ESB eCars

I wonder will it deter the taxis?

I was in the square earlier. A taxi leaf was just coming off the 50kw. An ID4 taxi pulled in immediately. Another ID4 taxi was waiting opposite it. I parked at the 22kw and started charging. As I was walking away another ID4 taxi pulled in beside the one waiting.

My local "fast" charger is Templeville and I can't remember the last time I've passed it that there isn't a taxi either charging or waiting to charge.

With those price increases I wlll close my eCars 'members' account and go Easy-go exclusive. They now seem to be lower cost on many of their own sites and on say Lidls network, while still offfering eCars locations if I need them.

ECars membership probably never made sense for my usage, but I kept it out of laziness. I accepted the price changes earlier in 2022 as energy inflation, these new prices seem excessive to me vs average domestic (never mind commercial) rates.

I have thought for some time that charging providers will gravitate to the same cost/km as diesel and petrol. This is because motorists elastically bear the cost of petrol / diesel, eve when they sharply incline. EV drivers like any other motorist have the same transport needs. Ionity proved this in ROI, and others are following. And at around 15c a kilometre, I believe ESB eCars are in that ball park now, and I would suggest they will stay there even when electricity prices eventually fall.

Awaiting volumes of press commentary showing car charging is now more expensive than diesel or petrol; these articles will ignore that EV drivers can charge at home (and still in some places for free), because the net point must be that going EV is still a mad move. These Perfect timing for 231 car sale advertorials.

And if you're on an AC43 Triple head you have to pay 65c for the privilege.😮

Close to diesel money for an old unreliable charger.

Gas been used today will be costing a price from weeks/months ago.

Would take time for lower prices to filter through into lower energy cost.

Also buying gas in advance is more expensive than day ahead

This is the big problem with these price increases.....

The ICE driver looks at them and thinks that the EV world will be a total disaster.

The good news however is that these energy price issues impact everyone whether you drive an EV or not.

So action much more likely to be taken when you consider that the local shop, factory or hotel all of which provide jobs - are impacted.

Ironically Maxol in the North are currently building a new filling station with a charging hub at it.

Did the Maxol guy on newstalk say if they had any EV plans in 26 counties

It’s price gouging on a grand scale, wholesale gas prices falling for the last 4 months and in October were at 50% of the August prices. Not to mention that Wind power is surely not affected by Russia. Government electricity subsidies only fuelling the issue.

50% of august is still many times higher than January

Here is an article from Irish Times re: Maxol, same day as their interview on Newstalk.

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2022/11/17/maxol-casts-light-on-governments-climate-lethargy/

Its behind a paywall, but here are some of the comments in it.

"Amid reports the Government may scale back its plan to have one million such vehicles on Irish roads by 2030, Maxol chief executive Brian Donaldson told reporters on Tuesday the firm is not minded go out and build EV hubs at its branches in the Republic. “There isn’t a business case to support that,” he said."

It goes on to say it will begin rolling out an EV strategy, with hub to open in North. But then cites the problems. "One issue with the rollout, however, is grid capacity and the sheer volume of electricity required to operate the five-charger facility, equivalent to the electricity consumption of 12-14 houses, he said."

Like getting power for a dozen houses - a once off job - is insurmountable, or that a fuel station typically has 30,000 or more litres of fuel capacity (twice as much fuel per day that 12 houses would use in a year), or that those tanks must be filled daily with oil from across the planet, etc, etc,etc.

He then finishes by saying that EVs are not really selling anyway. "Moreover, despite a significant uptick in sales of hybrids and EVs in recent years, demand for fossil-fuelled vehicles remains robust and Donaldson said Maxol doesn’t envisage a significant drop-off in fuel sales until possibly the 2030s."

No surprise that oil man wants to keep selling oil, the point is these stories print / broadcast without any counter commentary & Joe & Jane soap say they might go EV next time they change their car.

That's hilarious, I think what he meant to say was "we don't want to pay what ESBN is demanding for a grid connection"

To be fair, I suspect that for Maxol the business case is a bit more dubious because they don't have a franchise shop IIRC

Applegreen and Circle K have their own shops (to the extent that Circle K is now replacing Londis shops). So they easily profit by drivers being stuck there for a while

Not sure Maxol have the same motivation when they're profit sharing with other shop franchises

My point is that European electricity wholesale prices are a bad comparison to make when hiking your own price. Also are ESB (of which ecars is a subsidiary) not the main wholesaler in this country?

I hear you. This certainly hits people with no chargers at home far harder, it is an extortionate price rise by any measure and its clear to me that eCars are protecting a margin / not absorbing any of the wholesale cost rise. They also lead the market and others will follow suit. Again, I believe car charging networks know the market will bear high pricing, and that essentially the cost of driving an EV is being set to match the cost of fossil fuel per km, not the unit or wholesale cost of electricity.

What is happening is that charger providers are transferring the one of the key benefits of ev ownership (low cost motoring) for themselves. They keep the difference between cost of electricity and cost of diesel. When CEO of Maxol cops on to that, he might change his tune, as the margin per 1,000 km must be 50 times greater than the margin on diesel.

The effect of these price rises , as mentioned just 1hr ago by Geraldine Herbert on Newstalk, is that EVs are now a "harder sell". Geraldine, who I always regarded as a fair commentator on EVs, now recommends not buying an EV unless you can charge at home. Very sensible, very fair comment. People driving diesel and petrol cars, guess what, don't have home charging - so getting this alien machine, sorting an install, completing paperwork, paying out more money - this is another 'mad' barrier to moving to EV when all you want is a 231 as soon as.

Someone above mentioned government policy as being key to EV take up. Public network charging rates used to be free 'by policy', its clear they are no longer an instrument of public policy.

Look up commercial electricity tariffs. Look up MIC demand charges and the penalty for exceeding these. Then tell me how selling electricity at a fancy 100-150k charger for similar rates to the base electricity rate is gouging? I actually don't see how these make money.

I'd dispute this. Forget the price of electricity rising and comparisons to petrol. Given the lack of charging infrastructure in this country, if you cant change at home (or work), then buying an EV has never made much sense.

My comment on Govt Policy on EV take up doesnt relate to the price of electricty. It relates primarily to taxation (VRT & Motor tax) and provision of charging infrastructure.

Govt policy is the most significant factor in determining the makeup of the national fleet.