Electric car drivers have a new spectre about which to worry. To range anxiety and vehicle weight, we can now add over-charging.
In this, we do not mean putting too much charge into the car’s battery. Quite the reverse — in this case, over-charging means paying for more charge than you actually receive.
A survey in the UK by EVCI Global – a company which provides calibration equipment for EV charging points, so there is an understandable sense that perhaps this survey is a way to drum up more business – found that 31.5 per cent of chargers were either over- or under-estimating the amount of energy they were providing.
In one case out of every 15, that margin of error was more than 5 per cent, and the single worst example found was a charger that was providing 37 per cent less energy than it was claiming to deliver.
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In terms of actual cost paid, that could be a profound extra strain on an EV driver’s expenditure.
The Irish Times has previously calculated charging a Volkswagen ID.4’s 77kWh battery from a public charging point costs about €40, giving you a realistic range of about 450km.
If you were using that worst-case charging point, then you would be down a massive 166km of range for the same €40, or you would have had to pay an extra €14.98 to reach a full 100 per cent charge.
The problem is one of regulation. Liquid fuels – petrol and diesel – have to be correctly dispensed and charged for to within an error of -0.5 to +1.0 per cent, but EV chargers have a broader statutory limit of as much as 2 per cent.
The Irish Times asked the ESB whether it has any concerns that its network of charging points is suffering from similar issues.
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A spokesperson told us: “All ESB public chargers are equipped with MID-certified meters, ensuring that customers are billed precisely for the electricity they draw from the charger.
“MID – the Measuring Instruments Directive – is a European regulatory standard that sets strict performance and accuracy requirements for devices used in commercial measurement, including electricity meters.
“This certification ensures that any measurement used for billing or reimbursement is fair, accurate, and legally reliable. The meters within ESB chargers undergo independent type testing and approval under the MID framework, which verifies long-term accuracy and guarantees that the meter performs consistently and within legally mandated tolerances.”
The spokesperson said ESB is confident that its metering and billing systems reflect customers’ actual energy usage as supplied by the charger accurately and transparently.
If a customer is not satisfied with what they’ve had to pay for a charge, the spokesperson told us the ESB operates a 24-hour customer care team that can respond to any queries.
Petrol and diesel pumps
There’s another potential issue, though. All petrol and diesel filling pumps work at roughly the same speed — about 40 litres per minute — but the actual charging power you receive from an EV charger can vary wildly according to the condition of the car’s battery, the ambient temperature, and the actual amount of power reaching the charging point.
We’ve experienced first-hand instances where a charger promising – and charging you for – 150kW of power was delivering just 24kW, so surely it would make sense for EV users to benefit from graduated payments, where you only pay for the rate of energy you’re actually getting?
The ESB’s response to this was that it provides a nationwide charging service across a range of power levels, with pricing structured according to the speed of the charger.
Standard chargers capable of delivering up to 22kW are priced at one rate, fast chargers between 22kW and 100kW operate at a higher tier, and high-power chargers capable of delivering above 100kW are priced at the top tier.
“While it is ultimately the vehicle’s battery and onboard systems that determine how much power a car can draw at any given moment, ESB ensures that the infrastructure and service are available at each of these defined charging levels. This allows drivers to access the highest charging capability supported by both their vehicle and the charger.”
One expert says more data on charging performance should be available to the public, and that could potentially come from the car makers themselves.
Independent EV servicing expert David Corbally from Service Stop in north Co Dublin, said: “The manufacturers of the cars can see all sorts of data that we, as an independent repair specialist, can’t see. When we take a Volkswagen or a BMW or whatever brand of car and plug it into a diagnostic tool, that sucks out a whole load of data and sends it off in ones and zeros that they can then interpret. That sort of data could potentially monitor your charging performance, but they just might not want you to have that access.”
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Worse still, there’s the possibility for actual damage to be caused by chargers operating incorrectly, and it could be very hard to pin the blame if such damage occurs.
“Charger issues can be caused by current spikes and the likes of that,” says Corbally. “If it’s not measured specifically by the individual or the car, then it’s very hard to say anything definitively, especially given how many charging suppliers there are. The reality is, batteries don’t last forever, and we see a lot of charging problems. A lot of the battery problems can be caused by things like fast charging and the heat generated during fast charging.”
Although running an electric car is much cheaper than running an equivalent petrol or diesel car, that is predicated on doing the vast majority of your charging at home, where electricity is cheapest.
When it comes to public charging, the cost of putting energy into your battery rises considerably. While home charging can be as cheap as 10-15c per kWh (depending on your tariff and the time of day) public charging starts at 59c per kWh for an ESB e-Cars ‘standard’ charger, which provides up to 22kW of charging power (those are the boxy chargers most commonly seen on kerbsides).
Step up to fast charging, and you’ll pay 64c per kWh, and that’s for between 50kW and 150kW of DC power. High power charging – above 150kW up to 350kW – costs 66c per kWh, and again, these prices are for ESB chargers, which should be considered as the general benchmark rather than a rule.
It is possible to bring down the per-kWh cost by 5c per kWh if you sign up for an ESB e-Cars monthly subscription, which costs €4.79 per month. Other charging providers have similar costs and discounts available.
The recent spike in fuel prices due to the conflict in Iran means that even at such relatively expensive public charging costs, running an EV is now cheaper than pumping petrol or diesel into a car, even if you’re using only public chargers.
To travel 100km in a VW ID.4 EV will cost you €11.52, assuming 18kWh/100km energy efficiency and that you’re charging on a fast charger. To cover 100km in an equivalent VW Tiguan 2.0 TDI diesel will cost you €12.60, assuming a pump cost of €2.10 for diesel and an average of 6 litres per 100km fuel economy.
That said, a prolonged spike in the price of oil will eventually start to affect the price of electricity, unless extra renewable energy sources – and associated energy storage – can be rolled out to compensate.
The Irish Times contacted the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI), the keepers of all things measured and measurable to find out if EV chargers can be more tightly regulated. However, according to the NSAI, such charging points don’t currently come under its remit, although that may change with an upcoming directive.
