By the end of next year, the ESB are hoping that on-street charging points for electric cars will be as commonplace as the parking meter, with the first batch of e-car chargers to go live today.
Electric car charging points will roll out across Dublin and other major urban areas
The ESB is aiming for the installation of 1,500 charging units for electric cars on Irish streets by the end of 2011 with the majority of the rollout happening in the major urban areas: Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford.
It is hoped 10pc of all cars on Irish roads will be electric by 2020
This initiative follows the recent Government report that stated Government plans for the large-scale deployment of electric vehicles with a target of 10pc set for all vehicles to be powered by electricity by 2020, meaning that there could be up to 250,000 electric cars on Irish roads within the next decade.
Following registration with the ESB’s e-car charging points, owners of electric vehicles are free to park and charge and in order to encourage uptake of this, the 2010 Budget had provided for VRT (Vehicle Registration Tax) exemption for electric vehicles and VRT reliefs of up to €2,500 for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which were due to end on 31 December 2010, but are being extended for a further two years until the end 2012.
For information on VRT and CO2 emissions, take a look at related information on the Office of the Revenue Commissioners website.
By Marie Boran
Photo: A Tesla electric car at a charging point (courtesy of ESB website)
