Lidl will start charging from 8th July

colhickey

Lidl Stores have advised that effective from Friday 8th July 2022, payment for EV charging will be introduced at the following tariffs:

Republic of Ireland:

• AC Chargers 40c per kWh
• DC Chargers 45c per kWh

Northern Ireland:

• AC Chargers 36p per kWh
• DC Chargers 41p per kWh

vinniem

This is a first for NI also!

Lgt

With Electric car being more popular, it was deemed to happen, they wont be anymore free charging in NI or anywhere including workplace. My bet next year will be the introduction of bik if charging your personal electric car at work.

joe1303l

Hardly surprising given the way that Taxi drivers etc. generally abused the AC charging.

I don’t think too many folks will pay such a rate for AC charging unless they have no home charging facility.

For many EV’s that have limited AC charging abilities, 7kw per hour isn’t really worth bothering with unless you need a slow top up to get home.

Fantana2

Hope this kills AC and they replace them with DC.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119279357#Comment_119279357

Was thinking that myself

creedp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119277348#Comment_119277348

Agree it had to happen with the big increase in EV numbers over last few years. At least it will bring to a halt the significant no of non Lidl shoppers camped out at these chargers in future. Always amazes me to see €50k+ long range cars camped out at these chargers, unless of course they have no home chargers.

the_amazing_raisin

Can I just say the title of this thread is hilariously misleading, makes it sound like Lidl groceries were free until now 😁

Genghis

At those prices I think the Lidl chargers will simply not be used. Perhaps the intention is green virtue signalling, that is certainly the only benefit I can see to Lidl from making them available (and being fair to them, at least they have added them). They would probably be better returning the car spaces to normal ones.

I base this on my local shopping centre who 12 months ago, and with much publicity, added 4 AC chargers. Priced at I think 40c, maybe a bit more, I have yet to see one of these ever used. And I always check. Got excited one time when a car was parked in one; on closer inspection it was an ICE using the space closest to the entrance.

For places like shopping centres and supermarkets, where most customers live within 5% range and stay for under an hour, paying up to 5 times the price of charging at home makes no sense. It results in a car space that nobody uses.

the_amazing_raisin

Unless there's a lot of people in the area who can't get a home charger, although a DC charger would be better for a supermarket

Grumpypants

I know a few people who don't have a home charger and have to charge on the street. So this would at least be a better option than that as you could do your shopping at the same time.

Lidl near me has a coffee shop as part of it now so it would be good if you wanted to meet for a cuppa and top up.

whisky_galore

Honeymoon's over. Stump up.

ELM327

I lived for almost a month in an airbnb with a short range EV (ioniq28) and had to rely on public charging. We were near a lidl but it was always occupied for hours at a time by phevs. I'm not surprised they introduced charging for charging. Hopefully now they start putting in DC instead of AC chargers at their stores and multiple DCs at that. 45-60 minutes on 50kW DC would perfectly charge most newer bigger batteries while shopping.

slave1

If it was me I'd remove all AC charging (unless a separate section for EEs) and introduce high enough costs with subsidised cost upon validation of a till receipt covering charging time e.g. 40% if €40+ spend, something like that. There's a LIDL app so something like this is achievable.

ELM327

There's a lidl app but no integration with the chargers which are on easygo app.

It's a good idea, similar to tesco money off at tesco fuel stations. Bit of integration and it would work. If Chris Kelly or someone from easygo is watching there's plenty of folk here that could do it I'd say !

Calahonda52

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119277348#Comment_119277348

wont happen as lots of PS staff have them and free charging, same as no bik on car parking, PS dont/wont pay it.

For what it is worth, the civil service mileage rate bands were designed based on optimum take for the PS at the 1500 to 5500 band

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119288030#Comment_119288030

Yes, absolutely. Spend €50 in store and get 50kWh free charging (or maybe 100kWh 😁)

That would do a lot of folks for a week of driving and if Lidl made DC chargers standard then you could do a week's shopping and get a week's driving for free at the same time

Costs Lidl almost nothing since they're probably getting the electricity at a much lower rate than what the customer is paying

Miscreant

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119288579#Comment_119288579

I doubt they will give away €20 worth of charging with a €50 purchase, but you never know. 🙂

Lidl and EasyGo are businesses and are there to make money. I am not surprised that they are beginning to have a fee for charging. Our local Lidl has 2 "free" (as in no pay) chargers, and they are both forever taken up with taxis. At least this will release some capacity so that others can charge their cars if they absolutely need to. At 40c per kWh, I won't be, but then again, I have a PHEV and only ever used the charger once to see what the EasyGo experience was like... barely got 1kWh out of it by the time my shopping was done. I think home charging (even at current day rate prices) would be a lot cheaper and I would imagine that most people don't trundle into a Lidl without enough juice to get home.

Red Silurian

Don't think anybody is against Lidl/Easygo introducing this, but those prices are crazy. Especially crazy when Lidl are known for their value on other goods. Personally I used to use the one near me within the prescribed limits but there were indeed taxis using them all day. I can see them being very quiet in the future

From the easygo email they seem to be blaming it entirely on Lidl, while Lidl have said nothing... This would suggest to me that up until now Lidl had been paying easygo a fixed amount per kWh used, hence free AC and cheap DC. I'm thinking that easygo wanted more per kWh and Lidl refused.

Although admittedly I don't know what way these corporate contracts work so take my assumption with a pinch of salt.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119288898#Comment_119288898

Yeah I definitely multiplied that out wrong, I somehow got 50kWh costing €5 🤦‍♂️

Still, Dunnes give €10 voucher for €50 spent so maybe Lidl will give €10 charging credit

The AC units are really not suited to supermarkets. I think the longest I can do a weekly shop in is about 1 hour, and that's assuming I'm going at a slow pace and there's a queue

In that time I would manage a whopping 11kWh, or 14% charge

It's enough that the trip to Lidl would mean I've more battery than when I've left, but as you say unless it's free there's no reason to bother

However with a 50kW unit, I'd get a 65% charge, easily enough for a weeks driving for me

So if I'd no access to a home charger, and I wanted an EV, and the local Lidl had a DC charger, I'd probably be doing my weekly shopping and charging there. Even at 45c/kWh it's still cheaper than petrol