Off Topic Thread 5.0

The grant scheme in both housing and transport is very poorly thought out IMHO. There seems to be no joined up thinking. I dont know one person who has a EV.

That depends in some ways on what people need too. We recently got a second hand Leaf. We haven’t got the charger installed yet (you know the issue we have there!) but once we do the majority of our driving will be done in that. Because most of our driving is within a 30-40km radius. Others, like CM above, have very different needs though and a second hand Leaf with 100-120km range might not be worth much to them.

Getting the Leaf has also meant we can take some time figuring out what we want to do with the main car. Do we want to go hybrid or fully EV. But most importantly we don’t need to do either for the moment.

For the fellas out there, where's decent to buy a suit in Dublin/the Pale these days? It's been quite a while since I've gotten one. For a wedding - not business - if that helps.

In my (very) limited experience people tend to be very decent about that stuff. They move on pretty quick. Depending on the charger there can be time limits set anyway where you get charged a premium for going over it. We’ve yet to have a wait of more than 5 or 10 mins.

From what I’ve seen even the 50kW chargers give you about 80-100km range in 30-40 mins. So if they get a decent amount of the higher speed chargers in over the next while there would be no need for people to be charging for much more than 30-40 mins max. And that would be to get low to high. I’d imagine in most cases they’d be used for top ups so nothing like those timelines.

For us, we would always stop on longer trips too so a stop for 30 mins would be pretty normal. If you don’t want to stop then you’d probably need to be sure you’ve a way to charge when you get to your destination.

To answer your question, vast majority of charging is done at home.

You'd want to have planned a journey very poorly if you end up queueing somewhere almost out of power.

Typically people would start looking for a charge at around 30%, so that they have multiple options of places to charge. The apps inform you which charge points are in use and which are available.

The bigger battery Enyaq had a WLTP of 516km or thereabouts so the 400km should be doable in that one. There are a few with WLTPs in excess of 500km, which basically means 400-450km real world AFAIK, including motorway. The rule of thumb seems to be 80% of the WLTP for something like this from what I’ve seen.

EDIT: But yes, on those journeys you’d need a charger at the other end unless you’re willing to stop and refill on the way.

I believe that Brasil runs most of their vehicles on sugar alcohol. They switched during the 70's. Petrol was too expensive at the time.

Get a Tesla and stop at the Birdhill supercharger. You'll get around 40 - 50% back Into the battery as quick as you can have a slash and grab a coffee.

I do Dublin to inch beach a few times a year. I can make it without stopping (320kms) but with kids and the dog it's easier to stop for a leg stretch and to let the dog get some water and go to the toilet.

The public charging network outside of Tesla's superchargers is beyond useless. ESB installing chargers than can theoretically charge 3 cars at high speeds but then add a slow charger to it. One car uses this, blocks 2 spaces and now it can charge one car at high speed. Seriously you should check out how they place them. Put them in petrol stations against a wall thus stopping a car from using it from the front and rear.

They recently installed 2 fast chargers on sir John Roberson's quay in Dublin. Didn't bother painting the ground and it's just another parking bay for diesels. Taxi drivers parking on the footpath to charge!!

They installed a 150kw fast charger in blanchardstown shopping centre. Most cars only need 20 minutes on this for a big hit. So why put it in the middle of the busiest shopping centre in Ireland? Any of the service stations on the M3 would be easier to access.

ESB cars are beyond useless.

Yep. Batteries are getting better every year with less degradation than before.

Older cars are being stripped off their batteries and people are using them as powerwalls for their home (solar storage).