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LOCAL AUTHORITIES IN Dublin and an Irish electric vehicle company have not set a fixed price for customers for the 200 new charging sites they intend to roll out around the capital at the beginning of next year.
Details of the project, the first of its kind in Ireland, have not been fully hammered out between local councils and the electric vehicle (EV) company ePower. This was despite a public contract being awarded and a photoshoot to promote the project taking place.
One electric vehicle advocacy group has said the prices for the use of these chargers should be set and advertised before the first units go live in the first quarter of next year.
ePower, which already runs an extensive network of charging points around the country, will work with local councils in Dublin to build a tranche of new chargers at 50 locations around the capital.
But the firm has since told The Journal that it cannot set a fixed price as “energy costs” may vary from now until the completion of the project and that market activity, such as the performance of it and its competitors, will dictate prices that customers will pay.
This is despite a spokesperson on behalf of all four local authorities in Dublin telling The Journal that ePower was awarded the contract under the Most Economically Advantageous Tender criteria, taking into account both price and quality.
Matthew Sealy, the chairperson of the Irish Electric Vehicle Association (IEVA), said that the price of any public EV chargers should be “as low as possible”, as many people — particularly in Dublin — cannot install home chargers.
He said that people who purchase EVs are either environmentally conscious or are attracted to the vehicles for the cheaper costs associated with powering the cars.
Regardless of the type of customer, pricing is “important” and most owners want to be charged at an acceptable rate, Sealy added. He called for ePower and the local authorities to come to an agreement to set fixed pricing.
ePower said that given the impact that energy prices and competition could have on what it charges, and the fact that the project is at an “early stage”, it could not detail how much it will charge at first for the use of the infrastructure.
It said, however, that it wants to encourage the uptake of driving EVs and will “strive” to deliver “attractive pricing”, which will be published on its app once the sites go live.
A spokesperson for Dublin City Council, Fingal County Council, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and South Dublin County Council has said that EV owners will be incentivised to charge during “off-peak hours” in the future for better prices.
Sealy reasoned that prices for this joint project must be set at a fixed rate as some EV owners in Dublin cannot install chargers at home and are therefore are reliant on publicly available chargers.
He said if ePower were seeking to compete it is the view of the IEVA that their prices would be “ideally” set at the same price, or cheaper, than the chargers offered by the firm’s main competitor, the ESB, which are installed by the State.
The chair of the IEVA said that ePower is a well-known firm and charges acceptable rates but detailed that, often, the rates vary depending on agreements between the landowner, the use of the charging point and the demand in the area.
A spokesperson for ePower confirmed this, stating that it cannot control the price of chargers at different locations, as it is within the remit of its clients to do so.
According to Sealy, he has experienced that prices are different in locations such as Dublin city centre when compared to other locations, such as Cork.
Using figures from the EV Database — an independent EV data collection website — the average battery size of vehicles currently on the market is 71.9 kwhs and the average range is 379km.
This means ePower’s price to fully charge an EV’s battery in Dublin could be up to €46.75 and could be up to €30.92 in Cork.
Meanwhile, the ESB offers 1,600 charging points around the country at a fixed rate. Membership plans for the State-owned electricity company’s charging network are also available, making prices cheaper.
Using the same averages, the price for using an ESB fast charger could be up to €37.38. The State-owned chargers’ prices are the same nationwide.
These figures vary depending on the size of the car’s battery, the type of charger and whether or not an owner is signed up to the ESB’s membership plan.
Asked what is the differential between both companies’ prices, a spokesperson for the council reasoned that pricing would reflect current market rates and that customers had the option to review all prices before choosing to charge.
Brendan Crowley, Director of Public Charging at ePower, told The Journal that “the aim of the roll out is to facilitate the public in their (local authorities’) EV charging”.
He added: “That charging will be attractively priced, as the scheme was designed with the best interests of the EV driving public in mind”.
He said that the charging points will be available every day and the company will also be available to maintain the infrastructure to “support an accessible, reliable charging option for EV drivers” all year round.
Asked what ePower’s share of the market in Dublin will be following this project, as estimates suggest the firm will control over 50% of EV chargers, a spokesperson said: “ePower will certainly be one of the largest providers of charging across Dublin.”
A spokesperson for the local authorities said councils in Dublin do not collect or keep data on the number of chargers in the county.
While it’s expected there will be a pick up in interest in EVs in coming years due to plans to begin phasing out combustion engines, the most recent figures show registrations have fallen dramatically in recent months.
The Government plans to install charging points at every 60km of motorway in the country and include reliefs such as tax exemptions for home and apartment chargers, though plans have been slow to get off the ground.
This month Transport Minister Eamon Ryan announced the second National Road Grant Scheme to support the development of high-powered EV recharging on Ireland’s roads.
The IEVA keeps track of the status of this infrastructure on its website.
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The government simply don’t want you to own a car, not even electric, simple. The EV grants are gone, a car cost twice here than in the USA, a car that used to cost less than €30K before Covid costs now nearly €50K.
@J Ven: There’s still a 3,500 grant for buying a new EV and 300 for a charger install. What car has nearly doubled from pre-Covid? Prices look to be dropping to me
@Mick Duvanny: Prices dropped and the Irish Government placed the VRT back on them (you know when normal people can afford them). How they control our access to the global market is like a prison, ALL of the extra charges from the UK or Japan are put in place by Irish people looking to make life more expensive and difficult for other Irish people, it’s pathetic.
At last we are trusted to have an opinion on an article. Unfortunately my mind has exploded with this freedom
So it’ll be ‘attractively priced’……. but we’ve zero idea what that price may be….. kinda dictionary definition of ” buying a pig in a poke”.
@Frank Mc Carthy: if the kWh price (or whatever unit makes sense for charging a car) is advertised at the charger same as petrol stations show the price per litre of petrol/diesel, it would already go a long way.
Failing to show a price in advance would not please consumer protection agencies… (half sarcastic here)
@Frank Mc Carthy: attractive for the provider.
@Jerry LeFrog: yet again the people being ripped off
@Frank Mc Carthy: Would a new petrol station advertise prices before it was built?
When it comes to the topic of EVs in the media the one thing that is hardly mentioned is the D word
Depreciation is one of the biggest factors to take into consideration regarding the purchase of an EV and having watched a recent TV show on UK called Petrol vs EV an example shown was of someone who purchased a Fiat 500 EV and paid 35K sterling and two years later the same car was being sold on a car dealer’s forecourt for 17K and that’s a 50% depreciation in price in two years
It’s no wonder the D word is hardly mentioned in any discussions relating to EVs
@Chaotic State: Ah, but is that depreciation due to the vehicle being an EV?
Or a FIAT?
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere:
Both are equally good reasons to avoid the car, regardless of the price.
@Chaotic State: As long as I can remember, we have been told not to buy a new car, as soon as you drive it off the forecourt, you lose 50% of the value.
@Chaotic State: EV cars are dropping in price increasing depreciation and I’d expect it to level off. 50% loss in value every 3 years used to be the ICE rule of thumb until COVID. It could end up being higher if EV ranges start getting close to 1000km
@Chaotic State: Its Dell computers all over again, make a product not last very long and they’ll need to buy it more. This is now normal for society. “green” tho super green (total bs)
@Chaotic State: The Fiat 500 is small short range car, it’s not because it is an EV specifically.
Well done Eamon. Going green is not cheap.
As usual the Irish State is relying on private companies to put in the infrastructure that they should be providing and it is the Irish consumer who ends up paying the price. You can bet the company who won the tender submitted a pricing model but yet they can’t tell us what they’ll charge? Bunkum. Watch yet another BAM situation develop here. Rip Off Ireland is alive and well.
@Niall Whyte: Do the Irish state run petrol stations? Why should they do the same for EVs?
@Usernamewitheld: fair point – I’d counter petrol stations aren’t critical infrastructure whereas a properly resourced charging infrastructure is, particularly in light of the fact motorists will be forced eventually into EVs
This is ireland. They will charge what they want.
@AnthonyK: You want to live in a country where private companies are told what prices to charge?
@Usernamewitheld: No, but one where price gouging is illegal
The cheapest price is if you have a charger at home from a provider you pick.
@Dee Bracken: obviously yes, but that’s totally irrelevant, at odds with the point & ethos of the article
@Dee Bracken: And that’s still using me of the dearest domestic races in the world
Just make sure the charge the same taxes for charging them EVs as they do on petrol and diesel so that the drivers pay their share for road maintenance etc. that’s only fair I say.
@Ned: Motorists pay far more in taxes than are used for roads.
@Ned: motor tax is not used for road maintenance
There is no road maintenance
Why should the price be fixed ? Is you’re electricity price fir your house fixed ? Or your gas ? Or petrel/diesel? No, they aren’t. Its tme to cut EV subsidies.
Already tried evPower it’s fairly cheap, it’s cheaper than home charging during the day with most of the providers if I recall it was something like 0.3€ kw/h which is pretty decent.
@Alex: if you could only plug in a kettle and a toaster while your waiting
is this unprecedented or will it be a precedent. Hard to say when reading journalistic reports
In major shock here.A journal article you can comment on.Pass the smelling salts.
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