VW ID.3

Drove from Carlow to Shannon to West Clare in the Tour 5, 77 Kwh id3, went to Ennis fast charger, it was down, went to AC point for 35 mins and got around 7.5 Kwh, Got all this distance before charging in Ennis and had 45% battery left before plugging in.

From Carlow - M7 I drove 80-100 Km/Hr, then 120 all the way as much as possible to Shannon with some 130 stints and the limit the rest of the way.

Anyway, I didn't need to charge in Ennis but wanted some extra juice because I wasn't sure what driving I'd be doing over the weekend but it's likely I will have to rely entirely on AC points for topping up, being able to use the granny charger is a big +.

It's when you're far from home you really realise how absolutely terrible the Public charging infrastructure is in Ireland, when you need it it lets you down or just doesn't exist. When the fast chargers are down, it's mad in 2022 we still have only a single DC point in most places in Ireland, absolutely disgraceful.

I am absolutely delighted I got the 77 Kwh battery, the difference is just amazing and means I have to rely a lot less on the public infrastructure.

On the way down the Obama plaza had 1 EV charging and 1 waiting, we stopped in because the lads were getting hungry, I wouldn't have bothered plugging in at around 75% anyway, again, only 1 single charger in a busy motorway service station, The same car was still charging by the time we left. it's beyond a joke at this stage.

Update on our trip in the id3 77 Kwh over the holiday weekend, set off 17 th returned yesterday afternoon 20th.

Carlow to West coast coast of Clare, stopped off in Shannon first, and driving around Clare, total trip unknown, never recorded, id3 makes trip reading difficult without resetting long term. But there was a decent amount of driving around Clare.

Charging was 35 mins on AC in Ennis, as DC was dead.

At Holiday Home granny lead over night to 60%

1 hr 30 mins AC point in Kilkee

On way back 35 mins Obama plaza to 60% got back home 35%

Motorway speeds all the way with some 130 Km/hr stints ( clock speeds )

Fabulous car, and thank God for the 77 Kwh, the extra range is just fantastic but the public charging infrastructure is disgraceful and an embarrassment to the Country and there is not going to be a big improvement any time soon. It's just really great to have so much range to begin with as it greatly cuts down on public charging.

Imagine not even a single ac point at the Cliffs of Moher ?

It would be nice if VW installed a 20 Kw AC charger, I can't imagine they will but if many other countries have 22 KW AC points then this is a tremendous waste of infrastructure, or just replace them with 2 x 20 Kw DC units but I'm not sure if any with CCS and CHaDeMo exist in the one unit ?

Edited to include Shannon stop on way to Ennis, so got from Carlow to Shannon to Ennis and had 35% left, all 120 and 130 Km/hr stints.

I think most people would think the same, I guess VW think slow charging DC is good in 2022, a 84 kwh battery should in my opinion be able to charge in a much shorter time, perhaps not this one, in my experience fast charging the id3 is a very painful experience when connected to a high power charger its just not worth spending the extra money especially for esb.

maybe the warmer temps in summer might make a difference except when you go to the west where the coverage of hpc is non existent and 50 kW are very rare and only single charger sites, absolute joke the esb.

I know what they meant that's why I suggested maybe the peak rate might fall off at around 10%.

At 35% I expect more than 50 Kw in fairness, but got 60KW from Ionity same SOC, not good enough, it's a joke! But temps were around 13 Deg C which won't help.