On Saturday 7th November, we hosted our first virtual event of the winter season. The theme for this first webinar was Used EVs, so, if you are considering buying a used EV or if you are a current EV owner there is something in this event for you.
We had the following speakers and topics lined up:
Eamon Stack of Range Therapy, a new not for profit Irish enterprise specialising on EV battery extensions.
Elena Wrelton of ELVES who are specialists in reclaiming and recycling EV and Hybrid batteries and developing appropriate training programmes for the industry such as Safe Handling of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles.
A panel discussion ‘Buying a used EV’ featuring Irish independent EV specialist dealers including Phil Fitzgerald of Electric Autos.ie, Simon Acton of Next Eco Car and Maciej Gasowski of EV Electric Vehicles.
As many of you know we had hoped to host a number of regional IEVOA meet-ups during the autumn. We have held off announcing any dates or locations in the hope that the COVID 19 situation would improve.
At this stage it is increasingly clear that this kind of event simply isn’t going to be possible this year. Our priority is the health and safety of our members and the general public so with a heavy heart we will be postponing until Spring 2021 at the earliest.
Regarding the EV Challenge, Dublin-Cork-Dublin or otherwise, this may still be possible as a socially distanced event but we are holding fire on this for now. We could do this anytime of year but with travel restrictions in place for some counties and likely to be extended we can’t plan this for now.
On the upside, we are going to arrange some online events through the autumn and winter, on Zoom, similar to how we hosted the AGM. This will include updates from the committee, contributions from guests from around the industry and Q&A sessions. More details to follow soon.
We hope this goes some way towards compensating for the disappointment of postponing the other events and giving everyone something to look forward to over the coming months.
In early September 2020 we asked our members for feedback on their experiences with the standard AC charging network since paid for charging was introduced in early August.
Thanks to the contributors. The response rate to these surveys we’re sending are high and therefore significant. They are really important and help ESB Ecars and the charging infrastructure players to understand what us consumers need/want.
The IEVOA met with ESB Ecars on Thursday 19th March 2020 to discuss about its contingency plan during the COVID19 pandemic, but also the current and future infrastructure.
Contingency planning
o Maintenance and operation of the network is continuing as normal, the situation will remain under review
o Customer Call Centre is business as usual and have the ability to work remotely also
o ESB will stay in communication with IEVOA as the situation develops
o IEVOA will assist with messaging their members to ensure compliance with HSE guidance in relation to Covid 19 when using chargers. ESB to share planned posts or communications.(Done)
Climate Action Fund Project
· AC replacement programme
o 130 chargers replaced since October – replacements will continue as issues arise with the chargers
o Uptime significantly improved with the replacement programme (≥ 95% network uptime)
o Some issues with a small number of new chargers and this is being investigated with the manufacturer
o Dublin Port first trial unit of new ‘compact’ fast chargers – these units will be used to replace up to 50 existing AC chargers over the next three years
o The first of these installations are planned for the coming weeks
o Focus will be on routes and large towns such as the M/N3
o As they will be using existing electrical supply they will prioritise connector power based on the number of vehicles connected – this will be clearly labelled on the online map
· Multi charger site hubs
o Galway Plaza, M6 and Kilcullen, M9 are the first multi charger sites but the current set up is temporary. – One of the existing fast chargers will be replaced with a charger which can charge one car at 150kW or split the charge between two cars. Meaning three cars can charge simultaneously at those locations. We expect delivery of the 150kW chargers in the summer
o These type of sites (50kW + 150kW) will be quicker and require less infrastructure to build than the 4-8 vehicle hubs and so it is expected that more of these will be delivered in 2020
o Once final commercial details are worked out with site hosts an announcement will be made on the first phase of hub locations. IEVOA will be issued with these locations in advance of them being published. ESB to confirm likely timing
Introduction of pricing for AC charging
o As stated previously, ESB had intended to introduce pay for use of the Standard AC chargers following a replacement programme, given that over 130 chargers have been replaced to date and that availability levels on the network have improved significantly, ESB had intended to introduce pricing in the coming months. However, these plans are now on hold in light of current COVID-19 situation. ESB are reviewing IEVOA’s feedback on the service and potential pricing options, and will provide at least a month’s notice of the introduction of pay for use of the Standard AC network.
o Given the number of locations and types of use case for the Standard AC chargers it is not intended to introduce an overstay fee. However, the option will be retained to introduce one if the network isn’t being used appropriately.
Overview of the results of the IEVOA survey
o IEVOA provided an overview of the results of their member survey (c.200 respondents)
o IEVOA to provide a distilled version of the comments for written response by ESB
o ESB to provide a written response for each of the chargers which were identified as having an issue
o ESB to look at issues around the accuracy of the information being provided on the map, particularly availability
In light of the Irish government’s announcement yesterday regarding the measures now in place to tackle COVID-19 it is with regret that we have taken the decision to postpone the IEVOA AGM scheduled for Saturday 4th April. We will reschedule as soon as it is practical to do so and provide at least 14 days notice of the revised date.
In the meantime, if you have any immediate issues or concerns you would like to raise please email pr@irishevowners.ie or chair@irishevowners.ie.
On Tuesday 26th November I was invited to attend an ESB Networks Innovation Event at Explorium in my role as IEVOA Chairman.
Attendees included representatives from across ESB as well as many stakeholders such as SEAI, CRU, Eir Grid, MaREI, many other ESB Networks partners, energy generators, commercial customers and competitors, such as Gas Networks Ireland, and academic institutions such as DCU & UCC.
For context, while reading this please bear in mind that ESB Networks and ESB ECars are two different parts of the ESB group. ESB Networks have a much wider brief, ESB ECars are a customer of ESB Networks in the same way that Ionity, EasyGo and any other business requiring electricity network connection are.
By 2030, in order to meet Ireland’s challenging targets for emissions reduction and renewable generation, much of our transport and heat needs to be electrified. Therefore, an important part of ESB Networks innovation brief over the coming years is to enable the decarbonisation if transport and heating through electrification.
Many innovative projects were discussed in areas including integration of renewables, customer engagement, asset optimisation, electrification of heat and transport, network flexibility and resilience, but for the purpose of this summary I’ll try keep to those most relevant to transport and therefore IEVOA.
You can read more about the ESB Networks innovation strategy here
Dingle Project
This is ESB Networks largest current innovation project, a 3 year community engagement programme basically using Dingle as a testbed to trial a number of technologies to gain knowledge of future network needs. In the mobility space this includes the leasing of 17 EVs for the community alongside use of battery storage and smart grid/charging capabilities including V2G (Vehicle To Grid).
This will be a great shop window for EV adoption in rural communities so I’ve agreed that we can help publicise what they are doing and also consult on which vehicles they should consider trialing.
Energy Citizens
A new term for me, but apparently if you are thinking about how you use energy then you are an Energy Citizen. Further, if you are taking specific actions with regard to how you use energy then you are an Active Energy Citizen. So by driving an EV, maybe charging them at night when renewables are plentiful or generating energy from solar PV or upgrading even our homes to use heat pumps we are all being good active energy citizens and ESB applaud us. So, well done to us, we are making a difference!
Micro-generation
I learnt that June 2021 is the date by which it should be possible for consumers generating excess energy from solar PV and the like to get payment for what they put back into the grid and also that connection of these devices to the grid should be free of charge.
Workshop
The afternoon session concluded with a series of workshops, I participated in ‘Optimising the Network for the Electrification of Heat and Transport’.
This focused on getting feedback from participants on the following questions:
What do customers need to enable the electrification of heat and transport?
What areas need to be prioritised.
I fed in specifically around the need for reliable, cost effective and plentiful supply of fast and slow charge points and the need for public knowledge building initiatives around EV adoption and EV champions. In terms of prioritisation I highlighted the immediate need for rapid charging hubs and plentiful charging alternatives for those who cannot charge at home.
This session included lots of discussion from stakeholders around concerns whether the network will be able to support every house having an EV home charger and a heat pump, but the impression I got throughout the day was that ESB are taking this seriously and have specific projects looking at future network requirements required to support electrification of transport and heating in particular. This tallies with what ESB eCars have previously told us, basically, don’t worry about the network, it will be ready. So I felt reassured on this point.
The day concluded with an awesome lightning show ⚡️, I’d recommend a trip to Explorium for this alone!
There was a lot more in the day but I wanted to keep this brief-ish. If you made it this far, thank you! There I’ll be another similar event in 6 months so it will be good to gauge progress then.
If you have any questions or feedback please feel free to comment below or email chair@irishevowners.ie
On
Wednesday (23-Oct-2019), ESB ecars announced details of the
arrangements to be put in place for paid charging on their Fast
Public Charging infrastructure.
Paid charging on 50kW fast chargers will commence on 18th November 2019
Users wishing to avail of this service will be required to sign-up from 29th October
Charging will be priced per kWh used with two price plan options:
‘Pay As You Go’ at 33c per kWh
‘Membership’ with a €5 monthly subscription fee at 29c per kWh
A limited time introductory offer (available from 29th October until the end of November) will provide the ‘Membership’ rate with no monthly subscription for 12 months
A €5 overstay fee will apply for charging sessions exceeding 45 minutes
Standard 22kW AC chargers will continue to be free to use for the time being
Pricing for High Power Chargers (150kW DC) will be announced once the first high power hubs are installed in early 2020
Fees will not apply to the network in Northern Ireland at this time.
The
IEVOA is broadly supportive of the measures announced having long
held the view that the introduction of paid charging will be positive
for current EV owners and will also support on-going EV adoption in
line with the objective of the Climate Action Plan. Further, we
commend the ESB in taking on board feedback from our members during
the consultation process as the measures announced very much follow
what the majority of our membership indicated they would like to see
when surveyed earlier this year.
The
advent of paid charging will allow expansion of the existing EV
infrastructure in line with ESBs plans announced in late 2018,
including the much needed introduction of high power charging hubs at
key locations. It will also allow for the network to be fully
maintained and upgraded as required into the future. Furthermore,
paid charging opens the way for competition allowing other charge
network operators to bring their plans to fruition. This can only be
positive for EV owners with more chargers, more choice and
competition on pricing. Meanwhile, the price point selected will
still ensure that EVs are cheaper to run than their ICE equivalents,
whilst encouraging those able to avail of home charging to do so as a
preference. Finally, overstay fees should help discourage blocking
of chargers for excessive periods, hence the network should be more
available to those who need it.
Feedback
so far from our membership indicates that they may have liked to have
seen a higher overstay fee and also measures to ensure that the
overstay fee isn’t easily avoided by unplugging and restarting
another session, but we are assured that these trends will be
monitored.
We
must also acknowledge that this is new territory in Ireland and a
starting point. The ESB are open to revising these measures should
this prove necessary. To this end the IEVOA will keep close contact
with ESB ecars over the coming months following introduction of paid
charging, passing on feedback from our members and ensuring their
voices are heard.
On Monday (26-Aug-2019), Minister Bruton announced a plan to deploy 1000 charge points (up to 200 per annum) over the next 5 years. Capital will support up to 75% (or €5,000) of the cost of each charge point and these will be implemented and operated by county and city councils. On top of this a new regulation requiring non-domestic buildings with over 20 car parking spaces to install charging facilities will be introduced.
The IEVOA is glad that a different perspective is given to the development of infrastructure and with a more local implementation, closer to communities needs and local initiatives… Whilst this plan is welcome, the number of charge points are small, the roll-out long, and many more public charging points will be necessary to support the million electric vehicles expected by 2030 under the Climate Action plan.
With the advent of paid charging over the next year or so we would hope to see more charge stations operators rolling out public charge stations which will add to the numbers available all over Ireland.
The IEVOA, on behalf of its members, will engage with local authorities and offer its expertise to support the optimal implementation of these charging points.
You may have seen elsewhere in the press today that ESB eCars will commence pay charging shortly. So this announcement is just to confirm the details shared with the IEVOA Committee when we met with eCars today.
Firstly, the announcement relates to Fast charge points ONLY. Pay charging for Standard charge points will come later, likely in 2020. So an announcement is to be expected during the next one to two months regards when pay charging will commence, how much this will cost and on what basis it will be costed. There will then be a short period, likely 3-4 weeks, to register for the service before the pay charging service will commence. We understand that existing RFID cards can be used after being re-registered, and/or a new app to avail of the service.
This is all the information we can provide for now but hope to be able to share some more details early next week.
Fast charge point unit with Chademo, CCS and Mennekes type charge connectors.
Dear members, We would like to collect some data on currently faulty and/or regularly unreliable ECars charge points ahead of our upcoming meeting with ECars this coming Friday (24th August). This should be from your own personal experience and just the following data as we need to compile this as quickly and easily as possible: – Charge Point location – Ecars ref number (found on charge point or Ecars app or website , for example CP:123ABC) – FCP or SCP – Socket used e.g. (Chademo, Type 2, CCS) – Date(s) unavailable – Very brief description of fault e.g. Faulty socket, Faulty card reader, Won’t start charge, etc. We’re not interested in blocking or ICEing this time, that’s a different issue, and please no essays. We know well about the frustrations of you all, we just need the data. Many thanks, IEVOA Committee.
“The IEVOA welcomes today’s Climate Action Plan announcement from the Irish government and its objectives in moving Ireland away from our heavy reliance on fossil fuels and to dramatically reduce our co2 emissions. This will continue to support the EV adoption growth and will therefore have to be backed up by serious investments. Association members are eager for an expansion of a reliable charging network – particularly fast charging hubs, with multiple charging ports, offering increased availability, reliability, supported with high levels of maintenance so it scales all the way to be able to cater for 1 million vehicles in 2030. We look forward to further announcements.”
This is a summary of a survey conducted amongst registered members of the Irish EV Owners Association about the planned introduction of fees at the ESB Ecars Fast Chargers in 2019. The survey applies to the Fast Chargers only and does not include any questions about the standard AC chargers.
This summary report contains the results of all the questions with the exception of the open response question 10. This is for IEVOA committee use only.
78% of the respondents indicated they had access to a home charger.
About 45% of the respondents use an Ecars Fast Charger every week. Most respondents (123) only use one a few times a month but that’s closely followed by a few times a week (117).
Most respondents are in favour of the introduction of fees on a per kWH basis (56%), though over 20% of the respondents would like to keep the chargers free to use.
Most members are in favour of per kWh pricing, (331) would like to keep the cost per kWh at the average Irish home rate (49.9% of those in favour of per kWh billing) with €0.20/kWh and €0.30/kWh the next highest percentages.
Of those in favour of per minute pricing (139), most would like to keep the price at less than €0.20/minute.
Only 21.5% of the respondents are in favour of a flat session fee, around half of those (48.5%) would like the session fee to be less than €3 per session.
An overwhelming majority of respondents (90%) would like to see an overstay fee applied but the response to when this would be applied is very mixed. 1/3 appear to want a per minute fee from the start.
36% of those in favour of a overstay fee would like the price to be more than €0.50/minute.
84% do not want a connection fee to be applied.
In summary, based on the results of this survey, if fees are to be introduced for the use of ESB Ecars Fast Chargers in Ireland the majority of users would like to see per kWh billing at an average home energy rate, without a connection fee, but with some kind of overstay fee.
The summary results of individual questions can be seen on this document.
Thank you to all who took the time to answer this survey.
This is the IEVOA statement related to today’s Climate Action fund announcement
“The IEVOA welcomes today’s announcement of the €10 million funding for ESB Ecars to develop a faster charging network (150kw vs 50kw currently), as part of the Climate Action Fund. This will continue to support the EV adoption growth, as the number of EV’s on the Irish roads are now reaching 7500, twice as many as just 1 year ago, with an even more substantial growth anticipated for 2019. This will therefore have to be backed up by further investments. Association members are eager for an expansion of a reliable charging network – particularly fast charging hubs, with multiple charging ports, offering increased availability, reliability, supported with high levels of maintenance. We look forward to further announcements.”
The IEVOA (The Irish EV Owners Association) welcomes the initiative as announced by Minister Shane Ross and feel that this is a step in the right direction to incentivise the uptake of electric vehicles in Ireland. This step is important as currently Ireland is “second-worst in EU on climate change action” as published by the Irish Times on Monday June 18 th 2018. Ireland is liable to face annual, non-compliance fines of approximately €500million should we not reach our emissions targets. In Ireland, transport is second only to agriculture when it comes to CO2 emissions and therefore electrifying our private transport plays a key part in reducing these emissions and bringing us closer to meeting our targets.
On the matter of plug-in hybrids being included and conventional hybrid cars being excluded, the IEVOA feels that this is appropriate as, while conventional hybrid cars do have some electric components, they have very limited electric only range. The result of this is that conventional hybrids still emit quite high amounts of CO2 through their tailpipe emissions – roughly 70g of CO2 per kilometre vs 140g CO2 per kilometre for the same size petrol car. With this in mind it makes sense to incentivise only vehicles that are capable of running without actively producing dangerous emissions from their exhausts. It is important to highlight this difference amid confusing claims being made by some manufacturers that their hybrids are “self-charging” and therefore do not need to be plugged in. This claim can cause confusion and lead people to believe that these cars are just like plug-in hybrids without the charging and this is certainly not the case.
While we are pleased at the introduction of reduced tolls for low and zero emissions vehicles, and feel that it is a step in the right direction, the IEVOA feel that there is a lot more work to be done to
make Ireland a more EV friendly country. Issues such as further development, support and repair of the charging network are high on the committee’s agenda.
Yesterday it came to our attention that RTE aired a program called “Today with Sean O’Rourke” which had a segment on EVs in Ireland. It is our belief that this segment was a breach of the Broadcasting Act 2009, section 39(1) subsection B in that the content of the program was entirely based on subjective opinion and it presented these opinions as fact in a manner which could do damage to the uptake of EVs in Ireland. RTE did not, in our opinion, provide enough of a counter argument nor did it make any effort to espouse any of the positive aspects of EV ownership. As such, the committee has submitted a formal complaint to RTE following their formal complaint procedures.
We wish our members to know that we take these matters very seriously and always aim to be proactive in meeting these issues head on. We will continue to update our members on the progress of our formal complaint as and when we receive updates from RTE or the BAI.
4 representatives of the IEVOA , met with representatives of the LEV Taskforce, a joint DCCAE , DTTAS committee , charged with promoting the the changeover of car transport to sustainable vehicles . A representative of the SEAI also attended. Please find below the IEVOA report.
We would like to inform you that the 2018 AGM will take place on the 24th March 2018, 12:00 noon in Nissan Headquarters, ParkWest Business Park , Dublin 12 , D12 FFD0.
If you are coming, please register in the link below!
We would like to point out that only 2018 full members (paid membership) will be able to take part to the votes, but everyone is welcome.
Also if you want to contribute to the association with your skills, should it be by lobbying, be an IT/webmaster, if you are passionate organising events, etc. please send us an email at admin@irishevowners.ie and let us know how you can make the IEVOA a better organisation.
If you haven’t renewed your 2017 full membership just yet, or if you wish to upgrade your (free) associate membership to a 2018 full membership, feel free to fill out the form below:
This document is meant to bring useful information for anyone looking into buying a new EV in Ireland. It doesn’t include PHEVs or EVs with range extender. And neither does it include earlier models so if you are looking for a used model, be aware that older versions of these models may have lower battery and charging specifications.
The data in the chart is made of manufacturer official information. Non-official information have the (est) tag.
Range :
NEDC is the official European driving cycle. It will be used till September 2019.
WLTP is the newest European driving cycle. It is used since September 2017 and is tougher than NEDC.
Real life is what you can actually do with these cars, in normal traffic conditions. Of course this could vary depending on your driving style, pace or weather conditions.
Consumption is indicated in kwh per 100 km. This data, combined with the battery size, gives you the range of the vehicle.
Battery size : What you can read about battery size varies depending on manufacturers. Some indicate the total battery capacity, some the usable capacity. Typically around 10% or the capacity of the battery isn’t used, in order to extend battery life.
On-board AC : That’s how powerful is the AC on-board charger is : if this column contains 2 values, the lowest is the standard equipment, higher one is an option.
Please reach out to me at editor@irishevowners.ie (with your source) if you believe there is incorrect/incomplete information, or if you have useful additional data to complete it. Thanks!
Click on the chart to enlarge:
BMW i3 : The facelifted version of the premium supermini EV. It now comes with a 184hp “s” version (170hp for the standard version). Battery has been upgraded to 27.2kwh (usable) early 2017.
BMW i3s
Hyundai Ioniq : It has proven to be somewhat successful in Ireland and is regarded as the most efficient EV on the market. Be aware that there is a general supply shortage so delivery delays to be expected.
Nissan Leaf : Is still available but on stock only as the New Leaf has now replaced it on the production line. We are not aware of the actual stock so some of the models in the chart might no longer be available.
New Nissan Leaf : In a few weeks, the new Irish range will be revealed, stay tuned ! In the meantime, a special edition with all technological elements standard (e-pedal, pro-pilot, etc.) is available for € 29590 (ex delivery charges and metallic paint)
2018 Nissan Leaf
Renault Zoé : The famous ZE40 is still the longest range EV on the market, if you except Teslas of course, and has the very handy 22kw on-board charger, which means very quick charging, almost anywhere in the country. Be aware that the 43kw fast charging capability is an option (called Q90 version) and that it does reduce the range.
Volkswagen E-Golf : Facelifted version now available with a bigger battery
Tesla Model S and X : Range and options have been simplified, only 75 and 100 versions available now.
