ESB eCars

Here's hoping. We need more hubs. There's only one ecars hub and that's at Mayfield and still doesnt work correctly.

I wasnt aware, I assumed like most JPF/PFJ comments it referred to the Irish groups. I dont remember why I was banned it was years ago - I thought you were the/a modmin over there hence the italics. Apologies in that

In some areas yes but if you take Dublin airport as an example I'm pretty confident they can manage to spare more than 50kW

Same for the M1 services, the north-south high voltage interconnector literally runs along the side of the road

I would imagine in many cases that neither ESB or the site owner is willing to pay for the required grid connection

This is why I think the model they're using in Norway is great where several charging providers might colocate to share the cost of grid upgrades

Just thinking about my local area and the charging options.

Terenure - 0 public charger

Rathgar - 0 public charger

Rathmines - 1 charger in a Tesco carpark that locks it's gate at night and you can only stay for a maximum of 2 hours (patrolled and you must pay to park).

Ranelagh - 1 public charger. In a clearway so you can only park there at certain times and it's very expensive to pay for parking.

So that's local to me. There is a charger at the local petrol station but that is constantly in use. Yesterday there were 2 leafs (1 was a taxi) parked there and an ID3. Today as I drove past there was an MG taxi charging. Last Friday night at 11 there was a taxi charging. I have never seen a charger so busy.

The ranelagh one is baffling. Loads of houses with on street parking and no driveways in a very affluent area and there is 1 charger. How can you encourage EV uptake when the network is useless?

In reality ESB ecars want hand outs for all new chargers. They have delivered very few new sites, instead swapping some existing AC units for DC units. They have said they don't intend providing new AC sites, presumably as they don't make money after the maintenance costs are factored in. In the UK the exact same Irish organisation have won tenders and have rolled out more when paid to do so. Here they don't seem interested in anything that might require any grid upgrades. On the M1 for example multiple 50kW units even load shared or limited to maximum service station power would be far better than single DC chargers with queues. Indeed there is not even back up AC chargers next to the DC chargers. In many ways it's the government's fault and the greens don't seem really interested in EVs. Some of that grant money for new cars and home chargers, should be put into tenders for hubs at locations with grid connections ready. I can see future hubs being where high voltage lines meet motorways, but if course you need the local transformers and grid connections to exist. Easygo are hiring staff and plan big, hopefully it will wok out for them as their customer service is better than average. Easygo have said their business model is mostly single DC chargers max 75kW, but they have 2 units next to each other in kinnegad.

Other operators would still be relying on ESB-time in a tendered SLA arrangement. Their Glassworks site in the UK would have had local supply done by others. The press release stated it was done with Siemens Mobilty as partner, so can't be sure if ESB did anything other than win the contract :)

That must run into billions?

Aside from logging issues with chargers through the app, which feels like screaming into a black void

Is there anywhere else I should register issues with the new 50kw chargers when I come across them?

There are a few handily dotted along my regular cross country route which would be handy to have working when the rapids are busy

I have checked my history and have successfully charged at units in Kenmare and Waterford so it is not my car that is at fault

Phone the helpline while at the charger and they may do reset while you are there, and conclude it's not working and send out an engineer to test it. It's more likely to result in a repair, but I have seen dodgy chargers for more than a year not fixed until they fully broke.

I also recommend putting a comment on plugshare app so others are warned, as typically the esb app says all is ok, even when they know the charger is broken. They only mark a charger as broken on esb app after an engineer visits, tests it, cannot fix it, only then will it be marked as down on esb app, so if it breaks on a Friday it may show ok all weekend until engineer visits on say a Tuesday.

I know many Zoe owners have issues at AC chargers where the charger has a bad earth, the Zoe cares and won't charge, but others and the engineers can charge so all those faults remain unfixed for years. At least Zoe owners can put a comment on plugshare and other Zoe owners can avoid that charger.

Another place to try push esb us to get in touch with Irish EV owners association. They have regular meetings with esb and they bring up issues to top management. If you had a list of good & bad chargers, dates and exact times, account number, they might do a look into issue. That said Zoe owners failed for years to get their problems fixed.

Don't read to much into the state of charger shown on the map. Recently we discussed the issue of map showing the state of the chargers unrelated to their actual state. Like in use when they are free and the other way around, unavailable or faulty and someone is charging, all combinations you can think off. Browse few pages back. It wasn't always like this but right now, the map or the "show only available" filter are not to be trusted.