Those electric car owners who, until now, have enjoyed free use of the national car charger network, will get a shock (pun alert) in January when the ESB starts charging for use of Ireland’s roughly 800 e-car points.
The charge won’t be massive - it’ll be a sign-up plan costing €16.99 a month, which will allow you unlimited use of standard ‘slow’ chargers. There will be an additional cost for using one of the 70 ‘fast’ charge points, of 30cent per minute.
That means that the normal 30-minute time to charge a car to 80 per cent of full will now cost around €9 from a car charger. It’s cheaper than a fill of petrol or diesel, but it will require some re-calibration of costs for a lot of e-car drivers. The fast chargers will remain free to use until April of next year though. Existing ESB e-cars account holders will not have to pay anything until April as well, and after that they’ll be offered a similar monthly plan to the €16.99 one.
Head of ESB Ecars, Gareth Davis outlines the rationale for the decision: “Ireland has now one of the largest and most advanced electric vehicle charge point networks in Europe so it is now opportune to provide for a funding model that maintains and develops this cutting-edge technology. “A comprehensive public charging system with supporting IT and communications is essential to enable EVs to be used in Ireland. Unlike EV systems in other European countries, our unique, charging network operates on a one‐card basis so that all charge points are available for use by all EV drivers.
“This system includes more than 70 fast chargers located approximately 60 kilometres along inter-urban - capable of recharging a typical EV in 25 minutes - enabling drivers to conduct cross-country travel. In addition, we have placed over 800 Standard chargers in communities throughout Ireland to support drivers in every corner of the country.
“Today, signs of the growth of electric vehicles and evidence of their social benefits are greater than ever. Total global EV sales are forecast to reach 1 million during 2015 with tens of thousands of electric vehicles already on the road in countries such as Norway and the Netherlands. In UK, the EV fleet is projected to more than double this year to reach 50,000 by the end of November 2015. Evidence of significant growth in EVs is also beginning to occur in Ireland with over 600 EV registered in Ireland to date in 2015.”