Newry - Here I Come (I hope!)

Well, it has been a year now since I have bought Pepé and unfortunately I have not kept my promise to blog each day! However, there still seems to be interest in the idea of someone blogging about using an EV in Ireland so I think I will keep it up anyway.

Today I am attempting a trip to Newry for the first time. I have just stopped off at Donabate's Great Gas Service Station and my car is now charged and ready for the 90km trek to Co. Down. Once there I hope to use one of the newly installed FCPs in Northern Ireland. That should provide enough juice to get back to Donabate. Here's hoping!!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Donabate, Dublin, Ireland

Day 110 - What a Difference a Month Makes!

Well, I have to apologise as it has been over a month since my last post. And I have quite a bit of car related news to relay! I guess the biggest news was my abortive attempt to reach Belfast. As there is currently no FCP in Newry, the only way for me to make it to Belfast at present is via the FCP in Monaghan, and then onward towards Belfast via the A3. Of course this is a significantly longer route and required me to add about two extra hours to the journey (one hour for the extra distance and one hour for charging)! That's quite an extension to what is usually a two-hour car journey. But I decided to give it a go.

In preparation for my journey I planned my route, confirming that travelling from my home to the FCP in Monaghan was no more that 128km and that the distance between Monaghan and my destination in Belfast was no more than 100km. I also contacted the Topaz garage in Monaghan to confirm that the FCP was operational (this is because the FCP in Glasnevin had failed on me while I was using it only one week beforehand). All was good, I sent the map to my car (via Carwings) and got up at 0530h the next morning to start my epic journey.

As the distance was only 128km to Monaghan, and I had traversed 152km to Wexford without too much difficulty I felt that I could let myself go wild and travel at an average speed of 90kph! So I started my journey on the N2 bearing this in mind. However, as I continued along the N2 past Slane I started to get very concerned about the Distance-To-Empty meter. And then it happened - for the first time since I had the car I got an audio warning that my destination may not be within reach of the current range of the car!

To cut a long story short, I did manage to make it to Monaghan with just 8 Km left on the clock. But it was a harrowing journey, requiring me ultimately to reduce my speed to 60kph and as a courtesy to the drivers behind me I had to regularly pull in to allow them to pass me put safely! I was NOT impressed. However, I had made it this far and Belfast was only 100km away. So I pulled up to the FCP and plugged my car in. To my relief the car started to charge - and then it STOPPED! The FCP displayed the same error message that the one in Glasnevin did when it had failed on me only one week earlier! I was devastated. I knew that if someone was to come out and fix it it would still delay me enough to ensure that I did not make my 1030h meeting in Belfast! My day had been ruined!

Three hours later, after two very nice engineers from Carra arrived to fix the FCP and kindly waits with me for an hour to fully charge the ca I was back on the road home. I did not wish to risk continuing to Belfast in case this charge point failed again on my return journey. Thus I decided to give up. Determined to make sure I had a better journey home than I did on the way to Monaghan I deliberately paced myself on the roads back! But then - stupidity struck! Yes, on the almost completely straight road home I took a wrong turn! Absolute disaster - I ended up double backing on myself and returning to Navan! It was now clear that I no longer had enough charge to get home! What was I going to do.

With no FCPs around it looked like I wast ing to have to call Nissan's car service and have poor Pepé towed home! I was not looking forward to that. But then - a light bulb appeared over my head (in the cartoon version of our Universe). I only need about 10 Km more. And I had my two charging cables. If I could plug in some where and wait for about an hour, that should do it. I remembered a friend of mine who lived in Navan. I called him, asked him if he was home and if he wouldn't mind if I stole some of his electricity. He very kindly said yes and after an hour and some toast and tea I was back on the M3 motorway heading home!

I learned a lot from this experience. The three most important facts that I have taken from my adventure are:

1. The Nissan Leaf has a real world operational range of 100km - this is going at motorway speeds and using air conditioning
2. There should be at least two FCPs at every FCP location
3. There needs to be FCP locations at least every 60km on every major inter-urban route in Ireland (North and South!)

If points two and three are implemented Byrne ESB and point one is observed, then the Nissan Leaf will finally become a real-world replacement for ANY family car in Ireland. However, without it remains a city car with limited capability.

Day 73 - Going Nowhere!

After yesterday's frivolities with the kids, I decided to take it easy. Pepé did the same!

Day 72 - Go Mr. Tayto!

Today was just lots of fun! I got to take my boyfriend's nephew and niece to Tayto Park, an outdoors amusement park for young children, based on the now epic and oh-so-utterly-Irish Tayto crisps! The park isn't that far from my house, so I knew it wouldn't be a problem for Pepé at all. However, I wanted to collect the kids. Unfortunately the distance two and from Bray, Clondalkin and Tayto Park in Ashbourne was just that little bit too far to do at motorway speeds, within one charge. Of course, there was no issue with fast charging - except that we were on a bit of a tight time schedule and the extra time to charge, plus the travel time to the nearest FCP would have added just a little too much time to the journey to have more of an impact than we would have otherwise liked.

And this is not to say that we could have done all the to-ing and fro-ing - we could have. It simply wasn't convenient. And this is an important and fair point to make. EVs are good for about 70 - 80% of the journeys I need to make. For about 15% of the time they are usable but less convenient than a petrol engine car. And then for about 5% they are unable to complete the journey, due to the lack of infrastructure. It was disappointing that I felt I couldn't complete all my journeys in Pepé. But perhaps I just have to plan ahead more for these kinds of events.

Day 60 - You're a Star!

Well, celebrities move over - a new star is born! Last week I got an email from Nissan Ireland. Apparently the Sunday Times wanted to do an article on owning EVs in Ireland and they were looking for an end-user! So Nissan Ireland emailed me and asked me if I'd like to do it. I jumped at the chance! So, a few hours later I got a call from a journalist. He was asking me about the cost (both purchase and running) and about my reasoning for purchasing an EV. I explained to him my reasons and indeed my analysis of the cost involved. He seemed quite interested. Then I got a call the next day to organise a photo shoot! The photographer brought me down to the O2 and took lots of photos! Ideally hope he got my good side.

Day 59 - Is the Future Here Already?

I was sitting in my car driving towards Clonshaughlin. My boyfriend's brother was up in our house and I was dropping him back home. We were chatting away about a myriad of things, including Pepé. I was telling him about my trip to Wexford and about the return trip home with the crazy drivers, and the death and the mu-hey mu-hey! Anyway, I also happened to mention about the new battery technologies that are being developed (blogged about earlier this week) and I was telling him that it was only a matter of time until they reduce the charging time, increase the range, and then the BEV would prove to be THE viable alternative to the petrol engine car. "These cars are the future!" boldly declared!
"The future?" He questioned, "These cars are viable now! You have proven that Ciarán. You are proving it everyday you use your car!" I think he might be right!

Day 58 - I vont to Sock Yur Blawd! But first I have to charge my car!

I didn't bother charging Pepé on Friday night. I hadn't anything planned for Saturday except the usual excursions to the shops and my parents. But on my way back home from our traditional family lunch I suddenly remembered - My friend Barry was playing Jonathon Harker in a production of Dracula, adapted for the stage. (By the way, a special congrats to Barry and his colleagues from the Parnassus Arts Group for an excellent performance on Saturday night. I really enjoyed it!) Any who, I realised coming home that I did not have enough charge to get to and back from town. Not to fear, I decided to pop down to my local FCP in Glasnevin, top up Pepé and then back home, in time to prepare dinner and get ready for a night of blood-curdling entertainment. And there you have it, just like any regular petrol car, Pepé was able to adapt to a changing and unplanned scenario!