How we’re putting the brakes on longer electric car journeys

THE latest generation of electric cars is capable of comfortably exceeding 200km on a single charge, but are they viable for longer, cross-country journeys?

To test this, I’ve been spending time in three – the Nissan Leaf, the BMW i3S and the Renault Zoe – by taking them from Dublin to Mayo and back. It’s a distance of just under 250km.

In theory, such longer journeys seem feasible thanks to a range of fast-charge stations strategically positioned around our main motoring arteries.

With up to 50kW of power available, these units will charge most cars to around 80pc capacity in 30 to 40 minutes – enough time for a cup of coffee.

There are also plenty of slow-charge units all over the country, but these aren’t practical for anyone trying to complete a journey. A charge can take several hours.

Sadly, my experience suggests that while longer trips are theoretically straightforward, the infrastructure to support electric cars just isn’t fit for purpose – at least if you want to complete your journey in a reasonable time.

The problem is two-fold. Firstly, although most fast-charge units come with three attachments (for the two types of DC charging and fast AC charging), only one car can avail of the DC fast charge at a time.

So, if you rock up to a charge point and there is a car in front of you, you’ll just have to wait, even if the connection to fit your particular car is available.

The second issue is less acceptable. From my experience, and from monitoring ESB eCar’s app, which gives the status of all the charge points in Ireland, it seems that a significant number of units are out of order at any given time – and often for prolonged periods.

That’s a situation that can leave motorists high and dry if they arrive on minimal charge. With all three cars I tested, my journeys were compromised by out-of-action charge points. It’s worth highlighting my experience with the BMW i3S in particular.

Before leaving Dublin, I identified three fast-charge points on my route to Mayo – Applegreen services near Enfield on the N4, in Longford and Ballaghaderreen.

For various reasons, the car was only 70pc charged when I collected it. Not to worry, I thought – plenty to easily get me to Enfield. But arriving there, I found not one, but three, cars waiting for the fast charger.

Rather than wait, I calculated I could just make it to Longford, which with some judicious driving (sorry, lorry driver I was holding up), I achieved with 15km of charge left, only to find the facility out of order, although the app had earlier indicated it was working.

ESB eCars told me it had recently been reported as faulty and would be fixed as soon as possible. I mention this because it was two weeks later before the app showed it was back in action.

At this stage I had no choice but to find a slow-charge unit and park up for nearly two hours.

That gave me enough juice to get as far as the fast charger in Ballaghaderreen, where a 20-minute top-up was enough to see me home. Total stops: three. Total journey time: six and half hours.

For reference, this journey would normally take no longer than three hours.

While my other electric car trips weren’t as fraught, only one of the six cross-country runs wasn’t compromised by out-of-action charge points – each of which was unavailable for at least one week.

Although electric cars are still a fairly rare sight, typically I found that I either had to wait for another user to move on before accessing a charge point, or experienced the uncomfortable feeling of holding another person up while my car recharged.

Overall, the fastest time to complete the nominal three-hour journey in any of the electric cars was four hours and 15 minutes.

It may be okay for the occasional traveller, but the reality is there is no way that anybody who needs to get somewhere by a set time will be confident they can do so in an electric vehicle.

With the car manufacturers making great strides on EVs in recent times, if the Government is serious about its commitment to electric motoring, it needs to put its money where its mouth is and invest properly in our recharging network.

I asked the following: What is ESB eCar’s standard for repairing out-of-order charge points (Please note, I’m asking this question in the context of having experienced and observed a significant number of units out of order in recent weeks, often for weeks at a time)?

I was told :“We have a dedicated maintenance and operations team to support the operation and maintenance of the charging network, as well as 24/7 customer care centre. Unfortunately, a number of the charging units installed as part of the EV pilot project for first-generation EV drivers are no longer supported by the charge-point manufacturers and have not performed well. For example, it is no longer possible to secure spare parts for some charge point models in a timely manner. We are reviewing the needs of the network, including carrying out further upgrade work on existing charge points. We expect to be in a position to communicate publicly our investment plans in the near future.”