IONITY - charging / fees / tips

ELM327

MJohnston wrote: »

Obviously very little is going to change during the pandemic, but it’s tragic how they announced this pricing structure with mention of reduced rates through MSPs, and yet we still haven’t heard a fecking peep about any of those in Ireland.

There are plenty of MSP in ireland.
You just have to own a VW/Audi/BMW to get one

ELM327

iggy wrote: »

I've only ever used the maingau card at Ionity.Now I'll have to go through ionity themselves.
Do I need to apply for a card from ionity or can I use the app to charge

You can use the app, I did in the old days when it was 8 quid

charlieIRL

ELM327 wrote: »

There are plenty of MSP in ireland.
You just have to own a VW/Audi/BMW to get one

Silly question, whats an MSP?

liamog

ELM327 wrote: »

Chargepoint used to be 6.18 per session and is now 7.42 per session

I suspect someone in the UK tried to get a VAT invoice and they suddenly realised they hadn't been applying it. At the time everyone else was charging €7.60 in Ireland (6.18 + 23%), ChargePoint are currently charging 6.18 + 20%.

ELM327

charlieIRL wrote: »

Silly question, whats an MSP?

"mobility service provider"


Essentially a third party reseller on Ionity chargers.

Silent Running

iggy wrote: »

I've only ever used the maingau card at Ionity.Now I'll have to go through ionity themselves.
Do I need to apply for a card from ionity or can I use the app to charge

Why would you do that to yourself?

Sign up with Chargepoint. I think they can be used at ESB chargers too, but I'd prefer the Ionity charging speed.

https://www.chargepoint.com/drivers/activate/

MJohnston

ELM327 wrote: »

There are plenty of MSP in ireland.
You just have to own a VW/Audi/BMW to get one

I own a BMW, ain't heard of them offering one in Ireland.

zg3409

Here is translated full article

Maingau also says goodbye to the Ionity network


Like EnBW, the energy supplier from the Rhine-Main area could not agree on a new roaming contract with special conditions with the consortium.

It was only a matter of time. But now it is said that Maingau Energie customers will soon no longer be able to charge their electric cars at Ionity's 232 ultra-fast charging stations in Europe. Like EnBW before, the energy supplier from Obertshausen in the Rhein-Main area could not agree with the operator consortium on a new roaming contract with preferential terms, EDISON learned from corporate circles.


The old contract was terminated by Ionity on January 31 in connection with the switch to a new tariff model. If a flat rate was previously called up for each charging process, the direct current at Ionity's HPC stations has since been billed to the nearest kilowatt hour. This can be very expensive for customers without a contract: 79 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh). Only owners of electric cars from the operating consortium (BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen Group) can get significantly cheaper, provided they are contractually bound and bill their electricity deliveries through the car manufacturer.


Electricity price dispute bursts roaming partnership between EnBW and Ionity
From April 2, EnBW customers will no longer be able to draw on the ultra-fast chargers from Ionity Strom: the pricing policy is "not acceptable," criticizes the energy supplier.
E-mobility
Customers of EnBW and Maingau Energie also initially benefited from special conditions. But that is now the end: From Thursday, April 2, the Ionity loaders can no longer be activated via the EnBW Mobility + app. The Maingau charging card probably loses its function on the same day. "We will comment on this on April 1," said a company spokeswoman. It can be assumed that it will not be an April Fool's joke.

The separation from the two roaming partners and the violent reactions of the market and the price increase was also the topic of a meeting of the Ionity partners last week. As subsequently reported, it is regrettable that the partnerships will not continue, which according to information from the company brought about 13 percent of sales in Germany last year. But despite all discussions, the new tariff model will be maintained.

Corona brakes the expansion of the store network
In any case, Ionity's board of directors is currently having very different concerns. Since practically all EU countries have had exit or contact bans due to the corona epidemic, and borders have been closed, travel has largely come to a standstill. The result is a massive decline in charging, even at the ionity stations. We are talking about a minus of over 60 percent.


There are also delivery problems with charging stations and generators: The new stylish third generation ionity stations come from ABB, in part, from factories in northern Italy. Production is currently at a standstill there. It is also becoming increasingly difficult to keep the schedule because, unlike petrol stations, charging stations are not considered a system-relevant infrastructure in many countries and construction companies therefore had to stop their work. At Ionity, it is now assumed that the goal will no longer be achieved of putting a total of 400 quick-charging stations in Europe into operation by the end of the year.


On the ease of loading
More on the subject in the current EDISON edition - which has just appeared as an insert in the current "Auto Bild" and digitally on Readly . Photo: Edison


Hyundai goes its own way
As an intensive user of the network, EDISON learned, Ionity has Volkswagen and Hyundai in mind. However, one automaker is struggling to make the operating software for the new ID.3 Volks electric car stable. And the other one is still waiting for the antitrust authorities to give the green light to join the Ionity consortium. In the meantime, Hyundai Germany is going its own way: A contract is in preparation with EnBW, which will give buyers of the electric cars Kona and Ioniq Elektro special conditions. We are talking about electricity costs of 29 cents / kWh for alternating current (AC) chargers and 39 cents / kWh for (DC) quick charging stations. The monthly basic fee of 4.99 euros that actually applies to the EnBW frequent driver tariff does not apply here.

Hyundai customers will easily be able to cope with the temporary exclusion from the Ionity network under the conditions.

Note it specifically says Hyundai Germany while Hyundai Europe is waiting for answer from anti trust.

zg3409

iggy wrote: »

I've only ever used the maingau card at Ionity.Now I'll have to go through ionity themselves.
Do I need to apply for a card from ionity or can I use the app to charge

Ionity don't supply RFID cards, its app only,

https://support.ionity.eu/en/payment-billing/does-ionity-provide-rfid-charging-cards

and it is buggy and expensive. Often people end up ringing Ionity and trying multiple chargers until one works. Sometimes picking pay by PayPal works better than credit card Ionity app options.

charlieIRL

Bugger, well that's one less place I'll be charging and one less tag in my wallet!!

Ironically, the free Circle K charger beside the Ionity hub in the Athlone Plaza is working again now.

Cyrus

so am i right in saying ionity is now prohibitively expensive if you have a large battery car.

Silent Running

Cyrus wrote: »

so am i right in saying ionity is now prohibitively expensive if you have a large battery car.

No, Chargepoint is still a fixed fee of €7.42. If they can hold the line with that figure, or slightly more, it'll still be very good value.

Also, if you have one of the big battery German barges it'll entitle you to use Ionity at a greatly reduced rate.

redcup342

Cyrus wrote: »

so am i right in saying ionity is now prohibitively expensive if you have a large battery car.

An E-Tron would cost around 135 euros to drive 450ish km on the Motorway just using Ionity :rolleyes:

Ah well was good while it lasted

liamog

redcup342 wrote: »

An E-Tron would cost around 135 euros to drive 450ish km on the Motorway just using Ionity :rolleyes:

Ah well was good while it lasted

If you owned an e-tron and regularly use Ionity you should be using Audi's charging service. €17.95/month and 31c/kWh (no monthly fee for the first year)

Black_Knight

redcup342 wrote: »

An E-Tron would cost around 135 euros to drive 450ish km on the Motorway just using Ionity :rolleyes:

Ah well was good while it lasted

Is that 2 full charges of an E-Tron? €135/€0.79 is 170kWh. Assuming you leave home with a full charge (85kWh I guess) the first 85kWh would cost just €6.80 on a night rate. 170kWh on the road in addition to your 85kWh charge at home is some serious mileage, especially for Ireland.

iggy

Silent Running wrote: »

Why would you do that to yourself?

Sign up with Chargepoint. I think they can be used at ESB chargers too, but I'd prefer the Ionity charging speed.

https://www.chargepoint.com/drivers/activate/

Thanks
I'm trying to sign up.
I selected UK as Ireland not shown.
It asks for phone number to verify but won't accept my Irish mobile?

Silent Running

iggy wrote: »

Thanks
I'm trying to sign up.
I selected UK as Ireland not shown.
It asks for phone number to verify but won't accept my Irish mobile?

Down the bottom of the page... select UK English as the language and Ireland should then appear in the country list.

Kramer

Black_Knight wrote: »

170kWh on the road in addition to your 85kWh charge at home is some serious mileage, especially for Ireland.

It happens regularly enough for me. One instance was arriving home & later, having to drop someone to the airport, Dublin airport, unexpectedly.
That's a 450km return trip, without any chance to slow charge at the turnaround.

We often travel to Belfast - again, that requires lots of motorway charging when away from home.

At €0.79c/kWh, it'll do further damage to EV adoption. Who will pay 5 times the cost of a petrol or diesel per km, have to stop twice & pay €50,000+ for an EV for the privilege?

A retrograde step. Current & future EV drivers will be passing banks of unused Ionity chargers, just as current non Tesla drivers pass oodles of unused Tesla chargers :rolleyes:.

Black_Knight

Kramer wrote: »

It happens regularly enough for me. One instance was arriving home & later, having to drop someone to the airport, Dublin airport, unexpectedly.
That's a 450km return trip, without any chance to slow charge at the turnaround.

So in the e-tron example, that 450km is 1 cheap charge at home (3c/km), and 1 expensive charge at Ionity (30c/km) ~€70 (~15c/km overall), not €135. The rest of your journeys are all at the lower 3c/km.
Just to note, i've no idea what range the ETron can do etc, i'm just using the original posters numbers in my calculations.

I get that through Ionity the cost per km is higher than in a diesel, but that's if you charge solely at Ionity. If you're regularly doing massive mileage every day, diesel is likely the better choice for you. If on the other hand you have the odd long drive, that additional cost of fuel via ionity vs what diesel would have cost, would be well offset by all the other driving you do at ~1c/km (like efficient EVs do).

liamog

Kramer wrote: »

At €0.79c/kWh, it'll do further damage to EV adoption. Who will pay 5 times the cost of a petrol or diesel per km, have to stop twice & pay €50,000+ for an EV for the privilege?

Why would any e-tron owner pay 79c/kWh when they could pay 31c/kWh instead?

MJohnston

liamog wrote: »

Why would any e-tron owner pay 79c/kWh when they could pay 31c/kWh instead?

Well, you have to include the €4.95 a month in that figure too, I suppose.

Lumen

Black_Knight wrote: »

If you're regularly doing massive mileage every day, diesel is likely the better choice for you.

But these are exactly the kind of people who should be adopting EVs!

The more mileage you're doing, the more they make sense, provided that you have a reasonably priced high speed charging network.

Hopefully Tesla will take up the slack; they've been incredibly slow in rolling out new superchargers in Ireland (Enfield has been "coming soon" for years), so I'm not hugely optimistic.

I don't have any problem with Ionity operating effectively as a closed network, it's just irritating that this move has been so poorly signalled. It's possible this initial low pricing was a deliberate strategy to stall the development of other networks until their manufacturers' cars were ready, which would be classic VAG-flavoured scumbaggery.

FWIW I'm not banking on ESB making much progress, in their March update they were talking about sticking in single 150kW chargers with a pair of bays sharing the current rather than doing the more expensive multi-charger sites.

liamog

MJohnston wrote: »

Well, you have to include the €4.95 a month in that figure too, I suppose.

It's €17.95 for the discounted Ionity pricing, so an Audi customer would save money after charging 36.6kWh, it's almost as if they want you to sign up for their billing service!

bodgerfederer

ELM327 wrote: »

There are plenty of MSP in ireland.
You just have to own a VW/Audi/BMW to get one

Like the guy with bmw above, I’ve a vw and it gives me no option to access an MSP. I believe that VW will release ‘WE Charge’ but no one has approached me and told me this or indeed suggested when this might happen.

Until then I’m left paying stupid prices on ionity - even the chargepoint card doesn’t offer me great value as my most typical use is a short hit to top up between Waterford and dublin.

Introducing the price rise before I’m able to access an alternative pricing structure is very poor form.

liamog

bodgerfederer wrote: »

Like the guy with bmw above, I’ve a vw and it gives me no option to access an MSP. I believe that VW will release ‘WE Charge’ but no one has approached me and told me this or indeed suggested when this might happen.

My guess is that VW and BMW are avoiding their current customers until their new >50kW capable cars are available, it's a bit of a rubbish approach if you ask me.

zg3409

zg3409 wrote: »

Here is translated full article



Note it specifically says Hyundai Germany while Hyundai Europe is waiting for answer from anti trust.

Seems like this news article was wrong. Maginau sent an update today saying they are not dropping Ionity, with no mention of any price change. And yes its April 1st. It seems to be in German on their Facebook page according to a translation on Irish EV owners group today.

Marlow

zg3409 wrote: »

Seems like this news article was wrong. Maginau sent an update today saying they are not dropping Ionity, with no mention of any price change. And yes its April 1st. It seems to be in German on their Facebook page according to a translation on Irish EV owners group today.

The post is 19 hours old, so was made 31.03. That rules 1. April woes out.

It says:

Dear EinfachStromLader,

After yesterday's media reports, which unfortunately wasn't really researched very well, we would like to inform you that we continue to offer IONITY in the EinfachStromLaden tariff. No matter whether using a card, chip or the app - you will still be able to activate the fast chargers after April 1st.

It was our goal from the beginning to be the provider with the best availability and that has not changed.

We have more than 70,000 charging points available for you throughout Europe and wish you a good trip with single-energy charging. All #allaroundtheworld #einfachmaingau

Electrical greetings ⚡️ the MAINGAU team

https://www.facebook.com/maingauenergie/posts/3375602249135293

So yes, ... still a go.

/M

ELM327

Just checked on the app and it's still 40c
Good news as, while I'm prepared to pay 40c I won't pay 80c regularly

WattsUp

Until recently Bosch "Charge My EV" app was also €8.40 per session but alas that is now gone to 79c/kWh as well :-(

Just Maingau and Chargepoint left now that I know of at lower rates and I can't imagine CHargepoint staying at €7.42 per session for long

gar

Is there a sticky or a good summary of best value on charge points / methods / cards etc?