Random EV thoughts.....

There are various ways that they could bring in an increased charge for powering your ev.

It could be just based on overall useage so a household gets so much standard rate units and pay heavy tax on anything over that.

Government being government would likely trigger the increased rate on direct useage not allowing for anything fed back.

They could also trigger high rate as soon as a wallbox is used via any form of data link.

I guess the main point here is that if an increased electricity charge is the way they go, people should be looking at solar pv with a completely different set of calcs. The payback time on pv based on very high electricity costs would be very short indeed and a complete no brainer.

I have large south and west facing roofs. That corner is an absolute suntrap so would be ideal.

I spend over 3k per year on petrol currently so really a nice ev and enough solar to run it should be the way forward.

Best to check the ID.4 thread

But as an owner for the past year here's the quick summary

Car is great, easy to drive, buckets of range, comfortable and plenty of space

Technology is not as great, the software is fine, basically everything works, but there's a lot of functions are poorly implemented and annoying to use. It is getting better, but very slowly

If I were buying again I'd test drive a Kia EV6, IMO it's the superior car at the moment with better software, faster DC charging and the V2L addon

In terms of golden age for EVs possibly, I mostly consider it as a tax dodge, low tax, very cheap to refill, dodging all fuel duties and taxes and vat, half price tolls which are due to go away soon.

Main issue is public charging is lacking behind demand at peak times, so there is a downside particularly on very long trips with a small battery EV. It could be argued it's a help only to middle classes who own their own home, have a driveway and have the budget to buy an EV.

Long term road tax (remember they never set EVs to zero road tax, just discounted), mileage based on NCT readings or self declared during motor tax renewal. It's a thing brought up regularly that the fuel taxes and new car sales taxes income will need to come from elsewhere. So grab it which you can and solar panel grants may be reduced in the coming years too, an EV is a great way to soak up excess solar. They already removed grants from home solar batteries, so a much larger EV battery makes sense.

I was doing some ABRP planning today and noticed that it picked Tesla SuC chargers in the UK both directions

Obviously ones that have been opened up since it knows my car (ID.4) and wasn't using them until recently

One thing I'm wondering is if ABRP favours Tesla sites since it was originally designed for Tesla owners? I haven't set Tesla to preferred in any of the settings so it should be default

Or does it just go for largest number of chargers en route, which tends to be Tesla sites anyway?

Saw my first Merc EQE out on the road earlier, prob a test drive from the local dealership. Did not look particularly impressive at all, surprisingly small with an odd stubby boot. If I knew nothing I'd think 50/60k rather than the mad money they actually are.

I've seen a couple of EQSs on the road and while I don't really like the styling at all, they do look a bit fancy.

I used to work with a guy who drove a Leaf40 from Ireland to Finland with his family

He said it was grand as long as you're willing to take your time. He did roughly one fast charge per day and an overnight charge, so pretty relaxed

I'm currently waiting on a PV install (or upgrade more like it) and went for as much as I could. Probably more than we'll use at least for a few years but partly based on the assumption that the government will sit on their hands and do SFA about the energy crisis... and costs will continue to rise. It's a big chunk we'll be paying now but will at least have some certainty/control over future home energy and running costs for the car.

Definitely I'd advise anyone getting solar to get the biggest system installed that you can.

Over the last 2 weeks I put 74kWh into my car, and only charged it twice from the grid (and only did that on Friday nights in anticipation of needing the range the following day which in the end I didn't need)

That 74kWh equates to around 650km of range based off my consumption figures over the same period.

I'm beyond impressed with the performance of the PV to date.

A few of us on the same street are interested in putting in solar. What sort of costs need to be invested to get real bang for the buck?

If there's a few of ye looking into it then would it be worthwhile to try and get a group discount of some sorts?

Excellent. Thank you.

I see Circle K Clonsaugh got planning permission for 4 HPC units

https://planning.agileapplications.ie/fingal/application-details/91720

No mention of output power, but from the drawings the chargers look similar to the units at Mayfield, but with 1 plugs per charger

Any sign of works starting? That'll finally be a badly needed charging hub for Dublin

The existing substation is about 2 years old, I think it was built for the hotel next door, or for the CNG filling station (they seemed to be built around similar times)

ESBN shouldn't be an issue, plenty of existing high-powered connections close by

The location is pretty ideal, almost too ideal. There tends to be a lot of cars and trucks parked around there, I'm worried the chargers will get ICED all the time

Me 3! That Carlow charging station will be a godsend for me driving Dublin to Dungarvan, Co Waterford. Fast chargers accessible from the motorway are "scarce" in Waterford and Kilkenny.