Random EV thoughts.....

For anyone wondering about what will happen to petrol stations then I would take a look below

Probably one of the oldest petrol stations in Europe has converted to a charging hub, 6x 300kW chargers with 2 plugs each

Walk around video

So there'll be fuel providers that see which way the wind is blowing, and then there'll be the ones that go out of business

Over here, I'd say Applegreen is leading the way, Circle K is talking big but has yet to actually deploy any chargers.

Maxol is moaning about grid costs but installing a few hubs

Meanwhile Texaco and Certa apparently think the future is fracking or something. They're probably waiting for gaslight to make a big comeback 😂

I know some easily doing 2-300km one way for a morning start and then onsite, may leave and head to another location, stay in a hotel and repeat. Sales guys do same or more and since the motorway network will try and head home rather than hotels. Many of the standard hotels don't have charging from what I see.

BTW, I'm only asking the question. I don't know how many guys are on the road but we have some and my competitors do also. Lots of small van couriers shttling stuff around the country also for emergency spare parts etc. There is still a resonable amount of manufacturing in the country all with capital equipment that needs maintaining, repairs, servicing etc.

I suppose what I am saying badly is that this sector is the high miler high polluter and would have a more significant impact if they could shift to EV than Mr Murphy who has a 15km commute to work yet there doesn't seem a plan to get fast DC charging everywhere, its a bit like the national broadband plan if you could even call it a plan.

It would be remarkably easy to swing majority of new car orders to EV overnight if there was political will. Double the VRT for cars emitting over say 10 gCO2/km every year from now on. Increase the motor tax rates for any new non-low emissions registrations every year (but keep the current rates intact for now). Remove VRT from vehicles between 0 and 9 gCO2/km. The latter would allow selling hybrids with very large batteries for people who genuinely need drive long distances in the areas without public charging. But it would very quickly stop sales of legacy vehicles to stop the consumer doing the wrong thing and buying a car with no future resale value.

Do VLTP emissions testing from cold with cabin temperatire set to 21'C to ensure the single digit CO2 vehicles actually work as as EVs for shorter trips without the engine kicking in for heating.

Ireland is such a small market that every manufacturer that wanted to continue selling vehicles here would just have to divert EVs here or cease to trade. Think Norway as the role model. Above would mean that the price parity of EVs and ICE would happen overnight. Instead of new ICE sales concentrate on after sales as it would be better to maintain the current ICE fleet and not to spend any more resources building soon to be obsolete cars.

All of the above would, of course, be shot down by lobbyists influencing the weak government. Why do you think we have that 231-reg nonsense?

I would also be in favour of a more rapid changeover to EV from ICE. However we do need to recognise that not everybody can afford a new car and while the TCO might make sense, there are a lot of people living month to month in Ireland and who aren't in a financial position to buy with either new or 2nd hand EV. There are probably many who could, if they had assistance in arranging finance.

We have to be mindful of the law of unintended consequences. Constraining the number of new ICEs being sold while there is a less than adequate supply of new EVs will lead to a reduction in the supply and in increase in price of 2nd hand ICEs. I would also be wary of making comparisons to Norway. Besides being an awfully boring place to live :), they are a petro-state with huge financial resources and a difficult model to follow even for well-off Ireland.

@josip - nobody is forced to buy any new EVs from 2030 onwards. People have until 2046 to switch over. By then a second hand early Leaf will probably cost about €500 and have 3km range left 😂 Fully charge from your solar PV panels for free in no more than 5 minutes 🤣

It's not bad if the second hand ICE goes up in price, it will give incentive to keep them in good repair and the local businesses happy. Keep your current car until you're ready to go for the EV.

To me it doesn't make any sense adding more new ICE on the road in 2023 instead. The new EVs on the other hand will become second hand EVs.

Big trucks are years away? Tesla truck can do the guts of 1000km on one charge if sticking to EU speed limits, does any truck ever do that sort of mileage this country? If so, probably only a tiny, tiny minority.

Yeah unfortunately the Tesla truck isn't really suitable for European roads. The cab over engine style is popular here to fit the max trailer size in

I guess it's cab over battery for an electric truck 🤔

Looks like Volvo have got some customers for their electric trucks

Range is somewhat less at 300km but as you say, how much do they realistically need

The big question is around load, they're rated up to 44 tonnes gross weight, but there's an open question as to how much of that can be payload

No doubt an electric truck weighs more than 2 tonnes extra than a diesel truck is allowed over there, maybe add another 2 tonnes that is taken from max payload for a long range one? Anyway I'd say the fuel saving alone is well worth the 5% or so less payload. And I reckon more often than not a truck is not loaded above 95% of its max payload anyway, in which case it makes no difference. This is hugely disruptive, even more so than cars as the decision to by a truck is purely rational and based on cost. Not based on all sorts of irrational things like in people buying cars because liking things of the olden days they are used to, people buying certain brands out of habit, brand loyalty, etc.

I think I saw an electric Daf at their sales location on the Naas road but could be wrong.

End of life is a debatable point. It would generally be when the cosy of servicing a car is more than the cost of replacement

What we've seen with used car prices going up is that those older cars are being kept going longer because it isn't economical to replace them

So it isn't like those cars are going to suddenly disappear in 2030. The only thing that changes is that you can't buy a new ICE

Personally I'd much prefer everyone switched over to EVs now but that isn't realistic

They're already doing that because there's a shortage of second hand ICE Shortages of EVs won't last forever, and there's already signs of prices tapering off in the future

I'm not really getting your point, all the EVs sold today will be 8 years old by 2030 and presumably will have lost a lot of value

And like I said, ICE ownership isn't being banned in 2030, there'll still be second hand cars for people to buy

So I disagree that apartment blocks and denser housing are the future

They SHOULD be the future for cities like Dublin but realistically it'll never happen outside the direct city centre because Irish property taxes incentivise higher value properties, and people in Ireland have some psychotic obsession with low density housing

Anyway, assuming some sudden reversal of attitudes, then it's definitely going to be a bit of an issue

I suppose it's worth keeping in mind that if the government is really serious about providing decent public transport and reducing the need for cars then the demand for chargers in apartments won't be as big

Frankly there needs to be some stick applied to force the provision of chargers

I suspect a levy on councils and management companies that fail to provide chargers would be pretty effective

The technology to provide decent public charging is readily available, there's just a complete lack of leadership or direction in that area

Let's see what 2030 brings in terms of an improved supply of EVs across the full range of car / van categories. It may well be the case that supply issues will be resolved and it will be possible to buy a new EV, other than a Tesla, within a reasonable period of time.

It may also be the case that the public charging infrastructure will be significantly improved so that EVs will work for everyone especially people doing serious distances or who do not have access to home charging.

However, one thing for sure we are not currently in a position to implement measures to stop people buying ICEs. Looking forward to witnessing how well the phased transition to new EVs only will progress over the next 7 years.