Random EV thoughts.....

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120167572#Comment_120167572

Living close to the new runway I would definitely be happy with some quieter airplanes

innrain

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120167572#Comment_120167572

Sunds nice but if you add 2 hours for check-in and one hour for luggage you end up with 120 km/h average speed. I think high speed trains could do better and you don't pay 50 quid for a carry-on.

Take the first suggested route Frankfurt to Paris 3h50mins by train 1h30mins by plane. Both terrible airports, especially CDG. Train stations much central and better serviced by other connections. And trains are already electric

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120167938#Comment_120167938

I agree, when you count in transfer and check in times then a direct train becomes very competitive against flying over short haul

jackofalltrades

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120167572#Comment_120167572

Air transport is a tiny problem in the overall scheme of things.

liamog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120167938#Comment_120167938

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120169033#Comment_120169033

Of course electrified rail is a better option than air, but it's going to be long time before we see viable rail options from Dublin to Paris. We need developments like this to move us towards a better future.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120170148#Comment_120170148

Too bad BoJo never built that tunnel from NI to Scotland. Another empty promise 😏

Personally I quite like the idea of getting an overnight high speed train from Dublin and waking up in Paris or Milan or Berlin

the_amazing_raisin

I'm voting this for what @unkel gets next 😁

https://m.alibaba.com/product/11000004201243/Aolite-606-Farm-Garden-Chinese-Small.html

the_amazing_raisin

So I'm wondering what people use to find destination charging for hotel breaks? I haven't found a website that does everything really well, they all seem to have some drawbacks

Here's what I've been using so far

ABRP: I really like the way you can program in breaks at waypoints or after a certain time/distance and it'll search for chargers near hotels. There's two major drawbacks however, it seems to have a bit of a random way of finding hotels (finds a lot of Airbnbs or similar) and at times it seems to prefer fast chargers, which isn't really much use to me, I'd much rather charge overnight. It can also be hard at times to see the state of the chargers, whether they're offline or broken

Booking.com: There's a filter for EV charging when searching for hotels. However this has almost the opposite problem to ABRP, there's no way to know if the charger is available or even working. I've seen a few places which advertised chargers which turn out to be broken, when I ask the staff about them they often say it's been broken for months

Plugshare: Probably the best mix of the above two since you can filter for hotels and see more information about the chargers. However it doesn't seem to show public charging nearby, only chargers on-site, unlike ABRP

Charge holidays: I think this used to be Charge Hotels, I've only tried it a couple of times. It seems to try to do the job of all the above, but doesn't do any of them particularly well

Personally I tend to hop around the first three options until I zero in on a decent place to stay with decent charging. It's a bit of a cumbersome solution however and I think it's one of the things EV trips are lacking at the moment

I'm hoping that ABRP adds integration with the major hotel aggregators, so you can do better searches for accommodation along the way

markpb

I haven’t managed to get destination charging at any hotel I’ve stayed in over the course of several years driving an EV. Initially I did try but I quickly realised it was better for me to pick a good hotel without charging over a less good hotel with. Admittedly we don’t drive very far once we get to our hotel so YMMV.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120175647#Comment_120175647

I'll say my experience has been generally positive. Often I'm able to find an AC charger

Worst experience was a broken hotel charger in Waterford, but in the end I didn't really need to charge

There's definitely a point where it isn't worthwhile. If you need to detour more than 20 mins then you'd probably be better off DC charging instead

However it's kind of annoying either having to start the morning, or end a long drive with a 20 mins charging stop. Starting the journey with a full battery is definitely a bonus

AndyBoBandy

I probably wouldn’t even bother now looking for a hotel with a charger at this stage…. As the chances of the charger even being available would be slim/too much of a sh1tshow…

We’re going to West Cork next week from Dublin and the thought of a destination charger at the hotel didn’t even come into my head….

Ive got the Mahon Point Supercharger to get topped up on the way out to the hotel and there’s an EasyGo DC charger close to the hotel, so between the 2 I’ll survive..

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120176236#Comment_120176236

True, but I'll say that a destination charger was pretty essential when I drove to Falmouth in Cornwall since both of the towns DC chargers were broken and there were no public AC chargers around.

And after 10 hours of driving and 2 charging stops I wasn't really bothered dealing with another DC charger

Having said that the idiotic app registration for the hotel charger probably took as much time as a DC charger. Nothing says user friendly like having to decode a no functional QR code and figure out the charger vendor from the URL 😬

AndyBoBandy

Yeah, a hotel charger should be just plug and play... no messing around with apps.. and I get that it probably can't even be a free service anymore, so maybe they just go with one of the big providers like EasyGo... and then at least it's an app a lot of people will already have and be used to..

Or barrier off the charging spots, and any paying customer can get a spot opened up with a fee paid to the hotel..

At a guess I'd say the majority of people that plug into free hotel chargers are doing it because it's there and they can as opposed to them actually needing it...(and maybe it saves them a charge on the way home), so lets see if they'd still want to use it if it costs €15 to get access to the space/charger.

slave1

Most hotels now have a paid chargepoint, shame because I was taking free 3-pin charges whilst they got caught up with EV requirements, there is virtually always a 3-pin available

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120176486#Comment_120176486

I'd certainly prefer to pay in the hotel than register for yet another app.

Doesn't even need to be very elaborate, could just have the reception able to remotely start the charger once the guest plugs in and let's them know.

At the end, they just note the number of kWh delivered and add a charge to the bill accordingly

I feel like all the problems that are very slowly being solved for DC charging (availability, reliability, interoperability and convenience of payment) are all going to still exist for destination charging for some time yet

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120176658#Comment_120176658

To be fair with the way electricity prices went in the past year it probably makes sense to charge it to the end customer, especially if it deters the freeloaders. Filling an ID.4 to 100% probably costs over €40 on daytime electricity

Another option might be to make the charging free or fairly cheap but have them on timers so they only work at night. I'm guessing night rates exist for businesses as well

KCross

Some charge points have the ability to take a token. Very simple process then. You get a token at reception which gives you X hrs on the charge point. The hotel can decide if they want to charge or not. No apps and very simple and easy to understand.

Also allows the hotel to somewhat manage access by saying, "every guest is allowed Xhrs on the charge point and then move please to allow others use it". Policing that I guess is a different topic, but it at least gets the guest thinking about others and not just leaving it plugged in for 24hrs.

Ideally the hotel would just add more charge points but electricity prices as they are, its becoming more difficult to be giving guests free charging.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120177295#Comment_120177295

Reminds me of the tokens you'd buy for the cigarette machine to ensure underage people weren't buying them 😁

Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best however, a token or one time code would work pretty well IMO

silver_sky

I generally look up hotels on Plugshare with the accomodation filter. Then use that as a starting point to find a good one. It has worked occasionally, except last trip the charge point was ICE'd and no chance of getting it cleared. My preference would be plug and charge even if it's a slower than normal charge point its fine. It seems quite a few hotels are using easygo now and those are generally reliable.

AndyBoBandy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120177454#Comment_120177454

last trip the charge point was ICE'd and no chance of getting it cleared

This is why I don't even bother... If I seek out a hotel with a charger it means I need to rely on said charger, or I've planned on using it... and if (like the situation above) some reason prevents use of said charger (ICE'ing/Already occupied/broken etc...), than that plan goes out there window... I know those same reasons can prevent getting a charge on a DC unit, but with more sites being multiple units, there's just an all round better chance of getting a charge on a DC charger.

The only time when Hotel Destination Charging was actually important to us was when herself had an overnight trip to Cork (before Mahon Point Supercharger was opened) and I convinced her to take the Tesla over the ICE, so she booked into The Kingsley Hotel (which at the time had Tesla Destination chargers), but I was absolutely bricking it during the day leading up to when she got to the hotel as if the Destination chargers were busy/broken, she'd need a charge in the wild (something she hadn't done outside of Tesla Superchargers)... So she pulled in and the bays were clear, but the chargers were not working.. 1st (Tesla Only) one was completely kaput so she moved onto the 'Any EV' Tesla destination charger and although the red error light was on, I walked her through the reset process and low and behold it worked and despite only putting out 3kW, it was a glorious 3kW which got her up to about 95% by the following morning... more than enough to complete her days work and make it back up to Ballacolla on the way home.

Would I do the same today? With so many more EV's on the road, and not really a whole lot of movement in terms of new hotel destination chargers? (and if Mahon Point supercharger didn't exist)... Not a chance... she'd be sent off in the BMW tractor...

creedp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120177295#Comment_120177295

Even before the latest electricity price increases it was no longer feasible for hotels to be offering free EV charging. Newer cars have bigger batteries and could cost a hotel €30 to €40 for a full charge, in addition to the capital costs of installing the chargers in the first place. Somebody has to pay for that and surely that should be the EV driver. As is the case with all public EV chargers, the era of free charging is gone, it was great while it lasted as long as you were lucky enough to get to the charger first!!

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120177454#Comment_120177454

I kinda do the reverse, find a shortlist of hotels and then use Plugshare to find which ones have decent charging

Plugshare is definitely a lifesaver for destination charging IMO, you can find out which ones are broken or need some app which only works on Android and not iOS or something

The main drawback is that it's community maintained so can fall out if date

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120177636#Comment_120177636

Yeah true enough, there's certainly a difference in charging costs for a hotel between a gen1 leaf or Zoe versus an ID.4 or Ioniq 5 or Model Y LR

the_amazing_raisin

IMO this is how you do hotel charging, 34 AC chargers

https://www.plugshare.com/location/184983

Easy enough to make money of course with Heathrow airport beside you, but I doubt you'd have trouble with the spaces being ICED with so many chargers

silver_sky

Funnily enough we're looking at booking somewhere for March-ish and I was looking at Plugshare recently. Fingers crossed we get the Model 3 before then and if that's the case then I won't bother trying for a hotel with charge points. It's more of an issue for us now with a small battery (and no DC charging) EV.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120178630#Comment_120178630

Yeah I kinda feel like it's not as important in Ireland these days with an EV with much greater range, you probably don't need a long DC charge to get home

I feel it's more important for longer journeys through the UK or Europe, where you'd be doing multiple charging stops in a day

AndyBoBandy

Even when I was tracking across Europe last summer doing an A to B of 1,300km and back, hotel charging wasn’t even on my mind…

Stayed in Maastricht on the outbound leg and topped up at a Supercharger 5 minutes from the hotel… a 24 stall supercharger (and when we pulled in were the only car there).

Then on the way back staying in Germany & France, there was a supercharger within 5-10 minutes from both hotels..

And I’m in a ‘gen 1’ SR+ so the lowest range in any Model 3 (409km WLTP).. but hotel charging? Nah, couldn’t be bothered anymore..

silver_sky

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120178905#Comment_120178905

Yeah I think so. Then again on a longer trip outside Ireland I think I'd try find accomodation with charging but also not rely on it 100%. If you can get a charge while you sleep, great - if not then it's just another short DC charging stop.

@AndyBoBandy thinking of doing a euro road trip later in the year with the forthcoming Model 3 (2023 RWD). Did you have any issues or was it just plain sailing?

innrain

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120177737#Comment_120177737

I'd probably do the same but usually hotel booking is not in my remit, and herself has EV charging very low on priority list. Having said that I found out that most of the nice hotels have also some sort of charging facility. Recently I noticed a big increase of hotels with charging points. I'd never expect them to be free of charge. It is true the ICE-ing happens but from experience it is usually locals with short stays and with AC charging cables are quite long and CP accessible from different spots.

On another slightly tangent topic I received a newsletter about EV rental in Spain. Don't want to advertise but they have 5 classes ranging from

to

MightyMunster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120180462#Comment_120180462

Decent prices, had a quick look at Hertz recently and EVs were crazy money