It’s been a while but as I had promised here’s the results of the Battery Capacity Check. I got it done on the 10/01/2013.
As can be seen from the report, all’s good in battery town. Considering I fast charge my car quite often I was pretty happy with the 3/5 stars I got.
Also this month, I was at the Smart Transport Summit & the Nations Electric Vehicles Summit (as a guest speaker). The summit’s were both very good with lots of different parties from all different industries representing. I got to question the Minister for the Environment on why he wasn’t pressing the Minister for Transport on the Smarter Transport bill. As long as this is not in place the Environment Minster’s remit of getting more CPs and EVs on the road is being seriously delayed. He informed us all that he will push the Transport Minister on this (I won’t hold my breathe). My own speech was fairly slapdash, as it wasn’t well prepared and mostly was just statements and stories from my experiences and opinions on having and EV. We had members of the press there too. I asked one why they compare the CO2 levels from the petrol car exhausts to the levels created in making the electricity for EVs; instead of comparing the CO2 levels from the full extraction/production/refining/shipping/transport of the oil all the way to the exhausts, to the amount used in making the electricity. I didn’t get a reply on this (to be honest there was a lot of questions bouncing around at this time). One journalist made the statement that EVs would be good as a second vehicle and based this on the fact they don’t have a high enough range. I queried him on why he consider this secondary when the primary use of vehicle to date is to drive to/from work or shops etc (all things of a very close range) and secondary use was to go on once- or twice-off long journeys and Sunday drives (no reply on this again, but like I said there were lots of questions at this time and they couldn’t answer all).
Some side events to the summit were; I got to try out Carra’s new web-based app for controlling charging in public charge points (keep your eye out for it) but even more exciting for me was to get a quick journey in a fully electric truck. Celtic Linen is the company that have this. It was surprisingly nippy even for a truck weighing 10ton loaded.
Continuing with the good fortune, I was informed that with the help of MCC Controls, the Hilton Hotel in Kilmainham is putting in a charge point in the next few weeks. This is excellent news for me as it will cut my RC charging by quite a bit as I wont need to use it when traveling up or down from work. I also was asked to test out one of the MCC units and it is a real good choice for hotels. The reason I say this is because it comes with a tethering connection (so no messing in the boot to find your cable), but more importantly the cable is 5 metres long (making it easily accessible from side parking spots even if some Muppet has parked in the designated spot) and finally it has a reset trip switch (excellent for if there is a problem with it and you want to reset as a quick fix). So all going good I shall be using this soon.
Finally, I will be attempting to head up to Strabane, Co. Tyrone in a couple of weeks time. This is a 241km journey each way and am planning on doing this with a friend of mine. If all goes well we will make it with no issues and I will report that, if it doesn’t I will report that. It will all depend on a few RCs along the way (Navan, Monaghan & Lifford) to make sure we get there and back. There is a new RC going in at Castlebellingham which if up at the time could be an alternative way instead of Navan. Well wish me luck.
Thanks for the update on the Smart Transport Summit & the Nations Electric Vehicles Summit. Do you know if there is a list of upcoming charge points around the country to be got anyplace. We only seem to hear of them when they arrive.
Got a Nissan leaf in January. Had some “teething” problems with the charging. Firstly, the cards sent by the ESB would not work – tried them at three charging points – New Ross, Tramore and Waterford. Luckily Nissan Barlo Kilkenny had given me for a lend a granny cable – otherwise I was in trouble. In fairness the ESB sent me two new cards – next day. Then in Limerick one day I plugged in to a charging point. The blue charging light did not come on in the Leaf. So tried to get the cable out of the charge point and it was stuck. Disconnected it from the car. Wrapped the cable around the charge point and rang the no. on the charge point. This all happened at 9.30am. They sent an engineer to release the cable and fix the charge point. This was done by lunch time. In the meantime I dashed across the city to Nissan Limerick for a quick charge and just made my appointment in Ardagh Co Limerick. However since these first problems things are going well – main thing I find is to have the journey well planned.
Do you know if there is an Irish EV Owners club, website or any such organization – maybe a weekend get together sometime might be nice. Best of luck with your trip to Strabane.
Hi
Thanks for the reply. The only place I know of is actually on the ESBs chargemap website http://www.esb.ie/electric-cars/electric-car-charging/electric-car-charge-point-map.jsp. It doesn’t show by default but you can choose to have it show the charge points that are under construction. It’s good that you got the charging sorted. ESB/Carra are generally very good/fast at getting you sorted. The Irish EV Owners Group is help on face book, it may take a day or 2 to be added in but it shouldn’t be too long. Here’s the link I hope this helps. https://www.facebook.com/groups/107445206006743/
Hi,
I donated a few bob to you for the upkeep of the website – you might let me know if you received it – thanks.
I did indeed. Sorry only saw this morning. that will go towards the media plugin. Thanks again.
Came across this map on Facebook re FCP to be installed this year:
Thats sweet. Roscres, nenaghm port laoise urlingford. This will make things pretty handy
Sligo city, Still no FCP, April, 2016 ? ? ?
Hi Eddie
I would suggest you get on to the esb ecars FB page and question them why they are lacking in support of Sligo.
Regards
I cannot find a single charge point of any kind working in Sligo town, and ESB tell me no plans to provide a FCP.
The SCP at the station was never accessible, and now it is not working anyway.
ESB tell me that the SCP at Riverside is not in service and they don’t know when it will be.
Does anyone know of anywhere to charge in Sligo town?