Charging Points

Firblog

The word is that the network of charging points for electric cars is going to increase by 1000+ over the next 5 years; where in Donegal should the council put them? Personally think Ardara, Carrick, and Gweedore should be top of the list - in that order given the amount tourists they get and distance from existing charge points.

NIMAN

Malin Head.
The tourist spot at Banbas Crown gets 300,000+ visitors per year.

We only got toilets last year.

A few charging spots would be nice to see up there.

Otherwise, I'd also like to see some around tourists areas such as beaches etc, rather than scattered in random locations.

Firblog

Never heard of it, must take a run up the next good day... after it gets the charge point

ednwireland

in donegal town somewhere you dont lose it for a week with the food festival (sorry the find a parking space in donegal town festival) !

muffler

Anyone know how many charging points are in the county currently and also their locations?

byte

muffler wrote: »

Anyone know how many charging points are in the county currently and also their locations?

This map might help a bit. There aren't too many about.
https://www.esb.ie/our-businesses/ecars/charge-point-map

muffler

byte wrote: »

This map might help a bit. There aren't too many about.
https://www.esb.ie/our-businesses/ecars/charge-point-map

Thanks for that

Seems like there's 16 of them with one out of order so its pretty scanty. Personally I think there should be at least double that in place now with perhaps a lot more to come depending on demand/usage

Firblog

muffler wrote: »

Thanks for that

Seems like there's 16 of them with one out of order so its pretty scanty. Personally I think there should be at least double that in place now with perhaps a lot more to come depending on demand/usage

About 20 locations ok but with 40 odd charging points or so, 2 on each of the green ones, 3 on the blue/fast ones (but 2 charging at anyone time at most) and one point at the yellow ones.


Just looking at the map above, hugely surprised there are no charge points what so ever in Glenveagh, really should be a fast charger there.

Donegal Storm

Thats just showing public ones as well, my workplace has a couple but isn't shown on the map. Still nowhere near enough though, I'd be interesting in moving towards an electric car for my next car but at the moment it seems too big a trade off to be relying on so few chargers

malinheader

NIMAN wrote: »

Malin Head.
The tourist spot at Banbas Crown gets 300,000+ visitors per year.

We only got toilets last year.

A few charging spots would be nice to see up there.

Otherwise, I'd also like to see some around tourists areas such as beaches etc, rather than scattered in random locations.

Totally agree about the charging points, but a large parking area would be needed first. Parking on a busy day is a nightmare.

Firblog

Donegal Storm wrote: »

Thats just showing public ones as well, my workplace has a couple but isn't shown on the map. Still nowhere near enough though, I'd be interesting in moving towards an electric car for my next car but at the moment it seems too big a trade off to be relying on so few chargers

I think if you have a charger at home and access to one at work you're well covered, why would number of public chargers put you off?

echo beach

Firblog wrote: »

I think if you have a charger at home and access to one at work you're well covered, why would number of public chargers put you off?

If you only use your car to drive to and from work that would be fine but most of us like to get around a bit as well!
If you drive around Donegal for either business or pleasure you aren't long clocking up the miles.

NIMAN

muffler wrote: »

Thanks for that

Seems like there's 16 of them with one out of order so its pretty scanty. Personally I think there should be at least double that in place now with perhaps a lot more to come depending on demand/usage

I reported the one in Carndonagh not working quite a while ago, tried it again last week and still not working. They don't seem to be in a hurry to fix broken chargers.

Work ones wouldn't be shown I'd imagine, I'm sure businesses don't want random drivers parking on their property and using chargers meant for their employees?

As for Glenveagh not having one, totally agree. That's why I said Malin Head too. Any place that gets a large number of visitors should surely be an automatic choice.

icom

Firblog wrote: »

About 20 locations ok but with 40 odd charging points or so, 2 on each of the green ones, 3 on the blue/fast ones (but 2 charging at anyone time at most) and one point at the yellow ones.


Just looking at the map above, hugely surprised there are no charge points what so ever in Glenveagh, really should be a fast charger there.

Glenveagh does have 2 7kw fast chargers available in the car park which are free to use. These chargers don't show up on the ecars map as they are not managed by the ESB. Keyfobs are available at the reception desk that can be used to activate the chargers.

More info:
https://kellihers.com/news/ev-charging-for-irelands-national-parks-wildlife-service/

icom

Firblog wrote: »

I think if you have a charger at home and access to one at work you're well covered, why would number of public chargers put you off?

I have a home charger and also chargers at work, and have only used the public charging network about three or four times in the last year, but can understand that the public charging network in the Northwest is not ideal if you don't have this kind of access.

Donegal Storm

Firblog wrote: »

I think if you have a charger at home and access to one at work you're well covered, why would number of public chargers put you off?

I do quite a bit of driving, including down to Dublin/Kildare and Galway fairly regularly so having to rely on sporadic chargers that might not be working and are frequently occupied isn't ideal. My work ones seem to be near permanently occupied as well.

As I said I'd be interested in going electric but think I'll wait 3 or 4 years until infrastructure starts to catch up

Firblog

NIMAN wrote: »

I reported the one in Carndonagh not working quite a while ago, tried it again last week and still not working. They don't seem to be in a hurry to fix broken chargers.

Niman what you need is a local TD to go electric, the charge point in Killybegs was out of action for months, one week after Thomas Pringle (TD) bought an electric Kona - it was fixed.

Donegal Storm wrote: »

I do quite a bit of driving, including down to Dublin/Kildare and Galway fairly regularly so having to rely on sporadic chargers that might not be working and are frequently occupied isn't ideal. My work ones seem to be near permanently occupied as well.

As I said I'd be interested in going electric but think I'll wait 3 or 4 years until infrastructure starts to catch up

Thomas Pringle uses his Kona to drive to Dublin on a very regular basis (must be doing quite well with the mileage payments available to TD's), with the range the new EVs have now, I don't believe you should have any worries about going electric.

I have a 15 leaf for nearly 4 years now, very poor range in comparison to the newer ones, given my experience of needing to use the public charging points as often as I do, I'd have absolutely no qualms about driving to Cork in back in one of the newer long range models available.

DrPhilG

icom wrote: »

Glenveagh does have 2 7kw fast chargers available in the car park which are free to use. These chargers don't show up on the ecars map as they are not managed by the ESB. Keyfobs are available at the reception desk that can be used to activate the chargers.

More info:
https://kellihers.com/news/ev-charging-for-irelands-national-parks-wildlife-service/

I thought they'd still be listed on the eCars map, they list Hotel chargers etc too.

Plugshare or ZapMap may give a clearer picture.

icom

DrPhilG wrote: »

I thought they'd still be listed on the eCars map, they list Hotel chargers etc too.

Plugshare or ZapMap may give a clearer picture.

I was surprised that they don't show up on the eCars map, maybe the new app will have them added when they release it.

Could also be some legal reason they don't display them, maybe EVBox didn't grant them permission to pull the data.

Had a look on their website and for Business chargers they have an app available to display charging progress etc.

Quote:
Charging management
With Hey EVBox, you can track and manage charging sessions from your smartphone or computer with ease.

Anyone can pull their data as their API's are available to the public.
https://github.com/evbox

Firblog

icom wrote: »

Anyone can pull their data as their API's are available to the public.
https://github.com/evbox

Anyone can do it in much the same way as anyone can swim the english channel..