I want to complain about the Dublin City [Council] policy of clamping cars when actively charging in public on road charging points. I distinguish \u201ccharging\u201d from \u201cparking\u201d and given the cost of electricity on the public chargers, adding parking fees, needlessly and arrogantly, is a further penalty for \u201cclean\u201d EVs. – <\/b>Michael Baynes from Co Dublin<\/b><\/p>\n
Stern words, and understandably so. Electric vehicle (EV)<\/a> charging is still sparse in many parts of Ireland and, in particular, in Dublin city<\/a>. Combine that with a definite shortage of \u201cslow\u201d on-street charging points, can it be considered a good idea for Dublin City Council (DCC)<\/a> to charge for on-street parking while also paying for charging?<\/p>\n We put this to DCC, and the official response was: \u201cDublin City Council are preparing guidance to assist electric vehicle drivers to navigate and comprehend national and local legislation and policies relating to EV charging. <\/p>\n \u201cOn-street EV charging in Dublin city is currently operated by ESB E-Cars<\/a>. Dublin City Council does not receive revenue or fees from this. Dublin City Council Parking Bylaws do not make any exemptions for the payment of parking fees for electric vehicles while they are charging.\u201d<\/p>\n [\u00a0EV Q&A: Should the ESB just focus on developing chargers in Ireland?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n The extra cost of paying for parking as well as charging is not to be taken lightly. DCC currently charges \u20ac4 per hour for on-street parking. We recently ran the numbers on the cost of charging the best-selling electric car in Ireland right now \u2014 the Volkswagen ID.4<\/a> \u2014 on public chargers now that ESB e-Cars raised its charging prices<\/a> to 59c per kWh on a \u201cslow\u201d 7.4-22kW AC charger. <\/p>\n The VW ID.4 charges, on AC power, at 11kW, so assuming you can find an on-street charger supplying that amount of energy, you\u2019re going to need about seven hours to charge the ID.4\u2019s 77kWh battery. <\/p>\n That means you will pay a not-inconsiderable \u20ac40 for a 10-100 per cent top-up charge from a slow kerbside charger, and then on top of that you\u2019ll have to pay \u20ac28 for parking, assuming that the local parking restrictions will allow you to park for that long. <\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t have to be like that. Dublin is very much in the minority when it comes to charging EVs the same amount to use the city\u2019s streets and parking as any old Tom, Dick, or Diesel. <\/p>\n You can park your electric car \u2014 charging or not \u2014 for free in cities such as Sofia, Munich (for up to two hours), Copenhagen, Tallinn, in most cities in France (when charging, and for up to two hours when not charging), in Athens, in Rome, in Riga, in Vilnius, in Vienna (when charging), all across Poland (when charging), across all of Portugal (for the sake of a \u20ac12 annual ticket), in Bucharest (hybrids too, there), in Barcelona and in Prague.<\/p>\n In Helsinki, there\u2019s a 50 per cent parking discount for EVs, and discounts in Norway too, while in Sweden, the reverse applies \u2014 in many cities, you can pay for parking and charge for free. <\/p>\n