EV fast-charging on island of Ireland gets €2.1m funding boost

29 Nov 2012

Siim Kallas, European Commission vice-president and Commissioner for Transport, in Brussels with Dermot McArdle, manager of ESB ecars

ESB and the Department for Regional Development Northern Ireland have been awarded €2.1m from the EU to cover half of the funding to develop 46 fast-charging points for electric vehicles (EV) in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland over the next two years.

The €2.1m funding has been secured under the EU Trans-European Transport Network, known as TEN-T.

Forty-one fast-charging points will be installed in the Republic and five will be installed in Northern Ireland during the project, which will run until September 2014.

ESB is currently rolling out an EV charging infrastructure across Ireland. Already, 1,000 charge points have been installed. According to ESB, these charge points cover every county and 90pc of big cities and towns.

Fast charging, it seems, will allow electric car drivers to extend the range of their vehicles by up to 130km, as they will be able to charge up their car’s battery in 20 to 25 minutes. 

ESB said the funding will also contribute towards the development of IT systems to support the fast charging infrastructure network and to allow for cross-border roaming.

“This is one of the first projects in Europe to demonstrate the effectiveness of a comprehensive fast charging infrastructure for electric vehicles which will also be bi-jurisdictional and dual currency,” said Dermot McArdle, manager of ESB ecars.

Carmel Doyle was a long-time reporter with Silicon Republic

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