ESB eCars

20 years is what I would expect from my home charger so yeah that's what I would expect from a public one at the very least

This argument that ESB or Electricity Supply Board, ESBN or Electricity Supply Board Networks, ESB Electric ireland and ESB Ecars are completely seperate entities is laughably frankly

Easygo have said public AC is not commercially viable as the existing rules require one esb meter per post and other nearby posts cannot share the meter. Thus a standing charge is needed per 2 cars. Apparently under footpath wires need to be installed by esb networks and cannot be installed by easygo,

Again AC could be viable in certain cases, but proper commercial.oedesrals tend to be expensive and little to none installed so far have lasted 10 years without having already been replaced. Even those that have, are out if manufacturer warranty and support so broken ones cannot be fixed.

In commercial sites they may be allowed to share electricity meters, share monitoring control and pay systems , share underground wiring, share loads, and be placed where demand means they will be in use regularly.

Different companies.

I don't know how much of this will get done.

But this is interesting nonetheless.

Edit

I originally saw the link in a reply to a Facebook post put up by someone who saw work happening at Obama Plaza...

Also the funding for this *isn't* the new funding Govt announced recently.....

So this is additional to anything happening under that.

All these pilots programs the Councils refer to, esb ecars being one of them originally, were run to find these roadblocks and provide solutions in mitigating them. Our esteemed bureaucrats use these results to hide their unwillingness to do things. Of course installing one charger is going to have expensive civil works because you dig a trench for one cable. Install 10 and you dig the same trench maybe longer but the cost it is not going 10x. Better install the ducts when you have planned roadworks in the area and cost share. Buy one charger it is going to cost you x, buy 100 and it is not going to cost 100x. "Our pilot program found out that the metering method is not suitable. Action -> It can't be done". Of course it is not suitable because it is an old system and was not required at the time. But that it is not set in stone from God. It is made by people. What are the steps to introduce a new special metering system? How it is done in other countries? But hey we print nice brochures and draw colorful graphs. All these reports ignore a big thing regarding charging. The most convenient and cheaper way to charge it is while parked. Be it at home or at the restaurant, shopping center, cinema, gym, parks and so on. People will pay for it. It is also the cheapest. I don't need to stop on the motorway if I know I have power at destination.

Major drive is on to get quicker car-charging hubs built in key areas

Many new EVs could add up to 100km of range in just six minutes

The number of high-power charging units for electric vehicles will double this year as part of a €20m drive to boost the network and speed up charging times.

It means most new EVs should be able to add as many as 100km of range in around six minutes at those chargers – which will be strategically located.

Meeting the target with Climate Action Fund cash (€10m from the Government and €10m from ESB ecars) means ESB ecars is having its busiest year to date as it plans to urgently add and broaden the network.

This funding does not include the latest €100m government plan which is aimed at, among other things, having a fast charger every 60km on main roads within three years.

All fast chargers now being installed are 100kW, which means if a second car joins it will be able to get a 50kW charge. This is important because, up to now, mostly only one could be charging at one time.

They are going into places such as Westport, Clifden, Waterford and Dún Laoghaire. Three are built around north Dublin.

There is a big hub in Killarney which will be able to charge four vehicles at a time.

And last week the sod was turned at Barack Obama Plaza for four high-powered chargers that can take eight vehicles at the same time.

The Obama Plaza cluster will be the same size as the ever-busy Junction 14 outlet. And when the plaza is finished they will put in one at Kinnegad.

According to John Byrne, head of ESB ecars, they are trying to make up lost ground after difficulties with supply of materials in 2022.

There will also be many more hubs, including Waterford and Tipperary town. They are also building in Killarney, followed by Dingle and Cahersiveen.

“We started the year with 22 high-powered hubs and will have 42 by the end of the year,” Mr Byrne said.

There is an emphasis on serving the western parts of the country as they are putting a lot of chargers along the Wild Atlantic Way (and Donegal).

The drive is, in part, a response to criticism and comment on how slow some public chargers can be, with vehicle owners urging more high-power hubs and putting more chargers into them.

Mr Byrne conceded that 22kW units are quite slow, nevertheless there is constant demand for them, especially near terraced houses or apartments.

With 22kW the lowest, the next up are the 50kW chargers and these are being upgraded to 100kW at some locations.

And then you have high-powered charging hubs with 150kW.

Despite tales to the contrary, Mr Byrne says that typical chargers are working or ready for use 98/99pc of the time.

There has been a strong correlation between electricity price hikes and a fall-off in usage. It lasts about four to six weeks and then picks up.

There are tentative hopes that at some stage this year price reductions will be passed on to the consumer, but don’t hold your breath.

Those surging electricity prices to date have narrowed the economics of running an EV as opposed to a typical family diesel.

It is down to 10pc in EV savings in many cases now. Before the increases it could be as high as 60/70pc.

Pricing is to be introduced in the North next month.

dynamic splitting would be better. Let one car pull 80 if the other car is only pulling 80

Only three spaces though. Fourth guy has to pull up on the embankment.

I'm reading it as 4 chargers with two connectors each.

So a total of 8 connectors which can all be used simultaneously.

So potentially 8 cars could charge.

Layout at the site will be crucial here as ESB have mucked this up repeatedly

For a minute there I thought we were getting J14/Mayfield 2.0

it'll be 2 years old in June.

Putting it out to tender doesn't mean that private operators could provide a poor service or charge a high price - there are lots of ways of structuring public tenders. Turas don't get to decide how much the M50 toll costs, that's decided by TII. GAI and Transdev don't get to decide on public transport routes, frequency or fares - they're all decided by NTA.

I wouldn't be too quick to judge AppleGreen, they're only in the market a couple of weeks so teething difficulties are inevitable. eCars have been doing this for years and they still install AC on DC chargers and 3 parking spaces where 4 cars can charge.