Applegreen own brand chargers

bricky06 · 22-01-2023 5:09pm

Has anyone gotten good speeds out of Coyne's cross?

I pulled in today to test out DC for the first time on my new Ioniq 5, preconditioning got the battery to minimum 19c and SOC was 25% when I arrived. There was a Leaf charging on charger 1 so I plugged in to charger 2 and only got 20kW. I thought maybe it needs time to ramp up!?

The leaf leaves a few minutes later and my charger drops to 8kW (!). I move to the CCS on charger one, battery minimum temperature is now 21c, and immediately get 58kW but it doesn't go any higher so I get a little top up but then give up.

Is something wrong my side or are these 180kW chargers all running off the same grid connection that was serving the ESB 50kW?

ELM327 · 23-01-2023 9:44am

Coynes Cross had 4 cars charging at once, when I was there before christmas. I wasnt planning on charging but decided to try it. My battery is LFP and hadnt been preheating so I only got 22kW. All other cars were charging and seemed to be getting OK speeds.

There were additional charger cabinets installed so it's not just using the cabinet feeding the old efacec.

the_amazing_raisin · 23-01-2023 10:40am

We'll need to find Applegreen's Anna and get on her case about the slow charging speeds there

I wonder if it's possible that they got some sort of variable power grid connection? As in ESBN can limit the site for grid balancing purposes and in return Applegreen get a cheaper rate or something?

eltoastero · 23-01-2023 11:35am

After watching a recent "out of spec reviews" video about their new twitter account "at RateYourCharge", Kyle convinced me to change how I leave ratings on Plugshare and ZapMap, where I'll leave a separate check in or comment for each attempted charging session. So if my first attempt fail that's a negative check in, even if my second attempt worked with good speeds (that's a separate positive check in). The idea is to increase visibility to other users and the operators that there was a poor charging experience.

As I look at the Coynes Cross reviews I see (what I expect is bricky06's check in) stating 20kW on one charger and 58kW on the other, I'd probably leave a negative check in for the 20kW session and probably a negative check in for the 58kW session (he/she should be getting way more than 58kW at 25% after pre-conditioning).

Poor charging speeds on an expensive network won't win us over either, IONITY are still best in class (for non-Tesla owners)

bricky06 · 23-01-2023 12:08pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120145260#Comment_120145260

I like that approach, I will update plugshare. Is it reasonable to check in with a negative 'could not charge' when technically you can charge but not sufficiently? I'm only a week into the EV world so still getting used to this stuff.

I must validate my experience by spinning down to Ionity in Gorey at some stage.

ELM327 · 23-01-2023 1:06pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120145378#Comment_120145378

22kW at a 150kW unit is not charging correctly.

eltoastero · 23-01-2023 1:10pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120145378#Comment_120145378

I'd be interested to hear the opinion of others here, maybe my approach is harsh (but if one of the chargers works and another doesn't then a single successful check looks like 10 / 10 success rate, but both a positive and negative rating give a more accurate 5 / 10 rating).

I see a lot of sites on plugshare with a "10" rating which would indicate it's perfect all of the time, If the rating on plugshare is to be considered useful it should accurately reflect the performance of the charging site.

the_amazing_raisin · 23-01-2023 1:27pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120145642#Comment_120145642

I kinda feel like we've put up with a lot of crap from bad charging networks for years because EVs were in the early adoption stage

Now they're increasingly mainstream and charging networks have to be held to account

It's a bit subjective how bad the charging speed has to be to get a negative review. However I would imagine if the charger is supplying less than 50% of its advertised power without explanation then that would count

The one issue with Plugshare is that nobody in an official position is tracking it. There doesn't seem to be any oversight of EV charging in terms of monitoring of user experience and uptime, and I don't recall anything in the recently released EV infrastructure strategy that changed any of that

However if we can at least build a body of evidence as users then it makes it a lot harder to explain away these issues. Plugshare and monitoring pages like Ecars stats (and the soon to be launched Applegreen stats, as soon as @Black_Knight forgoes the right to sleep 😁) will help in this regard

innrain · 23-01-2023 2:55pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120145642#Comment_120145642

I believe you are correct. Most likely I would have left as 22 kW is not rapid charging in any way. Of course it really depends on one's circumstances. On plugshare not many people type in the charging speed but it is still useful to find out those that don't work at all. It doesn't help as the AG site is a inheritance of ESB so it has a good rating which doesn't deserve. Plugshare does not display ratings for just a few votes.

Black_Knight · 23-01-2023 3:22pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120145716#Comment_120145716

Getting there

Just need to update a couple of scripts to batch up the daily, and 4 weekly data and pull that into the site. No rush though, 1. there's feck all usage to care about. 2. I need a week of data to batch a week of data, 3. I need 4 weeks of data to bother batching 4 weeks of data.

I think www.ecars-stats.com will remain though. Probably even just lob the applegreen sites into the same drop down (feedback welcome) as the esb units. I'll build out the graphs too and host them like I've just done with the esb ones. Ideally i'd have a map (filterable by socket, day, time), but time/effort/reward makes it hard to justify. Some day perhaps.

vinniem · 23-01-2023 3:58pm

Plugged into 180kw ccs charger in Paulstown last night with about 10% SOC. Only stayed connected for 10mins as had enough to get home but also because charging speed was shite at 52kw max. Only me there as other 180kw CCS was out of service! Not great for first time using AG.. Ionity only show in town and also 2c cheaper/kw!!

But also it is great to have another charger on M9.. Grateful for that 😀

Black_Knight · 23-01-2023 4:32pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120146601#Comment_120146601

At about 8:15, 8:20? (not stalking, just trying to verify the data i'm pulling is accurate.

bricky06 · 23-01-2023 4:42pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120145716#Comment_120145716

I wonder would the CRU (Commission for Regulation of Utilities) be the right body to start providing some oversight here now that the charging infrastructure is starting to become more privatised. Since these companies are now providing a utility that is already under their remit would the CRU have a responsibility to regulate these providers be default?

the_amazing_raisin · 23-01-2023 5:04pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120146829#Comment_120146829

Depends on who you ask, a lot of EV users would say that charging providers should be regulated

The CRU seems to disagree, and given the head of the CRU couldn't answer questions regarding standing charges on RTE recently, I'm not holding out hope

vinniem · 23-01-2023 6:14pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120146783#Comment_120146783

Yeah around 820pm I'd say 👍

ELM327 · 24-01-2023 11:04am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120146829#Comment_120146829

When I met with the CRU (then CER) they were clear and definitive that this was outside their scope.

zg3409 · 24-01-2023 11:23am

In terms of ratings better to say on plugshare you got a charge but put down low speed and a comment of which charger is faster. Speeds may increase when esb is gone and maybe settings increased. Ionity have had speed issues on many chargers. It's hard for typical users to check properly as most have no idea on battery temperature and cars charging rate, some cars don't display charging speed on the car too. Definitely many sites and or chargers can't reach the maximum speeds even under ideal conditions and in many cases they have a premium fee for theoretically faster units. Many chargers have a number of modules, say 4 and it's not uncommon for one or two to be broken.

bricky06 · 24-01-2023 12:18pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120149629#Comment_120149629

That's a shame. We are probably a few years off EV adoption reaching a critical mass so that enough noise is made about poor service provision that someone pays attention.

dsandson · 24-01-2023 5:39pm

We were at Castlebellingham northbound this afternoon and noticed that there's plinths set up with ducting etc, and 2 steel electrical kiosks delivered nearby. So looks like more chargers going in there. I'd assume southbound would be the same. Location is similar to that at Lusk north and south.

liamog · 25-01-2023 3:29pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120151822#Comment_120151822

Just 2 plinths again, only 4 cars charging at once. That's not going to be much of an upgrade after the eCars and Supercharger are removed.

dsandson · 25-01-2023 4:59pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120156159#Comment_120156159

The plinths are for the switchgear boxes, not the chargers themselves. They should be planning for a higher power charging station here if they are indeed kicking out Tesla. Although you're right probably just the 4 cars at one - although not to be sniffed at.

We can always hope that they are actually looking to replace the Tesla chargers completely as in the scale of the chargers and using all the already available power but we will see!

mfceiling · 25-01-2023 8:42pm

4 chargers on the main motorway between the 2 largest cities on the Ireland is poor. Regardless if they put 4 in lusk and castlebellingham it's still way too few.

the_amazing_raisin · 25-01-2023 9:52pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120157697#Comment_120157697

The bar has been set so low that we're celebrating this situation

the_amazing_raisin · 25-01-2023 9:54pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120156656#Comment_120156656

Surely they can just use the Tesla plinths when they kick them out?

4 chargers is an improvement for non Teslas but a massive downgrade for the Tesla owners

AndyBoBandy · 25-01-2023 10:39pm

I only ever used Castlebellingham because I had free supercharging for ages which is now expired…. And as I only live about ~25% away from it, shouldn’t ever have to use it so much, but in all honesty, they are both sh1tholes of services….. so I won’t miss ever stopping there again.

Tesla just need to get their arse in gear and get the replacement site set up asap… and as close to an M1 junction as possible.

Having used Enfield & Athenry Superchargers, I think I actually prefer them not being in busy motorway services, despite being not as convenient as a motorway services.. (Enfield is fine in terms of distance from M4, but Athenry is bordering on too far).

Enfield services was filthy when we stopped there a few months ago… and in contrast, Johnstown House was quiet, nice clean bathrooms, and some really nice bar food/snack options…

mfceiling · 25-01-2023 11:16pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120158300#Comment_120158300

With the speed of those chargers in Enfield you'd barely have time to walk to the bar before you'd have to leave to move your car 😂.

I don't mind castlebellingham at all. It's the halfway point on my journey to my parents house in Tyrone. Usually always stopped there even before I had an EV. Never eat there but I would use the facilities, get myself a coffee and by that time I am ready (and the car normally is also) to head on.

zg3409 · 02-02-2023 12:51am

Ballymount live one of 2 units on site. All 4 cables are CCS, no chademo. Touch to pay by credit card works. Claim 180kW.

Second unit covered up, but showing live in app.

Cables seem plenty long to reach any side of car. It might be possible to mix the cables up if in wrong holder and you select the cable when charging. Touch screen a bit fiddly, and anyone can stop your charge but seem big heavy duty units. It's a pity they are not spaced and orientated like petrol pumps.

wassie · 02-02-2023 7:43am

Is it possible to get a VAT receipt from the Touch to pay units at all in order to claim back charing costs from an employer or do you need to use an account?

zg3409 · 02-02-2023 7:59am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120190425#Comment_120190425

The units do not have a printer. I don't know if the app or website allows viewing or downloading vat receipts.

AndyBoBandy · 02-02-2023 8:39am

Both units in Paulstown now showing online…

this is a huge site for anyone heading down to Waterford from Dublin direction…

Applegreen own brand chargers

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