Sign Petition to rethink these charges: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/rethink-ev-charging-costs
Electric cars have been around for a few years now and sales have been rather weak but growing.
I purchased a Nissan Leaf just over one year ago and the majority of my charging is done at home, on night rate electricity.
The ESB installed a free home charging point and committed to doing so for the first 2000 new Electric Vehicles sold.
There are number of public charging points around the country which range from Standard Charge Points (SCP) and Fast Charge Points (FCP). These have been free to use to date but the ESB are now moving to charging for using these charge points. The draft proposals that have been leaked have angered a lot of EV owners as they intend to charge a flat subscription fee just to have access to the charge points and then also charge for usage.
The leaked document also shows FCP charging would cost 30 cent per minute which would mean a full charge to 80% would cost €9 giving a range of around 100km which means modern diesel cars would be cheaper when compared.
The leaked PDF is below:
ESB ecars subscription offer_031115_1
Update:
Email from ESB ecars:
Important news for Ireland’s EV driving community
Dear EV Owner,
Since starting our Electric Vehicle (EV) programme in 2010, ESB has built an extensive Electric Vehicle charging network, comprising almost 1,000 public charge points in the Republic of Ireland. ESB ecars has been a pioneering force behind the development of Ireland’s EV journey and we are proud to be among the most innovative providers of EV charging services in Europe. Working alongside you, with our partners from the car industry and Government, we have laid the foundation for the growth of electric vehicles in Ireland.
As we continue our journey towards cleaner, more economical driving, it’s imperative that our network keeps pace with increased needs and that we continue to improve the service that we provide to you. In this context, in the last 12 months we have:
- Added 9 multi-standard fast chargers to expand our network
- Progress in resolving the issue of ICE vehicles blocking charging spots
- Introduced a 24/7 ‘lo call’ helpline support
- Increased levels of charger reliability
- Launched a driver app with enhanced functionality
To support your driving experience, it is our intention to provide you with the best possible service. In order for ESB ecars to be able to achieve this, we will soon be introducing, on a phased basis, a payment structure.
Beginning later this month new ESB ecars customers will be asked to sign up to a monthly fee of €16.99 (VAT inclusive) to access the public charging network, with payment coming into effect from January 4th 2016.
This fee will cover:
- Free use of all 800+ standard public charge points
- Unlimited access to over 70 ESB ecars fast chargers until April 2016 – after which date a 30 cent per minute usage fee will apply
- Access to all online and 24/7 call centre supports currently available to ESB ecars customers
- Ability to cancel monthly payment without penalty
In addition to this package, ESB ecars will continue to provide new EV drivers with a free home charger, with an approximate value of €900 (providing that they qualify for the SEAI Grant).*
Existing ESB ecars customers will continue to have access to the charging Infrastructure, ICT, Call Centre and Customer Operations until April 2016 at no cost, by which time a payment structure similar to that offered to new ESB ecars customers will be made available to you – as one of a number of options. At that time, we will also be making some important service enhancements.
Critically, as we roll out our payment structure to increasing numbers of new and existing customers, we are also working to expand the choice of price plans that we can offer so that you can select a package closely tailored to your own personal driving needs – whether a heavy or occasional user of our network. We will be engaging with customers and other stakeholders and will be communicating details of these plans beginning in the new year.
Existing EV owners can sign up from April 2016 onwards at www.esb.ie/ecars or by calling our customer help line on 01- 258 3799/1890 372 387.
We will mail you a reminder with more information about those important dates in the coming months.
Safe e-driving.
Gareth Davis
Head of ESB ecars
* Valid until at least April 2016
So what’s happening with this now?
All information about their fees seems to have been removed from their web site, but I’ve not seen no direct confirmation that they won’t be charging us in April.
The process was put on hold while the CER perform a review.