Electric car charging points to replace phone boxes

Instead of pushing button B to talk, you'll soon be plugging in to charge. Ireland's national electric car charging network is set for a significant expansion in the coming months, with an agreement between telecoms company Eir and car charger installer EasyGo to replace 180 public telephone booths with charging points.

Almost €10-million will be invested in the plan, and the first units should be switched on in January.

The chargers will be rapid charging units, capable of recharging an electric vehicle (EV) – depending upon the size and capacity of its battery – to 80 per cent full in just 30-minutes.

The chargers themselves, which supply DC power, are made by Tritium, an Australian company.

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Alternative

Carolan Lennon, chief executive of Eir, told The Irish Times: “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.”

The Tritium chargers being used by EasyGo are designed to be scaleable and relatively easy to install, so that demand in areas where chargers have previously been scarce can be met.

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.”

EasyGo claims that the replacement of more-or-less defunct phone booths with EV chargers will further increase the desirability of electric motoring, critical if the Government is to meet its promise to ban the sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030.

“Being able to find a charger, and knowing that it’s there, and that you can turn it on - that’s very, very important, and that’s a key focus of our business” Chris Kelly, co-founder of EasyGo said.

“We need to have multiple chargers in every town, every village in Ireland. It’s as simple as that. You don’t want to be queuing. You want to be able to use it at your convenience.

Demand

“We foresee the country needing at least 200 fast chargers, per year, over the next ten years to meet demand. We need to expand the network. In 30 days, the UK installs more new fast chargers than there are on the entire island of Ireland, so that shows the deficit.”

EasyGo is far from the only group working to expand Ireland’s EV charging network, but it and its rivals will need to work fast to do so.

Indeed, environmental think-tank Transport & Environment has released a report that suggests Ireland will have to install something like 28,000 public charging points (both fast chargers and slower output units) by 2030 if the network is to keep pace with the demand for electric cars.

That’s a huge increase from the circa-1,500 public chargers available now, chargers that all-too frequently already have queues of EVs waiting to plug-in.

Niall Hogan manager of ESB’s e-Cars division, said: “Predicting the number of public charge points required across Europe in 2030 is very challenging as it depends on a wide range of assumptions and estimates - most importantly the uptake and number of EVs on the roads but also including the mix of home, workplace and public charging, changes in vehicle technologies as well as the behavioural patterns of EV drivers.

Scenarios

“ It’s worth noting that the report scenarios do show a step change in projected charge point numbers required in the latter half of the decade from 2025 to 2030. So while the T&E report suggests that Ireland currently has a sufficient number of public charge points we’d share the view stated in the report that market players will respond to the emerging growth of EVs and install chargers more quickly as EV uptake increases.”

The ESB said it intends, between now and 2023, to “roll out high power charging hubs and improve the reliability of the existing network across Ireland”.

As part of that plan, some 50 150kW high-speed charging clusters will be installed around the country, which will be able to charge between three and eight cars at once.

The ESB is also working with Tesco to install 50 medium-speed 22kWh charging points at supermarket locations across the country. Lidl is also committing to have charging points at all of its Irish locations.

IONITY (a charging conglomerate made up of Ford, VW, Mercedes, Hyundai and other car manufacturers) has plans for six ultra-fast 150kW charging hubs, two of which are already open in Ireland.

It’ll cost you, though – 79c per kWh to charge which is not cheap, although services provided by those car makers will often allow for cheaper charging than that.