Applegreen own brand chargers

Applegreen LemyBrien, Waterford (N25)

Chargers going in…

Good spot for doing some scenic driving as well, head out of Waterford, do some coastal sightseeing, maybe grab some lunch then top up the car on the drive back

I wonder will they put another hub in near Wexford and that would be the southeast coast covered almost to Cork 🤔

That will be great to have another option in that area albeit a massively overpriced one... Think there's FCPs in the centers of Dungarvan and Waterford and there used to be one at the Applegreen in Waterford

Castlebellingham back in action according to the app.

But would you pay those rates if it meant dealing with that looney service station guy in Waterford? 😉

I wonder if he'd chance the picnic bench in front of the chargers again. I imagine Applegreen are a lot less forgiving as franchise owners than Ecars 🤔

The thing is with Paulstown now, I'd never have need to go to that place (I've never been before either)!!

Also thanks to Paulstown, on the 2-3 times a year I might visit my sister down in Waterford, I'll never have to consider the eCars disasters in Kilcullen & Bolton St, Waterford... (That convenience alone is worth any premium AG want to put on their chargers...)

Waterford currently has 2 FCPs and back in January the council promised to be "facilitating a significant investment which will see 12 new fast EV charging points being delivered across the city and county during 2023"

Is a "point" referring to a location or a plug I wonder? 12 plugs is nothing to write home about but 12 locations would be impressive

Is it safe to assume Lemybrien will have 4 plugs and Slieverue will be an ESB 3 plug "hub" do you think?

I was in Castlebellingham a few months ago, where there were 3 Tesla's using 3 of the 8 Superchargers, and another Tesla using the Cars CCS plug, while another CCS car and a Leaf were queuing up to use the eCars unit...

Maybe there was a genuine reason that the Tesla using the eCars unit couldn't use the supercharger... lease car or no credit card on account etc... but I thought it was a pretty **** sight to see..

and to make matters worse a Tesla that looked to be successfully charging on the Supercharger plugged out, went down and then plugged into the AC43 on the eCars unit!!

I think it's probably ignorance, go with what you know, not having an account, app, worrying will it work, will other charger have a queue if you leave and try. Also with one way roads once at esb you probably need to do a full exit and return with higher risk someone will join esb queue. This will be solved when esb us evicted like at coyness cross. At coyness cross I have heard EV drivers avoid that sites as according to esb's app their us no chargers there. I promote plugshare app a lot as it shows all brands and what app to use etc.

I absolutely 100% agree, there's very little education out there for new owners, and half of them don't go around reading it

When my mum got her ID.3 I made sure to show her how to plug into a CCS charger and how to use the Ecars app and card. She'll likely never need it but at least if she ever does it won't be a total unknown to her

Similarly, a friend was asking me for advice for his parents who recently got an ID.4 and one thing I told them was to get Plugshare and ABRP and also try out using a public charger to get used to it

I think it’s pretty much nailed on that Tesla won’t be retrofitting their extensive Supercharger network to support charging CHAdeMO enabled cars.

They did retrofit CCS-1 adapters on their USA network to open it to the non-teslas there but yeah I fully agree. If they were going to support Chademo they would have done it already back when they opened the French/German/UK networks

Interoperability would be a great feature. One account for all networks on the island, either tap a card or plug and play! As it stands I carry 6-7 different cards with me, reducing that to one or zero would be great

Nah, if the market calls for tap-to-pay it will be introduced but to sync all the systems up so that only one card/app is needed would need government or European level regulations

Are people using the Applegreen Electric app or A.N Other?

Yeah, App here. As easy to use as eCars, and billing the same as Tesla… hassle free.

Pretty standard for the compeition to appeal their competitors. Happens all the time with Supermarkets. Generally their grounds for appeal are fairly weak and are viewed in context of their vested interests. Community opposition would be more of a concern.

Layout looks good. Great option for those heading into Dublin for the day from up north - avoids the need for playing charging lottery when in the city.

Super quick access off the M3 also.

From the planning report:

The report also notes a canopy over the EV charging area with PV panels located on top.

My reading of the application is that there are issues surrounding the existing zoning and that the application relies heavily on the EV component to demonstrate compliance with the Climate Action Plan 2021 (CAP 2021).

Essentially if they don't provide these, then they will not be in compliance with their planning approval.

However its worth noting CAP2021 Design guidelines only require "One DC electric vehicle fast charge point, capable of delivering 50kW". So in this context, it would be reasonable to assume that a fast charge point is a 50kW DC at a minimum. Commercially and futureproofing, it would seem to make sense to have higher powered units.

This leads on to the biggest challenge I suspect to delivering the EV component of this development. That is the capcity of ESB Networks to supply power. I have no idea what electricity infrastructure is like in this area.

Given their other sites to date, I think it's safe to assume there will be some degree of load sharing among the chargers, 120kW split across two plugs for example

In general I think there's some leeway allowed from planning authorities for facilities to be added over time. For example in my housing estate there was some debate over one of the pedestrian entrances not exactly matching the planning diagrams, but they weren't forced to halt construction of additional houses

So they could open with fewer chargers and presumably as long as they're added before the planning permission expires then it's okay

Depends on what a driver wants or needs... If you need a quick coffee and the jacks yeah definitely 5 mins tops... If you need lunch though you're talking about 40 mins. A lot of motorway service areas have showers for a reason and that's because they expect some people to stay for up to an hour

Agreed, 20 minutes is a good sweet-spot to have a decent catchment

Used these yesterday for the first time, and I'm a bit conflicted.

On the one hand, it's great to see public networks getting larger, they were so useful on our trip (north Dublin to Waterford, with three adult bikes in tow) - stopped in on M9 Junction 7.

But, on the other hand, man it's expensive to use them. I spent almost as much on EV charging as I would have to fill my old Auris on the same journey €52 for two EV charging sessions, compared to about €60 on unleaded for the Auris).

If I'd planned a bit better, I could have maybe spent less, but it was the first long trip with the bikes (motorway ~110km/h most of the way, averaged about 225wh/km - compared to 145-155) and went for the most direct route. You live and learn, eh?