Drivers of electric vehicles have received a significant boost with the announcement of a series of new, 10-bay charging stations being developed by power company SSE.
But grants for motorists need to be restored in the upcoming budget, if Government targets for the numbers of electric vehicles on the roads are to be achieved, according to a leading academic.
This week SSE launched the first of its new multi-vehicle charging stations off the M4 at Lough Sheever Corporate Park in Mullingar, Co Westmeath. Over the coming months the company intends to open three further hubs, at Blanchardstown Business Park and Greenogue Industrial Estate in Dublin and at Ashbourne Retail Park in Co Meath.
The company said more will follow as it rolls out plans for 300 EV charging hubs across Ireland and the UK over the next five years.
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The entry into the market for electric vehicle charging hubs by SSE follows the original roll-out of charging infrastructure by the ESB, followed in turn by a range of private sector companies such as EasyGo, Circle K, Ionity and Applegreen and co-operation with these brands from supermarkets SuperValu, Lidl and Tesco among others.
However, Prof Brian Caulfield of Trinity College Dublin, an expert on the environmental impact of transport and methods to reduce the sector’s carbon impact, said with just over 121,000 vehicles registered in the State, increases in the numbers of electric vehicle chargers is vital. “People see petrol stations everywhere, but people are not seeing electric charging points everywhere,” he said.
He said more needs to be done if the Government is to achieve its interim target of 175,000 electric cars and 20,000 light goods vehicles on the roads by the end of next year. By 2030 the target is to have 945,000 electric vehicles on the road, of which 845,000 are expected to be private passenger cars.
However, the number of new electric vehicles licensed for the first time in the Republic fell by 25 per cent in the first half of 2024, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO). Prof Caulfield said issues such as grants for those switching to electric transport will need to be addressed if the Government is to meet its targets.
[ Ireland’s electric vehicle charging network: How is it faring?Opens in new window ]
He said the Government should use the forthcoming budget to reverse cuts in the grant for those buying an electric vehicle. The grant was cut from €5,000 to €3,500 in 2023.
“They should reverse the cut in grants to buy electric vehicles, but they probably won’t, they do not like to flip-flop,” he said.
Another issue the Government should look at is the sales of electric vehicles in rural versus urban areas, Prof Caulfield said. Electric vehicle sales were highest in cities, “but in places like Donegal where the driving distances are longer, the opportunity to cut individual carbon emissions is greater,” he said. He recommended an incentivised grant for people in rural areas, which he said would help “spread the environmental benefit of EV ownership”.
A straw poll of Irish electric vehicle owners on Facebook revealed owners were broadly satisfied with the roll-out of charging points with the exception of key black spots. These include parts of the west of Ireland, west Mayo, Donegal, west Clare and Kerry and the M1 motorway between Dublin and the Border. Drivers felt the number of suitable charge points at stations in these locations was often as low as one. Other issues included broken charge points taking too long to be repaired; internal combustion cars blocking charge points without penalty; a need for faster charging; a need for a card which would operate on all suppliers’ chargers, and longer cables on the parking bays.
While the Department of Transport’s Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) said there were more than 2,400 charge points currently available, most of these are “slow chargers”. The independent Plugshare app put the number of fast chargers offering 50KW of power at less than 200.
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