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As such, it is important to know how you can reduce your carbon footprint and help the environment without compromising convenience.

David McGuinness, Director of Product Management, Electric Vehicle Charging at Dover Fueling Solutions, highlights the benefits of going electric. “There are many myths around electric vehicles (EVs). This includes negative beliefs about the price, charge time, requirements and convenience of alternatively fueled vehicles. However, many of these are just common misconceptions.

“Electric vehicles can offer benefits to both drivers and the environment. Operating with the same, if not better, processes than their petroleum and diesel counterparts, electric makes your journey better ergonomically, economically and environmentally.”

Here, we explore the increasing emergence of EVs and the truth you need to know behind those common misconceptions.

How common are electric vehicles?

The EV market increased its sales by 186% across 2020. 233,413 electric vehicles were sold in Europe throughout the second quarter of 2022 alone, with France and Spain being leaders in battery electric vehicles (BEVs) growth, as they increased vehicle numbers by 22% and 18.6% respectively.

Misconceptions and the Truth

They Can’t Travel Far Enough

37% of people believe that electric vehicles, such as the standard EV, can’t travel for long distances. This sways drivers away from buying EVs, as they believe they can’t commute their daily journey without worrying about losing power. However, this is a myth. Most EVs can meet your daily distance standards.

In fact, the RAC, an automotive services company in the UK, claims that EVs can reach up to 300 miles on a single charge. Compare this with the European worker’s average commuting distance of 28.56 kilometers a day, and it’s clear that EVs are more than capable of the daily commute. There are over 330,000 publicly available charging ports across the EU, and Germany and France are frontrunners in providing these, which means that careful planners can cover large distances across the EU in an electric vehicle. However, it’s worth remembering the infrastructure of electric vehicle charging is still being developed, so travel in an EV outside of France, Germany and the Netherlands may be more difficult.

Electric Vehicles Don’t Actually Help the Environment

Some people believe the emissions from the production of EVs outweigh the carbon emissions they save through their use – making them worse for the environment than originally thought. Many also believe that EV batteries need to be replaced more frequently than their petroleum and diesel counterparts and that these batteries will end up in landfills – harming the environment further.

Electricity was once only generated through the burning of coal and other fossil fuels, but the drive to make electricity sustainable means production has changed to solar power and other renewable sources. This change means that they don’t produce excess carbon emissions.

EVs Can’t be Driven in the Rain

In 2019, Hyundai found that many drivers were worried about owning an EV due to bad weather conditions. The worry is that electric vehicles aren’t safe during thunderstorms or car washes. However, the myth around the safety of EV is just that – a myth. Driving an EV, even in the rain, is no less safe than your traditional petrol or diesel car.

It’ll Cost More

A common misconception is that EVs cost more than traditionally fueled ones. However, this is not always true. Used EVs can dip below £10,000 with new models starting at £20,000. Equally, with the cost of petrol and diesel rising, choosing alternative methods of fueling your vehicles could save you money in the long run.

Problems with Places to Recharge

Another belief about EVs is that it is difficult to find charging points, especially outside of metropolitan cities such as London, Madrid and Berlin. Electric vehicles, however, are much easier to charge than they used to be. Governments have put in place initiatives to improve accessibility – placing chargers in more residential and rural areas. 33,996 chargers are currently available to the public across the UK, so there’s no need to worry that you cannot charge your car. Germany is the leading country in the EU for plug-in vehicle sales, with 673,747 sales being made across the nation in 2021. France also came out near the top of the board with 303,501 sales. As of the second quarter of 2022, there are currently 28,631 charging stations within Germany alone, an increase of over 7,000 stations since the final quarter of 2020. Plus, a push to put charging ports near workplaces has been encouraged, with a heightened focus on areas outside of key urban centres – meaning you can drive cross-country with confidence knowing that ports are not only available within the capital city but at a range of other locations.

There are many misconceptions surrounding EVs, from the distance they can travel to whether they are able to be driven in the rain or through car washes; however, they are great alternatives, especially for your daily use.

Electric vehicles have been met with hesitation in the past, but there is no need to be worried about this innovative technology. They are fast becoming more and more popular and can match or exceed traditionally fueled vehicles in effectiveness. With alternative fueling solutions in vehicles, we can be sure that the future of transport will be greener.

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For the first time since I took the helm at the Retail Grocery Dairy & Allied Trades Association (RGDATA), I am hearing stories of genuine despair and fears for the future from the owners of shops, forecourt stores, convenience stores and supermarkets all over this island.

Essential community shops

These are the essential community shops that stepped up during a global pandemic to ensure that local communities had access to food and convenience essentials in a safe and friendly environment. Independent community shopkeepers led the way in coming up with solutions to deal with the challenges posed by COVID and were rightly recognised as vital community hubs. They lived up to their billing as the beating heart of local communities especially when people were confined to within 2k and 5k of their homes.

RGDATA Director, Annie Timothy, who runs a Londis supermarket with her husband Vincent in Co Roscommon, burst into tears when she opened her energy bill in August – it had jumped from €6k to over €20k. I suspect there were many others who did the same. An RGDATA survey revealed that independent shop owners saw energy bills increase by up to 400% since March 2022.

‘Enormous price hikes’

Annie was brave enough to go on national media to tell her story. She has rightly received sympathy. But what she wants is action from the Government. “I have never put out the begging bowl before,” she says. “But this is just too much. I can’t see how I can survive with these enormous price hikes. I cannot put my prices up to cover over €60k extra in energy costs. I cannot pass this burden onto my customers – they are struggling too. I have loyal staff who have been with me for years – I don’t want to reduce their hours or cut jobs either.”

These are the stark choices facing community retailers.

“In my 35 years in business I have never been so afraid for the future,” RGDATA President, Colin Fee who owns four shops, a bar and a restaurant in Co Louth employing 100 people, told the Oireachtas Enterprise Committee when RGDATA made a presentation about the challenges facing SMEs.

Padraig Broderick, another RGDATA Director, who has just invested in a total revamp of his award winning, state of the art, Spar convenience store in Croom Co Limerick revealed that the €40k he borrowed to put solar panels on the roof of his store as part of a €1m revamp has been swallowed up by rising energy bills. “That money was spent trying to ensure that I didn’t go into debt trying to cover the rising energy costs. I have spent the borrowings and I have no solar panels to show for it.

“We were informed that Electric Ireland put its prices up again by 38% on December 1 – there is no business that can absorb these type of price increases at such short notice. I am extremely concerned for the future of my business.”

Rachel Twomey, a second generation retailer running a SuperValu supermarket in Deansgrange, a village in South County Dublin, is not only struggling with an additional €190k plus energy bill for 2022, she has also had to contend with a 30% drop in business caused by a Temporary Covid Mobility Scheme becoming permanent and blocking customers from accessing her store.

“I still pay the €70k a year in commercial rates yet my business has dropped by 30% because this scheme is making it impossible for my customers to access the shop. These schemes may have worked during lockdown when there were few cars on the road but they need to be reimagined based on consultation with the local community to ensure that they work post Covid when all the normal traffic is back on the roads.”

Stress and challenges

These stories of stress and challenges for local shops are coming from every community across the country. These are businesses that are viable, many are the only town or village centre shop in their community. However they have never felt more vulnerable.

Political leaders need to stop regarding businesses as an endless revenue source that can be tapped at will. Businesses only survive if they make enough to pay the staff and the bills and make some return for the entrepreneurs who run them. If the Government, through new costs, obligations, charges or inaction, renders businesses to be uncompetitive, then they will close.

Take urgent action to support SME food retailers. Extend the Temporary Energy Support Scheme to cover the cost increases in July and August. Increase the support provided for energy efficiency schemes. Do a cumulative economic impact of all the proposed changes coming down the track with regard to sick pay, auto enrolment pensions and Living Wage and devise a specific targeted support scheme to support essential local shops to deliver these changes and keep their staff in jobs and their shops trading.

If you want strong local shops to be at the heart of communities on this island, then step up to the plate and support rather than undermine them!

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Circle K’s fuel station located at Dublin Port will be the first to fuel the fleet with HVO renewable diesel, with work underway at two further locations in Galway and Cork, to ensure Circle K’s full fleet of vehicles will be powered by milesBIO HVO100 by early next year.

Fossil-free

milesBIO HVO100 is a completely fossil-free biofuel made from waste, by-products and derived products not intended for human consumption from the food industry and can be used to power diesel vehicles. HVO alternative diesel offers an up to 90% reduction in carbon emissions over regular diesel, which will help to greatly reduce the emissions from Circle K’s fleet of fuel delivery vehicles.

While milesBIO HVO100 is new to Circle K Ireland, this renewable diesel has been available across Scandinavia at Circle K locations in Norway, Sweden and Denmark in recent years, which is helping to guide the introduction of the renewable diesel here.

milesBIO HVO100 will also be available to commercial customers at Circle K’s service station in Dublin Port, with the product to be rolled out at Circle K’s locations in Cork and Galway in the coming months, to support commercial customers in decarbonising the journeys of their own respective fleets. Circle K anticipates that organisations operating large fleet transport vehicles in sectors such as refuse, retail, and logistics amongst others will benefit greatly from this new product.

Leading innovation

This announcement is just one of the ways Circle K is leading innovation within the fuel retail sector and supporting the Irish Government in its ambition to reduce transport carbon emissions by 50% by 2030.

Alongside the use of milesBIO HVO100 to power its fuel delivery fleet, Circle K supports the proposed move from E5 to E10 in petrol products in the Irish market, which would increase the level of ethanol in petrol from 5% to 10%, thus significantly reducing carbon emissions.

Circle K is already supporting the commercial freight and haulage sectors, being the only forecourt to offer Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) refuelling stations at Dublin Port, Cashel, Clonshaugh and Ballysimon in Limerick, with City North to follow.

Strategic partnership

With more Irish motorists opting for EVs, Circle K is adapting to keep pace with this change. Circle K is preparing for this future now and through its strategic partnerships with ESB, IONITY and Tesla, the business already has the most advanced EV charging network within the forecourt sector in Ireland, with EV charging facilities located at 37 service stations nationwide and continues to add to this network.

Significant impact

Jonathan Diver, Fuels Director with Circle K Ireland commented: “Circle K is committed to implementing environmentally sustainable practices across our product range and operations as well as supporting our customers to reduce their level of carbon emissions.

“The launch of milesBIO HVO100 across our fleet of delivery vehicles will have a significant impact in reducing emissions across our Irish operations and once fully rolled out early next year, will equate to the emissions of over 2,000 cars being removed from the road.

“milesBIO HVO100 is a renewable diesel product that combines both excellent technical and environmental properties, that significantly reduces the net carbon emission when compared to regular diesel fuel, while at the same time offering the same performance as conventional diesel.”

“We are delighted to be introducing alternative fuels of this nature to Circle K Ireland and hope our lead will encourage others to do the same.”

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The launch in July saw the minister announce a suite of grants and initiatives aimed at making it easier for people and businesses to make the switch to EVs. These include a new apartment charging grant; and an expansion to the home charger grant; a new trial to help electrify the commercial fleet; and funding for sports clubs to install a network of publicly accessible chargers.

It all sounds promising, but in the meantime, we still have a long way to go before there are anywhere near enough forecourt chargers to satisfy the demand that is forecast in one of the key charging sectors as we draw closer to the zero carbon target date of 2050.

According to Derek Reilly, general manager of Nevo.ie, which aims to help Irish drivers to make a seamless transition to EVs, there still are a number of pinch points hobbling many of the forecourt owners who want to lead the way on EV transition.

Pinch points

“We’re not bad here… but there are a couple of pinch points where forecourts are either waiting for government assistance or are waiting for grid connection or waiting not to be the first mover to make a mistake,” the founder of the Dublin EV Owners Club says.

“So there are a number of the petrol forecourt retailers looking at all of this right now, and here at Nevo.ie we’re chatting to some of them as to how we can advise, help and potentially partner with them at these sites.

“Some sites are doing it themselves, sourcing the hard work, keeping it internal, whereas there are others that are allowing people to either rent or profit-share on the site with them to provide that service.”

EasyGo, Ireland’s largest privately owned EV charging network is one such company offering this type of solution to forecourt retailers.

They provide installation of fast or slow chargers with revenue sharing options on their public charging network which is used by over 25,000 local EV drivers and will provide 50kW DC rapid chargers at zero upfront capital costs to suitable forecourts that make electricity supply available for connection.

Taking the plunge

To forecourt owners who haven’t yet taken the plunge, Derek advises that they think about their forecourt and whether they should be opting for slow or fast chargers.

“It depends on what type of situation they’ve got,” he says.

“If they’ve got an element of a takeaway or a restaurant or a food outlet where maybe people would sit down and spend a bit of time there having a meal, it would be a combination of slow and fast.

“But literally if you’re a forecourt with a convenience store, and there isn’t anywhere really to hang around, you definitely want to be looking at DC fast charging and how fast you can get the vehicle out.

“Like petrol or diesel, you’re in the business of selling kilowatts and so it’s a matter of fast can you dish out these kilowatts to the car or the van or the lorry or whatever it may be.”

Site capacity

The next consideration is the capacity of the site – physical and in terms of the local grid.

“Are you restrained with regards to grid capacity? We’ve had a lot of enquiries about this, where the grid isn’t able to take what the forecourt of the business wants to give out,” Derek says.

“So what they’re doing is working with a battery buffer system – it’s like a big battery that sits in the background and takes in electricity at a slower pace at the regular rate that they have and then when they need it to fill up an electric car, it dumps it out.  And then when the next car comes along, it’s already had the time to charge up a bit.

“So rather than upgrading everything, that battery buffer system seems to be a good solution for businesses and forecourts alike.”

New EV models

Derek says the last few months have seen more mainstream models of EV appearing that are capable of taking a shorter and larger charge.

“The likes of the Kia EV 6 and the Hyundai Ioniq 5 are operating on an 800 volt architecture, which is able to take a bigger charge faster. This would only have been the likes of Porsche tech previously and would originally have been for a very expensive car.

“But now the EV 6 and the Ioniq 5 are becoming more mainstream – I’m not saying they’re affordable, but they’re able to take a full charge in 20 minutes if the charging infrastructure can give it to them. We’re going to start to see more and more vehicles like this – not just passenger vehicles, but it will also be commercial vans and trucks.

“So it’s important to understand what’s coming down the line, but also to look at your site layout – if it’s lorries and buses and trucks, are they able to drive past like a traditional fuel pump where they can park up either side?

“A lot of EV infrastructure is either drive-in or reverse-in, whereas that won’t be possible for the larger vehicles, so it’s about understanding the layout, how vehicles will get in, charge and get out, and not just cars at the moment.”

Grid connections

Forecourt owners engaging with the government and other authorities should be lobbying for easier grid connections and an understanding of what it will cost to upgrade their charging infrastructure,” Derek says.

“So any of the network providers, be that in the north or south, should be able to say, it’s an easy portal, you just email or send in your Eircode or your postcode or whatever that may be and we’ll come back. But it’s a first step and they should be lobbying to increase the grid capacity but also strengthen the grid capacity connection so that they’re not caught off guard.”

Another key consideration for forecourt owners looking at their layout should be to make sure that customers charging their vehicles feel safe, Derek says.

“Usually a petrol forecourt may not be 24 hours but an electricity charging section could be 24 hours unmanned, so it’s important to make sure that they’re in a prominent position, make sure that there’s CCTV and make sure that they have adequate lighting,” he says.

Safe charging

“There’s an initiative over in the UK called the ChargeSafe network, and they’ve set up guidelines for people who are setting up these EV charging infrastructure to make sure they’re ticking these boxes.

“And it’s not just about making people feel safe, it’s also about making sure that you’ve got enough space around the bay so that if you’re in a wheelchair you can get out, go around your vehicle and operate the EV charging infrastructure.

“We need to make sure it’s all inclusive – everybody has the right to charge and this is something that more and more people are looking at.

“Also, there’s the likes of making sure that the EV chargers are covered – that’s a bugbear for a lot of people. Petrol forecourts are usually always covered, so make sure that the EV charger is covered.

New technology

“And then there’s new technology coming down the line such as wireless charging, putting pads in the ground. The technology is always moving and it’s a balancing act when you’re in that fuel retail business – that is because fuel is highly flammable, EV charging is highly sparky, and sparks and flammable fluids don’t mix very well together. So it’s definitely important to understand how best to lay out your site to maximise both.

“What we’re finding is that some forecourt sites are actually purchasing surrounding land so that they can be adjoined to it but not on the same site, so there’s an area of proximity that needs to be adhered to as well.”

And while the prospect of investing in charging may be daunting, forecourt owners may quickly start to reap the benefits at the retail end, Derek says.

“What we’ve found in surveys over the years is that people who are there charging their EV usually spend more in a forecourt retail environment because they’re there for longer, which is part of the inconvenience, but also it’s then a benefit for forecourt operators,” he says.

EasyGo research also confirms this, with more than half of EV drivers who stop at a fast or rapid charger purchasing at the shop on site.

A forecourt operator with a DC charger could expect on average 4 charges per day, which over a 10-year period would bring 9,490 additional site visits and over 4,750 additional shoppers buying from the store, generating extra profit on top of what is made from the charger.

To read the full feature in IFCR, click HERE.

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