1000 New Charge Points on the Way

Gumbo

Mentioned by Noel Rock TD on one of the face book groups.

Well everyone, a bit of news. Funding announced for 1,000 new chargers.

I’ll be discussing this on Newstalk this morning at 8.10. I think it’s an opening step in the right direction - if goals are delivered on in year 1, we will have a significant improvement in our public charging network.

Press statement from Department follows.

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“Minister Bruton Launches New Scheme for On- Street Charge Points for Electric Vehicles

1,000 Extra Charge Points to be Supported over the Next 5 Years

The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Richard Bruton T.D. today (Monday 26th August) announced funding to support the rollout by local authorities of up to 1,000 on-street public charge points for electric vehicles over the next 5 years. This new scheme will support the widespread roll out of electric vehicles.

Launching the new scheme Minister Bruton said:

"We are investing in this network to give people confidence to make the switch. Now is the time to make the change. This network, along with the investment ESB are making in new high speed chargers and the renewal of existing chargers, is building a strong network that vehicle owners can trust.”

“Under the Climate Action Plan we will introduce the necessary actions to increase renewable electricity to 70% by 2030. By increasing the amount of electricity we get from renewable sources, we will further improve the positive impact such vehicles have on the environment. Increasing the number of electric vehicles, in particular where battery electric vehicles replace older diesel vehicles, will also have a very beneficial impact on air quality, as battery electric vehicles do not produce any fumes.”

Today’s announcement will build on the 90 new high speed chargers (which charge at three times the power of fast chargers), 50 new fast chargers and over 500 upgraded charge points which will be supported under the Climate Action Fund. This will ensure that we build a network of circa 2,000 reliable public charge points nationwide by 2025, which will be enough to support a significant increase in the number of electric vehicles on the road. In addition, we will introduce new regulations to require non-domestic buildings with over 20 car parking spaces to install charging facilities.

Local Authorities, who are responsible for the provision of an extensive range of services in their own administrative areas, are ideally placed to identify the most suitable locations for installing these new charge points.

Increasing the number of on-street charge points will allow those who do not have a driveway access to a charge point. This will remove a key barrier to the uptake of electric vehicles. Charge points may be located where public parking is provided on-street or in Local Authority car parks. In many cases, on-street charge points may be integrated with street lighting in a single lamppost.

This support will complement the Electric Vehicle Home Charger Grant, which is a grant of up to €600 that is currently available to purchasers of new and second-hand electric vehicles to support the installation of chargers in homes with dedicated parking spaces. The Department is currently examining options to expand the scheme to support the installation of chargers in residential buildings with private shared parking (e.g. apartments) and expects to have a support in place early in 2020.”

Black_Knight

So 5 years to put in 1000 charging point, which basically doubles the current number of charging points, yet in 10 years time we've to go from (i'm guessing) ~10k electric cars on the road to 900k!

slave1

Yeah right, where are all the new ones announced in the Budget guts of a year on.
My stance remains the same, an EV only suits if you can charge at home and never have to rely on public charging infrastructure

Zenith74

Black_Knight wrote: »

So 5 years to put in 1000 charging point, which basically doubles the current number of charging points, yet in 10 years time we've to go from (i'm guessing) ~10k electric cars on the road to 900k!

To be fair it doesn't say these are the only 1000 points that will ever go in, it's just one scheme. Imagine the uproar if they came out and said they were putting €50m or €500m into chargers just in-case those 900k cars arrive, there'd be uproar. Makes sense to me to build up incrementally as demand requires to me.

Anyway full announcement is here - http://merrionstreet.ie/en/News-Room/Releases/Minister_Bruton_Launches_New_Scheme_for_On-_Street_Charge_Points_for_Electric_Vehicles.html. Basically up to €5k towards each charging point that local authorities put in, run by SEAI.

KCross

Zenith74 wrote: »

Anyway full announcement is here - http://merrionstreet.ie/en/News-Room/Releases/Minister_Bruton_Launches_New_Scheme_for_On-_Street_Charge_Points_for_Electric_Vehicles.html. Basically up to €5k towards each charging point that local authorities put in, run by SEAI.

One fly in that ointment is that its upto €5k per charge point but only 75% will be covered so each council will still have to dip into its own funds.

Most of them are already strapped for cash or have competing needs so it remains to be seen whether any of them take up the offer.

Its better than nothing and shows that they are looking at the issues that are inhibiting adoption and lack of charging infrastructure (particularly for those that dont have off-street parking) is a big one, so this will help... if the councils proceed with it.

slave1

By the time these 1,000 points get installed who knows what condition the current ones will be in, we could easily end up with un-serviceable historic charge points dead in the water so these new 1,000 points could hardly be considered "additional", more "replacement" if anything

Zenith74

slave1 wrote: »

By the time these 1,000 points get installed who knows what condition the current ones will be in, we could easily end up with un-serviceable historic charge points dead in the water so these new 1,000 points could hardly be considered "additional", more "replacement" if anything

Bit of a Debbie Downer today aren’t we? Why are we assuming the existing ones won’t be maintained or repacked as needed, just because some local authority funding has been announced?

unkel

Is this the same announcement that has already been made about 5 times before?

I spoke to the eCars spokeswoman a few months ago and the tendering is not even starting for any new chargers yet until closer to the end of this year.

KCross

unkel wrote: »

Is this the same announcement that has already been made about 5 times before?

No, this is a new scheme specifically for local councils.... nothing to do with eCars network expansion.

Zenith74

unkel wrote: »

I spoke to the eCars spokeswoman a few months ago and the tendering is not even starting for any new chargers yet until closer to the end of this year.

That's odd, the tender was out back in February and is long since closed. Not sure if it ever got awarded though, maybe that's what they meant?

Edit: I uploaded the tender doc back then in-case anybody wanted a gander - https://www.reddit.com/r/evs_ireland/comments/ajzwsg/tender_for_new_esb_ev_chargers_has_been_released/