ESB eCars

Yeah they've dropped in one of those "substations in a box" at the site.

Used the Blanch Hub today with freshmile card. Initially the charger said "Invalid Card" then "Authorizing" and after some seconds it started charging. It ramped bit slowly to 150kW and I left after 17mins and 31.52 kWh. It costed me 15 on the dot which yields a price of 47.6c/kWh. The charger was a bit jumpy going down to 120kW then back up to 130kW then again, which I won't normally see with other chargers.

I use Freshmile all the time at the ESB fast chargers. If you have at least €50 in your Freshmile account before tapping, you won't get the "invalid card" issue.

When I can average 145kW at the 150kW units, it typically works out at €0.45/kWh. If I can get 180kW+ at the 200kW units, then it's typically €0.42/kWh. I only ever charge enough to get me home, so I'm charging at low soc, normally from 10% up to 60% to make sure I'm getting good charging speeds from the battery and the lower cost per kWh.

Other than Tesla off peak rates, Freshmile can give some of the best value for DC fast charging at the ESB hubs. I really like it.

I haven't noticed the "surging" behaviour in charging speeds - what are you driving?

I had problems with the 150kW charger at Park Rí, Kells again today. 23% SoC and had been driving for over an hour when I arrived. The car charged at 24kW the entire time, something I didn’t realise until I came back. I rang eCars who understandably blamed my car. They suggested plugging out and starting again but that didn’t help.

I gave up and went to another 150kW about 20 minutes away. Plugged in there and immediately got 116kW which is about the most my car is capable of. It was lower SoC (16%) and a presumably a warmer battery but I don’t think that accounts for the difference. I never have problems charging at any other eCars 150kW chargers but I have problems at Park Ri about 3/4 of the time that I go there. I asked Tesla to help before and they said they could see nothing wrong.

I’m a bit lost about this. Any ideas?

The car is a legacy NACS Tesla that uses an adapter to connect to the CCS plug. I suspect it’s a compatibility issue between the vehicle and charger like you said but the two chargers I used yesterday appear to be the same type. I think the second is a more recent install so it could be different hardware or even different firmware even if they look the same.

I asked Tesla for help when this happened the first time (about a year ago) because they can sometimes remotely pull useful information from the vehicles diagnostic logs.

It was the same for me (model 3 LFP after 4 hours on the road and preconditioning). I posted in one of the online groups and people tried mansplaining to me about charging speeds, SOC, etc. I've had EVs since 2016 and I have autism with hyperfixations. I know more than is reasonable about these things. That charger is fooked up there but no one will listen. There are intermittent issues where some of the DC stack doesnt work.

No. But if you post giving out about charging speed, explaining in your post that you preheated and had just come off a 4 hour motorway drive, and from a poster well known in the group for years of EV ownership, to be told I needed to preheat my battery or it was due to SOC, was ridiculous.

Constructive help, yes please. Incorrect information based on them simply not reading what I wrote, yes that's mansplaining.

This behaviour isn't limited to EVs. See it all the time in user groups or general forums. You get the equivalent of "have you tried cycling the power?" regardless of what you've said and often multiples of times from different idiots who can't read or comprehend.

I wouldn't call it mansplaining though. Just stupidity. There's a lot of it about.

I am! A big hairy bearded one.

That's probably the correct usage, I use it where anyone is giving stupid/irrelevant/unwanted/etc advice

Ok glad I'm right on that one. I thought mansplaining only applied when the man was explaining something to a woman who, of course took exception to the fact that said man assumed he knew more than her because she was a woman.

FYP 😛

It's ok, it was no bother.

Coming into this tread expecting to see a flurry of activity and news of ground being broken for the remainder of the eCars promised hyper hubs…

Carrickmines is probably held up by Anna in networks, same as usual.

I'm unsure if the first part of the post is aimed at me or not, but for the avoidance of doubt, I do love a good huff.