EV drivers must pay to charge vehicles in coming months

ESB set to announce EV charging prices

Those who drive EV’s will soon have to pay in the coming months as ESB are ready to implement these changes.

ESB plans to make an announcement in September about how they will price such charging at its public stations. At the moment it is free for those who have an EV to charge their vehicle at these ESB stations with there currently being 1,100 free charging points across the country.

Once these prices have been decided upon there will be a period of a few weeks before consumers will have to start paying.

By now, we all know the government's climate action plan aims to have 1m EV’s on Irish roads by 2030. Of course with this increase, we will also need an increase in the number of charging points but in order to incentivise businesses such as petrol stations to install such points, the action plan made clear that the free charging that has been enjoyed by electric car vehicle owners will end.

However, this should not turn people away from purchasing a new EV, the real difficulty will be getting people to give up their petrol and diesel vehicles due to lack of charging stations around the country. Eamon Ryan, Green Party Leader, believes that if these stations are made available to people, they will not have an issue with the charging system.

This year it was announced that a 20 m investment would be given in order to provide 50 charging hubs across the country along motorways and national roads. More funding is also set to be rolled out at a later date.

Cost of EV’s

Although EV’s are expensive, the initial cost of buying an electric car should come down when every car manufacturer begins to roll them out. Ryan also stated that as this happens the incentives will slowly be stopped although not immediately. Eventually, the cost of running an EV will be about one-fifth of that of a diesel, even including charging.

In a previous article, a report was carried out and it found that an increase in electric car take-up “could pose a substantial risk to the stability of the State’s finances”.

For people to want to buy EV’s, a scrappage scheme has been mentioned briefly which is to be considered in the future in a bid to encourage people to get rid of their fossil-fuelled vehicles.

Author

Justin Kavanagh
Justin Kavanagh is a recognised leader in automotive intelligence and vehicle data supply to the entire motor industry. He has almost 20 years experience in building systems from the ground up. As the Managing Director of Vehicle Management System, he understands the need and importance of trustworthy and reliable vehicle history and advice to both the trade and the public.
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