EasyGo, an Irish-based provider of private electric vehicle (EV) charging points has agreed a deal with Eir, the telecoms provider, to replace 180 old public phone booths with car chargers.
DC rapid chargers
The chargers, made by Australian company Tritium, will be DC rapid chargers, which EasyGo claims will be able to add as much as 100km of driving range in just 20 minutes (depending, of course, on what kind of car you're plugging in...).
Carolan Lennon, CEO of eir, said: "Radical transformation is required to meet the challenge of climate change. eir is committed to playing our part in the creation of a greener, more sustainable Ireland. Replacing our little-used legacy infrastructure with state-of-the-art Rapid Chargers will make the transition to electric vehicles a viable alternative for thousands of people across the country, further driving forward the decarbonisation of Ireland and helping to meet our climate targets."
Rural regeneration
Gerry Cash, EasyGo Director, said: "EasyGo is delighted to partner with eir and we look forward to working with local councils, the SEAI and the Government as we support the growing Electric Vehicle community, the environment, and rural regeneration through this exciting roll-out of chargers nationally".
€10 million investment
The plan is for the Tritium chargers to be 'scaleable' so that they can be easily and quickly fitted to areas with growing demand, especially in rural areas where the charging network is currently quite sparse. EasyGo reckons that rolling out extra fast chargers is the surest way to try and make EVs more appealing to more people and to try and work towards the target of having more than 900,000 EVs on the road by 2030.
€10 million is being invested in the plan and the first chargers will be installed in January, with the full 180 points being rolled out through 2021.