Electric Car Diary

Extremely interesting tread, I’m going through identical process this week. ID4 purchased and charging with granny until home charger is installed later in the week. I bought new and dealer just happened to have what spec I was looking for in stock. Must try and get that WeConnect ID widget working. As a matter of interest how are you Finnish parking sensors? I find the alerts you to objects so much later than my Tiguan that it’s almost dangerous as we’ve come to reply on. Like you ev6 and ioniq 5 were options and probably better ev’s based on all reviews however didn’t like the looks and think vw will hold value better
Hi Anthony. Good question. I find the parking sensors just 'later' than my mondeo. I'm starting to get used to them and trust them a bit more as I get used to the size of the ID.4. Order to Installation of charger took 3 weeks. Going to be travelling to an airport next week so long trip and will have to charge for the return journey. I've downloaded the Easygo app for a nationwide map. Some chargers are free. ESB app does not have a map!
 
Going to be travelling to an airport next week so long trip and will have to charge for the return journey. I've downloaded the Easygo app for a nationwide map. Some chargers are free. ESB app does not have a map!
The ESB app definitely has a map, it’s in the Find a Charger section then click Map down the bottom.

I’d recommend using one of the non-network apps like PlugShare to find chargers, saves you having to check 2-3 network apps. The network app is worth a check afterward though as it will tell you in real-time if a charger is broken or in-use.

Not sure what route you’re taking, but my recommendation would be to figure out if there are any locations with multiple chargers and aim for one of those, even if it means stopping earlier than you need to. Much less chance of needing to queue that way. The Ballacolla stop on the Dublin-Cork route is a good example, it’s only 150km down the road so I’m theory too early to stop, but there are 10 Tesla chargers and 3 ESB chargers so you will never end up needing to queue there.
 
Cheers. I will explore the ESB app further and the Plugshare app.
How are you getting on with vw home charger? Only other issue I’m having is with the iOS App. In WeConnectID I cannot change units from miles to km. my wife downloaded and logged in with my account and shows kms no problem for her. Tried deleting etc but no dice
 
The home charger is great although the placement, which was dictated by proximity to the main fuseboard, may be a tripping hazard but it's near the back of the house. No issues with the app, it seemed to default to km.
 
The home charger is great although the placement, which was dictated by proximity to the main fuseboard, may be a tripping hazard but it's near the back of the house. No issues with the app, it seemed to default to km.
FWIW the electric regs were changed recently to allow EV chargers to be placed near the meter box (by adding a mini fuseboard to the meter box) rather than near the main fuseboard. Too late for you I know, but may be handy to know for others!
 
Update: First major trip last weekend. 100 miles to the airport. Was not fully charged when leaving as I had underestimated how long it would take to charge to 100%. Anyway, delightful drive, mostly motorway and parked up at the airport for a few days. Knowing it would need charging to get home, I had sussed out a nearby free charger on the EasyGo app. Found it but the app and charger would not sync. Drove part of the way home, quite concerned, but located an ESB pay charger. Worked first time, fair play ESB, and we grabbed a bite to eat and passed about 90 minutes to give it a decent charge. Headed home but it would be tight. Didn't want to stop again but had a plan in case. As it happened, I limped in the gate at home with 5% left in the battery. Overall, a stressful drive. Lesson learned is that all future trips will require planning around charger locations.
 
@Slim, for a 2 hundread mile (320kms)return trip,and mainly motorway driving, starting on full is fairly essential, and would only require a quick 20minute 50k fast charge if at all, on the return leg, in an ID 4 - 77kw. IF, it was full on leaving.
It should be easily possible to do 320 kms, depending on conditions & load, bearing in mind the WLTP is just over 500kms on this vehicle, but motorway driving at 120kph can really drain the battery rapidly. Even dropping by 10kph can make a big difference.

Big lesson here is really, charge to full the night before longer trips, whilst also being aware of charging points, if its needed, on the return leg home
 
...The Ballacolla stop on the Dublin-Cork route is a good example, it’s only 150km down the road so I’m theory too early to stop, but there are 10 Tesla chargers and 3 ESB chargers so you will never end up needing to queue there.
Until the day that Cork are playing a semifinal in Croke Park and half the county is on the M8 desperately looking to recharge!
 
@Slim, for a 2 hundread mile (320kms)return trip,and mainly motorway driving, starting on full is fairly essential, and would only require a quick 20minute 50k fast charge if at all, on the return leg, in an ID 4 - 77kw. IF, it was full on leaving.
It should be easily possible to do 320 kms, depending on conditions & load, bearing in mind the WLTP is just over 500kms on this vehicle, but motorway driving at 120kph can really drain the battery rapidly. Even dropping by 10kph can make a big difference.

Big lesson here is really, charge to full the night before longer trips, whilst also being aware of charging points, if its needed, on the return leg home
Yes, driving style certainly affects consumption as it did in the diesel. My driving style on motorways in the diesel would be a top speed of 110kph. The installer of the home charger informed me that the VW will only charge at 11kw per hour. As all the publicly available chargers range from 22-50kw, does this mean that it's irrelevant which charger I use?
 
Yes, driving style certainly affects consumption as it did in the diesel. My driving style on motorways in the diesel would be a top speed of 110kph. The installer of the home charger informed me that the VW will only charge at 11kw per hour. As all the publicly available chargers range from 22-50kw, does this mean that it's irrelevant which charger I use?
Unless you have a three-phase supply at home then the charger there will be limited to 7kW. When it comes to public chargers you have two broad categories -
  1. Slow chargers - These are basically like your home charger but will do up to 11kW. You should only use these for longer stays, like going to a meeting, shopping etc. You don't ever want to use one of these on a long journey, which I think may be where you went wrong. These will be identified as "Type 2" chargers in the likes of the PlugShare app.
  2. Fast/rapid chargers - These use the larger connector and your car supports charging at 125kW, though many of the older ESB chargers only support 50kW at the moment, Ionity chargers should get you the full 125kW and you should aim for these every time. As you can imagine at 125kW or even 50kW these chargers will charge your car very quickly and are the only chargers you should use on longer journeys. It sounds like 10 minutes would have been enough in this case. They're typically in motorway service stations and will be identified as "CCS" in the likes of the PlugShare app.
As an example of using the fast chargers, I drove from Sneem to North Dublin last week (365km) in my Leaf which has quite a bit less range than your car (250km on the motorway) and is only capable of 50kW charging on fast chargers. I drove at 120km/h on the motorway, stopped once for 45 mins to grab some food and charged, I arrived home with 50% charge so I probably would have got away with a 15 minutes stop but no way to eat a large taco chips in that kinda time o_O .

Out of interest what was the charge level of the car when you left home for the journey? Are we talking ‘not fully charged at 95%’ or ‘not fully charged at 50%’? Was it charging all night? If so I’d wonder if there’s an issue with the charger? I had a colleague with the same issue, turned out the installer had set the charger up incorrectly and it was limited to something like 1kW.

Your conclusion is bang on though, a bit of planning is required just to understand what types of chargers to use, where to stop on your journey etc. but it gets much easier once you've done it once or twice.
 
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The installer, was referring to AC charging, which is the only type of charging available in homes and businesses, 11kw is the AC charging maximum for most EV’s. Most homes have a max AC charging of 7KW, but triple phase, usually found in industrial premises can do up to 11 KW AC.
some Renault & Mitsubishi EV’s can do 22 AC.
Many of the public charging units, are AC charging often limited to 11KW or 22KW, sometimes even less than 11KW.

DC charging max, varies up to and over 100KW, and is usually what you find on motorways. People often refer to them as fast chargers. Most of the newer EV’s have a DC charging max about 100KW ish, some are more.

Apps like “plugshare” will help identify the charging capability of public chargers in advance of making a journey.

Getting back to your recent airport trip, this interesting report confirms that even driving an ID4 77kw consistently at 130kmph, it should cover more than 330kms, if full on departure.
 
a better route planner is a good website/app and would have been useful in this case, a quick fast charge should have sufficed. but as others noted interested to know what state of charge you left at.
 
Interesting comments. The car was at about 80% when we left. I had set the charger a bit late in the morning and underestimated how long it would take to fully charge. I admit to horsing along on the motorway as I was fully confident of a good charge for the return journey. On the chargers, I will in future look out for the fast chargers. The range at 80% is given as 330km. Weather is improving and seems to be helping with the range. It is a learning process. Next test will be a trip to Dublin and back, coming up soon. I will report back.
 
Interesting comments. The car was at about 80% when we left. I had set the charger a bit late in the morning and underestimated how long it would take to fully charge. I admit to horsing along on the motorway as I was fully confident of a good charge for the return journey. On the chargers, I will in future look out for the fast chargers. The range at 80% is given as 330km. Weather is improving and seems to be helping with the range. It is a learning process. Next test will be a trip to Dublin and back, coming up soon. I will report back.
put your route, car and state of charge into the app i mentioned above and it will direct you to be nearest fast charger on your route if required. generally if you have a large trip ideally you would charge over night the night before.

are you on a night saver rate for cheaper charging?
 
put your route, car and state of charge into the app i mentioned above and it will direct you to be nearest fast charger on your route if required. generally if you have a large trip ideally you would charge over night the night before.

are you on a night saver rate for cheaper charging?
Thanks. I have 3 apps loaded up to locate chargers plus the car will also locate nearby chargers. I had called Electric Ireland to swap to day/night rate but was advised (not by Electric Ire) to wait a few weeks as all other appliances will incur a much higher unit cost.
 
Thanks. I have 3 apps loaded up to locate chargers plus the car will also locate nearby chargers. I had called Electric Ireland to swap to day/night rate but was advised (not by Electric Ire) to wait a few weeks as all other appliances will incur a much higher unit cost.
its reasonably easy mathematical exercise to see if you benefit from the day night rate, but generally with a large batter ev getting charged once or twice a week it makes sense.

ABRP is the best of the route planners, so it plans the route in advances and identifies the best place to charge along the way. Hopefully of some use.
 
its reasonably easy mathematical exercise to see if you benefit from the day night rate, but generally with a large batter ev getting charged once or twice a week it makes sense.

ABRP is the best of the route planners, so it plans the route in advances and identifies the best place to charge along the way. Hopefully of some use.
On Night rates, agreed, its much more apporpriate for larger battery EV’s, we have two EV’s, the larger battery EV is thankfully 100 % charged at work, the smaller one at home, but only 110kw of charging per month on average, over 9 months charging.This somewhat negates the night rate benefit, as its not enough night rate draw, to justify additional standing charges(often forgotten about), and often higher day rates, on the day/night tarriffs.
However, we have a heat pump going in this week, which may change that.

So, it really depends on your individual usage, a number crunch, is really essential using your actual usage data over a period of time.
 
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