The Irish government has published a draft plan for the rollout of public EV charging stations in towns and villages across the country, with targets set for each local authority to hit by 2025 and 2030.

There are issues with this plan to whether the all of the targets involved are not ambitious enough to encourage people to make the shift to electric vehicles required to meet Ireland’s climate goals.

The Draft Regional and Local EV Charging Network Plan 2024-2030 has set a target of having a total of 169,253kW capacity of public EV charging stations os required in towns and neighbourhoods by 2025, and 562,244kW by 2030.

This is to support Ireland’s goal of having 30% of the country’s total private car fleet converted to electric cars by 2030, and the end of all new petrol and diesel cars by 2035.

The targets set for neighbourhood and destination EV charging are not sufficient to make it attractive for people without off-street parking in driveways or dedicated parking spaces in apartment complexes to convert to electric vehicles in the short and medium term.

The targets set for all counties in 2025 and 2030 do not provide enough chargers for people without parking to make it economically attractive to make the switch from a fossil fuel cars to battery electric vehicles.

By 2030 each city and county is expected to have increased their total EV charging capacity by three or four times compared with the current targets for 2025.

The concentration of total public EV charging capacity will remain focused in the same areas, with far more chargers for towns and neighbourhoods in the counties around Dublin, along with Cork and Galway, receiving greater prominence.

These are areas where there are more likely to be larger towns and concentrations of housing with no dedicated parking off the street.

The draft Regional and Local EV Charging Network plan targets EV Charging Stations for what are called Destination and Neighbourhood areas. 

Destination locations would comprise privately owned car parks at businesses such as restaurants and hotels, along with public parking either on street or at public facilities.

These Destination locations would have a mixture of slow, fast, and ultra-fast DC and AC charging stations for people running errands in town or engaged in activities. 

Whether AC chargers or faster DC charging stations are installed would depend on how long people are expected to park at specific locations.

The second big pillar of the planning is for Neighbourhood EV charging, which targets residential neighbourhoods where there is no off street parking which would allow for private charge points.

The EV Chargers installed in these locations are to be slow and medium speed AC chargers ideal for long-stay and overnight charging, rather than a quick boost from a high-speed DC charger.

• Large town off main road corridor: 1,400kW
• Medium sized town on a main road corridor: 1,000kW
• Country town along national road: 350kW
• Weekend local tourist destination town: 350kW
• Seasonal tourist village: 250kW
• Rural village on regional road: 100kW

The figures for EV Charging Capacity under the national plan vary less when looked at per capita instead of in absolute figures.

Whilst Dublin City and its surrounds have among the highest overall targets for EV Charging capacity, they have lower target capacity per capita than many counties in the west and northwest.

What has been published so far is only a draft for the Regional and Local EV Charging Network Plan 2024-2030, with a finalised plan not expected until late 2024.

Each local authority is also responsible for drafting their own plans for how these targets will be implemented in cities and counties. Local authorities are also expected to collaborate so that the network is delivered in a coordinated fashion for each region.

An EV Charging Strategy which covers all four of the Dublin local authorities has been published, with Fingal County Council the furthest along in implementing its plans. Strategies are also being drafted for Galway, Cork, and Limerick cities.

It is anticipated that a mixture of private investment and public funding will be used to develop these networks, with public money either encouraging private companies to get involved, or to step in where there is a gap in the market.

Source for Statistics: CSO.ie , Gov.ie