EasyGo public chargers

CMOTDibbler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122367212#Comment_122367212

I like the way eCars top you up automatically when your balance drops below €5 during a charging session. EasyGo should implement this.

markpb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122367212#Comment_122367212

I think the issue is caused either by the hardware in the charger or by the type of integration between the charge point and the back office. When the back office tells the charger to start, it tells it how much money to allow the customer to spend before stopping. There's no way to update that amount mid-charge if the customer tops-up. If it's hardware, that's non-trivial to fix especially with the manufacturer gone out of business.

EasyGo don't have technical ownership over their app, their back-office or their chargers so there's not much they do to customise it or make the experience better for the customer. This is where Tesla and others that are vertically integrated have a huge advantage.

Your second point is probably entirely commercial - easyGo and eCars want the money up front from prepaid customers - they don't want to have to chase unpaid invoices from customers, especially when it's trivial for the customer to leave the debt and open another account. Again, Tesla have a huge advantage here because it's trivial for them to block you from SuperCharging again until you've paid.

CivilEx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122367198#Comment_122367198

Fair enough and good points made.

I think ESB are the "go to" or the "benchmark" against which all others are tested against though, and that's where EasyGo might be perceived to be more expensive. I see that behaviour in Castlebar for example where there will often be a queue on a Friday evening at the 50kW ESB charger

https://www.plugshare.com/location/80724

but there won't be anyone at either of the two 50kW EasyGo chargers which are literally 2 mins away on the same side of town…

https://www.plugshare.com/location/452759

https://www.plugshare.com/location/512377

On the face of it, people are willing to queue for 30 - 40 mins to save themselves €5 (40kWh @ €0.7 - €0.57), which I find hard to understand.

Maybe our discussion here on value for money has nothing to do with the public using EasyGo chargers (or not). EasyGo's social media engagement and generally raising awareness of their charger locations is non existent as far as I can see….they must be completely focused on rolling our new 50kW Tritium chargers around the country!

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122367812#Comment_122367812

There are other reasons why ecars might be worth queuing for over easygo. Easygo tritum chargers tend to be less reliable, some people might not have easygo accounts, in many counties, in Waterford for example, a lot of their chargers are single units so single point of failure risks. It could simply be that people have the time on their hands to burn. If it was me I wouldn't be bothered queuing to save a fiver personally speaking, I'd certainly be frugal enough to top up enough to get me to the next ESB charger but not enough to spend 45 minutes+ waiting on one

zg3409

Esb only dropped prices in recent weeks, they were both similar. I think lots of EV owners have no idea easygo even exists.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122369020#Comment_122369020

The HPC rate for ESB was 68c before the recent price drop so almost on par with easygo's 70c, presumably ESB will be dropping prices again later this year and at some point it will make financial sense for easygo to do similar or risk losing a lot of customers.

Easygo price increases were less reported on in the media probably because 2 years ago they were a much smaller operator. I think they might have been around the 55c mark pre-2020

cc

I think their niche/cash cow will be more on the shops, hotels AC charging. For DC at their current level of operations i'd expect they will always price higher against others