought.
Now the rex is the life saver.... If this trend continues, petrol will be the fuel of the future.

Petrol is no good if you can't fill your car up anywhere. That's the problem with EVs in this country at the moment: not having a covering network of fast chargers where you don't have to queue

I'd be perfectly happy with my tiny 28kWh battery if I could fill up everywhere for 3 times the price of home peak rate electricity. This problem was the same with early petrol cars. There were no pumps to fill you car up with. You had to go to the chemist to buy a jerrycan of petrol.

unkel

unkel wrote: »

Petrol is no good if you can't fill your car up anywhere. That's the problem with EVs in this country at the moment: not having a covering network of fast chargers where you don't have to queue

I'd be perfectly happy with my tiny 28kWh battery if I could fill up everywhere for 3 times the price of home peak rate electricity. This problem was the same with early petrol cars. There were no pumps to fill you car up with. You had to go to the chemist to buy a jerrycan of petrol.

haha, it wasn't actually petrol though from the Chemist was it ?

unkel

Yup. Quick google:

"Today we fill up our cars with petrol from pumps at filling stations, but for the first 25 years of British motoring such things didn't exist. Instead, you could only buy petrol in two-gallon cans from chemists"

First petrol station opened in the UK in 1919, probably a bit later here.

mickdw

mickdw wrote: »

The leaf was the best thing ever. Range was never an issue until red was bought.
Now the rex is the life saver.... If this trend continues, petrol will be the fuel of the future.

Lol, no but the Rex is a mighty good get out of jail card for now for sure.

I burned less than 3 litres of petrol for 193 total Kms and that was driving the car on too.

In my leaf thread on many occasions quite clearly stated I was aware of the limitations of the car and stated clearly that there were many trips I simply could not take it and clearly stated I knew what I was getting into with the car and with the PCP. However, range wise I can take the i3 Rex anywhere.

What I really wasn't prepared for was the attitudes of a lot of people at chargers, selfish inconsiderate gits. "I want for free and screw you, I want it all not just a little bit"

You see back in January 2015 , sh1t, when I think of it , 4 years ago !! time is flying, but I had high hopes for the charging infrastructure by the time it came to change and while I accepted the limited infrastructure in 2015 I find it hard to digest today.

Whether I have 20-30-60 Kwh, eventually the infrastructure will come back to bite me when I need it the most.

unkel

unkel wrote: »

Yup. Quick google:

"Today we fill up our cars with petrol from pumps at filling stations, but for the first 25 years of British motoring such things didn't exist. Instead, you could only buy petrol in two-gallon cans from chemists"

First petrol station opened in the UK in 1919, probably a bit later here.

Haha, Jaysus, I can't ever imagine having to going to a Chemist for Petrol !

NIMAN

NIMAN wrote: »

...and they wonder why people won't invest in EVs.

Shocking infrastructure. Government not taking it seriously at all.

Yes , indeed it is disgraceful. But they did allocate 20 odd Million for EV chargers , I wonder how far that will get the ESB, will they continue to dot single chargers everywhere or will they install 4 + per site ? I have read where they intend to install 150 Kw chargers which would be good progress but garages need to get the finger out after all, they could probably make more from charging for charging than what they make on Liquid fuels.

unkel

They say they will install 4 per site but iirc I saw it posted somewhere that wouldn't be until Q2 2019

And it's the ESB, a semi-state company. Very good at paying themselves massive salaries and pensions. But not so quick to provide adequate infrastructure. It's likely the private sector will do a far superior job far quicker (Ionity)

unkel

unkel wrote: »

Petrol is no good if you can't fill your car up anywhere. That's the problem with EVs in this country at the moment: not having a covering network of fast chargers where you don't have to queue

I'd be perfectly happy with my tiny 28kWh battery if I could fill up everywhere for 3 times the price of home peak rate electricity. This problem was the same with early petrol cars. There were no pumps to fill you car up with. You had to go to the chemist to buy a jerrycan of petrol.

Sure, you could live with a small battery if you can A, charge it any time anywhere, and B, charge it fast, 10 mins to 80%.

I find it strange that BMW have not increased charger power for the 42 Kwh i3, it's disappointing really, limited to 50 Kw on a 150 kw charger, even if they increased it to 70 Kw, the battery is AC cooled for God's sake , you can charge it to death in the height of Summer and it will never get too hot or throttle charging, it is rather strange.

I really wonder when the ESB will start installing chargers ? Summer ? that's another half a year away !

unkel

unkel wrote: »

They say they will install 4 per site but iirc I saw it posted somewhere that wouldn't be until Q2 2019

And it's the ESB, a semi-state company. Very good at paying themselves massive salaries and pensions. But not so quick to provide adequate infrastructure. It's likely the private sector will do a far superior job far quicker (Ionity)

I'm sure the ESb will have to account for every penny the Government give them, I should hope so !

Q2 2019 is a joke , I really can't see things improve a lot when my PCP is up in November 2020.

Yeah Ionity may have 1 site of 4 x 150 kw chargers by Q4 2019 but that's not a big deal really. They were supposed to have the first site open by the end of 2018 !

A new garage is being built on the M9 just after kilcullen, very slowly by the way, so I hope they intend to install a few chargers there, the M9 is severely lacking chargers.

Wildly Boaring

[Deleted User] wrote: »

What I really wasn't prepared for was the attitudes of a lot of people at chargers, selfish inconsiderate gits. "I want for free and screw you, I want it all not just a little bit"

I am not up on the chargers and fast v slow. AC or DC.

But this was a point I wanted to make after the Christmas break.

I met an uncle of mine before Christmas who has a Toyota plug in hybrid. Last time I met him he would not shut up about how great it was and all the money he was saving.

This time he would not shut up about charger trouble. And his main gripe was the attitude of "Leaf drivers" (his words).

Cars parked up all day using the sole working charger.
Cars parked all day for free parking.
Drivers telling him to stop using their charger
"Leaf drivers" with the attitude thet they were more important than him as he could use petrol too.

He was genuinely pissed off. To the extent that their second car was deffo to be fully elec last time and now will not be changed in the medium term.

After meeting him I started keeping an eye out. It is rare to see a working, free charger. Are we at the.capacity of our current infrastructure?

My mother was looking at a leaf. He turned her off completely, but he is generally an all or nothing type anyway

Wildly Boaring

Wildly Boaring wrote: »

I am not up on the chargers and fast v slow. AC or DC.

But this was a point I wanted to make after the Christmas break.

I met an uncle of mine before Christmas who has a Toyota plug in hybrid. Last time I met him he would not shut up about how great it was and all the money he was saving.

This time he would not shut up about charger trouble. And his main gripe was the attitude of "Leaf drivers" (his words).

Cars parked up all day using the sole working charger.
Cars parked all day for free parking.
Drivers telling him to stop using their charger
"Leaf drivers" with the attitude thet they were more important than him as he could use petrol too.

He was genuinely pissed off. To the extent that their second car was deffo to be fully elec last time and now will not be changed in the medium term.

After meeting him I started keeping an eye out. It is rare to see a working, free charger. Are we at the.capacity of our current infrastructure?

My mother was looking at a leaf. He turned her off completely, but he is generally an all or nothing type anyway

There are AC and DC public charge points, technically the AC are charge points and DC are actual chargers, for AC the charger is built into the car.

Charging varies from car to car but for example, a Nissan leaf 2011-2014 had only a 3.3 Kw charger which took 7 hrs to charge, later the updated model came in 2014 with "optional" 6.6 kw charger, taking half the time to charge provided the car was plugged into a suitable charge point or properly known as "EVSE" most were still sold with 3.3 kw chargers and dealers bought only the 3.3 kw with the odd 6.6 kw in order to keep costs down but the 6.6 Kw charger was very convenient and in 2 hrs you could get around 13 Kwh into the car just over 50%.

The EGolf, Ioniq have 7 Kw chargers as well as the BMW i3 from 2014- the newer 33 Kwh battery which came out in late 2016 and includes a 3 phase 11 Kw AC charger and gets from say, 20-90% in 2 ish hrs , remember the original Leaf had 24 kwh battery and took around 6 hrs for a lot less kwh delivered than a 11 Kw i3 or 22 Kw Zoe.

The king of AC is the Renault Zoe which can charge at 22 Kw from the AC points or 44 kw AC at a fast charger but fast AC is dead and there won't be any more chargers supporting fast AC or 44 Kw but 22 Kw AC is dead handy to say the least and so is 11 kw it means less time spent at fast chargers.

Our Public DC chargers max out at 45-50 Kw max, but a lot of cars don't charge at the full 50 kw and depends on battery temp, much below 20 Deg C means slower charging and early electric cars would start at 45 Kw and quickly ramp down to 30 kw and less by 80% where the likes of the 33 Kwh i3 and 30 Kwh leaf and Ioniq continue to charge at full rate until about 80% and still charge at a decent rate up to about 90%.

Electric cars are great but the limited range is a lot harder to live with especially considering the Public DC fast charging network is severely lacking.

On the plus side, the Leaf has more chargers available because there are more ChaDeMo than CCS chargers because Nissan were the first out with the Leaf and they adopted ChaDeMo but it's likely all future chargers will be CCS only meaning the leaf could be at a huge disadvantage in a few years unless they adopt CCS and fast.

At ballinasloe before Christmas there was a Leaf 40 Kwh driver and already p1ssed off with the network along with an Ioniq driver.

At 70% I let the Leaf driver charge and headed off to Galway, I could have been a proper little d1ck and told him too bad he'll have to wait like I was told many times when I had the Leaf but even when I had the Leaf I let many drivers in and even told them to go on ahead and do their shopping and I will plug them in and start their charge which I did but didn't have to.

Many times I was left 30 mins to an hour at Naas after a 12 hr shift while locals went to shop knowing I only needed 10 mins to get home but was told too bad I'll have to wait when they could have charged at home.

Indeed, I also thought those with petrol engines should not use the DC network but considering I was never a d1ck in the Leaf and always just took what I needed I think even with my petrol backup that I deserve a little bit of the network after all , it's there for everyone, you could and I have many times argued that while yes, the person with the Rex or Outlander can make their way home on petrol that the local leaf driver can also charge at home using his home charge point but won't because he's "entitled" to use the network and boy God he will indeed make sure to use it, but soo too is the PHEV driver now when I say PHEV at least cars that can charge at the faster rate such as i3 or Outlander but especially the i3 which charges at 50 Kw V I think 20 Kw for the Outlander.

Give and take is what I say, don't to to others what you would not like them to do to you. I stand by that always have and always will, if I can help someone out I will.

Oh and cold increases charge times, optimum battery temp is 20 deg C and much below this can see a notable increase in charge times for all electrics. Also heat, the leaf can see increased charge times when the battery is hot, also the Hyundai ioniq, even though it's fan cooled it has it's limitations but still better than the Leaf 24-40 kwh , the BMW i3 battery is AC cooled and can be fast charged forever and it will not over heat or throttle charging current even no matter how hard it's driven.

ewj1978

They'll be bringing in charging for public points this year. When that happens you'll see a lot of empty chargers. Main reason: its free now. Charging comes in, it'll be cheaper at home.

ewj1978

ewj1978 wrote: »

They'll be bringing in charging for public points this year. When that happens you'll see a lot of empty chargers. Main reason: its free now. Charging comes in, it'll be cheaper at home.

Maybe, but there might be a lot of people who can't charge at home , apartment owners, people renting etc. The Government need to make EV charging a right along with broadband, to be honest I would consider EV charging a lot more important than high speed broadband.

It would solve a lot of issues at Naas anyway for sure because a lot of people there were locals who could charge at home.

I'm not so sure people will be willing to pay to queue though so the ESB need to get the finger out and fast !!!