Random EV thoughts.....

I haven’t seen this before, where a specific bay at a hub is painted for disabled drivers. It’s in France (Normandy) and becoming more common there so might arrive here at some point in the future.

Is the site in Dundrum still the only one here?

Hi all,

I've a Passat GTE that with my commute, I've brimmed the tank 3 times since February. A full EV is long way off being spreadsheetably sensible, but I'm wondering is there any value left in importing a NI registered EV, and whether it's still possible to find one which escapes the post-Brexit customs and VAT.

Skoda, Kia or Hyundai is what I'd be interested in.

I know this is covered to death on the forum, but I'm hurtling towards a stage in life where I'm getting bogged down with information overload! So I figured I'd ask the people in the know. Thanks.

Considering petrol is currently way cheaper than diesel anf you’ve only bought 3 tankfuls of petrol in 6 months, I’d suggest you stick with the GTE if it’s in good shape.

This is Johnstown estate. 2 Tesla chargers, one Bay marked disabled. As they are tethered chargers it more difficult to park in the space on the left and stretch the charging cable to reach.

I'm terms of bringing in NI cars, yes it can be done. As the charger infrastructure is so bad in NI some people give up on fairly new EVs so you might get a bargain. As others have said your fuel savings may be negligible. You need to be 100% sure your import will satisfy all the criteria such as first bought in NI, and factor in the taxes and hassle.

Well the bay is marked as disabled parking, not disabled charging, at least based on the satellite view.

So it implies that a disabled person could park there even if they don't need to charge (which is a bit of a dilemma itself)

If that's the case, then I don't think you'd be okay to park up for a quick charge, because it should be kept free for disabled parking.

It's a slow charger anyway, so there probably won't be many stopping on for a quick charge anyway

You might be okay if you sat beside the car, but you'd realistically be standing there for over an hour

Why do you say that? It's a bit OTT that 50% of the chargers are reserved for disabled parking but it seems fair that there should be bays dedicated to disabled guests who have EVs

There should be 8 AC chargers to begin with...

I agree that the fact that it can be used for disabled parking without charging is a major oversight, and something that should be fixed. The bay should be for disabled charging only, not parking

However I think the idea of dedicated disabled charging bays is a good one. For someone with mobility problems a car is much more of a necessity than for the rest of us, so access to charging is important as well

With ICE cars it's difficult enough, forecourt attendants are gone now so disabled people either need to bring a helper or put up with the added hassle and do it themselves

At least forecourts have space to get a wheelchair out though, most AC chargers are just shoved into a normal bay

DC chargers are a bit better, but looking at the spaces around them I suspect many of them wouldn't meet the standard for disabled parking

So I think there's an opportunity to fix that problem and I think it's good to see some attempts to do so, however poorly thought out they might be

As I said though, it's OTT to make 1 of only 2 chargers a disabled parking space. The fact that chargers are scarce is the root of the problem, there should be more like 8 chargers

On that blue badge piece and not having an EV parking there. Recently I was in my local LIDL(very busy Saturday afternoon) and saw 2 people arguing over the charge bays. The car park was jammers and a lad parked his EV in the EV charging bay but was NOT charging. He came out to an angry EV owner and they proceeded to argue about why he was parked there and not charging. He said "The paint on the ground says e cars only, not EV charging only" and his car is an EV whether or not he is charging or not. Frankly I don't see too much fault in that argument but then again he shouldn't have blocked the space.

I'd say common sense isn't very common and people can be very selfish.

A guy in my local Tesco who drives a Prius PHEV used to park in one of the charging spots every day for about 3 months, and never plugged in, despite the carpark always only ever being about 30% full….

I posted a pic on an Irish EV Facebook page and within a day or 2 he stopped parking there and hasn’t done since!!

The introduction of charging has resulted in a miraculous improvement to the access to the Lidl charges near me. Previously one was occupied almost exclusively by a Model 3 while a BMW phev spent an inordinate amount of time on another. The introduction of charging must have coincided with a move of residence.

This guy works in Tesco so his car is parked there all day!!!! And he parked in one of the charging stops for the whole day!!! And I never saw it plugged in!!

Seeing as this is the random chat thread, I see that theres now, in total, 67,000 electric cars INCLUDING plugin hybrids in Ireland. I actually thought there was way more than that

The target is 1million target within the next 7 years, If my sums are right, thats a 1400% increase in EVs and potentially a 1400% increase in demand on chargers.

Thats a mindblowing increase in such a short space of time, and if theres fights over charging spaces now when there are relatively speaking very few EVs , this could escalate quickly

thats kindof the issue too though.

If its such a crazy figure, then the ESB and everyone else can sit back and say it'll never happen, so the charging and grid infrastructure dont get massively upgraded. And with a cr@p infrastructure, the attractiveness of EVs is limited, or at least tainted.

BUT then imagine if through regulation of ICEs/ grants for Evs/ love of infinate instantaneous torque - EVs suddenly do become popular and every year the guts of 150,000 Evs get registered in Ireland - there'd be carnage.

One thing that got me thinking of the chicken and egg question was the unbelieveable announcement in Germany a couple of weeks ago (who also have the greens in) that maybe it might actually be sensible to build the charging network BEFORE the anticipated gigantic imminent surge in EV purchases !!

The Greens have already walked back on that target, it's down to 935,000 or so

They're pushing public transport and cycling, which are both great except they aren't going to install proper infrastructure, so people will just stick to cars anyway

Business as usual in other words 🙄