06 May Carlow first county to launch eir and EasyGo Rapid Electric Vehicle charging
eir and EasyGo have today launched the first of a nationwide collection of Electric Vehicle Rapid Chargers which are replacing eir telephone kiosks in Ireland.
Ireland’s leading telecommunications company joined forces with Ireland’s largest car charging network provider to rollout these electric vehicle (EV) chargers in towns and cities across Ireland, and Carlow has proven itself to be the pioneer in adopting this program. The chargers in Carlow, Tullow and Bagenalstown have been installed to help Ireland’s growing fleet of EVs stay on the road. These have been installed at ZERO cost to Carlow County Council, with plans are in place to roll these out in a number of other counties.
Pictured are Oliver Loomes, CEO eir and Chris Kelly, Director at EasyGo Pic: Marc O’Sullivan
The seven new EV chargers installed in Carlow are a mixture of Dual 50kW DC (Rapid) chargers and Dual 22kW AC (Destination) chargers. The four Carlow Town chargers can be found at Kennedy Street, Green Lane (2), and Green Bank Car Park, while a further three EV charging points have been installed in Tullow, Bagenalstown and Borris Main Street.
EasyGo utilise Tritium chargers which are amongst the most advanced DC Rapid chargers in the world. The chargers feature twin cables to simultaneously charge two EVs, adding up to 100km range to an Electric Vehicle and providing up to 80% of the required charge in just 30 minutes. The hardware platform employed by Tritium allows for faster maintenance, improved uptime and reliability and are built for any environment, thriving in temperatures from -35°C to +50°C.
Commenting on the installation of the first eir / EasyGo charger, Chris Kelly, EasyGo Technical Director, said: “EasyGo is on a mission to decarbonise transport, and our partnership with eir can go a long way to achieving that. Together we plan to replace up to 180 telephone kiosks with fast EV chargers at no cost to local authorities. In fact, we are pleased to report that we have active engagement with many councils across the country and will be making some announcements on those in the coming weeks. I would particularly like to congratulate County Carlow for pioneering this programme. By adding these seven new chargers in Carlow, Tullow, Bagenalstown and Borris, overnight County Carlow has become much more accessible for EV drivers. Providing EV infrastructure in both urban and rural Ireland is vital to achieving Climate Action Plan goals, and as Ireland’s largest network of EV charging stations, we are delighted to be leading that effort and helping EV drivers conveniently charge their cars. We welcome any inquiries from any local authority to our office in Maynooth, and our door is open to anyone who requires an EV charger installed!”
Welcoming the launch of this new EV charging infrastructure in Carlow, Cllr. Fintan Phelan, Cathaoirleach, Carlow County Council stated “This joint initiative by eir, EasyGo and Carlow County Council to install state of the art new EV chargers is a great example of how organisations working together can improve the provision and rollout of much needed electric vehicle charging infrastructure in public areas which will be of great benefit and convenience to the public that are switching to electric vehicles while also contributing to achieving our ambitious climate action goals and targets.”
Oliver Loomes, CEO of eir, further commented “Electric vehicles are a critical part of the Government’s Climate Action Plan which sets out a target of almost one million electric vehicles on the road by 2030. In order for Ireland to move to electric vehicles, we must have the required infrastructure in place, not just in cities, but across all of Ireland. We are proud to partner with EasyGo and Carlow County Council to assist in the installation of EV charging points across Carlow Town and County.
This new infrastructure will benefit the community similar to the way public payphone services once did. The chargers will not only benefit people living and working in Carlow, but those travelling through. Today we are in discussion with other County Councils across the country and we hope others will follow Carlow’s lead. Wherever possible we will replace unused eir payphone kiosks with rapid EV charging units, and we will continue to assist EasyGo and County Councils across Ireland to help to make the transition to electric vehicle ownership a viable alternative for people.”
According to SIMI, about 1 out of every 8 cars sold in Ireland so far this year are fully electric, and the rate of adoption of EVs is growing quickly. Adding these chargers, in easily accessible town centre locations will increase the appeal of EVs for drivers as it will reduce range anxiety. Transport accounts for one-third of Ireland’s energy-related Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions so increasing the adoption of EVs is a key aspect of Ireland’s Climate Action Plan.
In rural areas, where public transport is far less available, it is even more important that people can go electric with confidence that charging infrastructure is in place. That is why Carlow was the perfect launchpad for this program, and both residents and visitors to Carlow can now charge a vehicle up to 80% in less than 30 minutes. The EasyGo network is today used by more than 20,000 Irish EV drivers that can find, use, and pay for charging at more than 2,300 charge points nationally.
We welcome enquiries from any county council or local authority who wishes to explore how they can help local EV drivers in their areas charge their electric vehicles more easily through installation of charge points via the eir and EasyGo partnership.
Contact Colm Ring in our EasyGo Commercial team
Tel: 07387 7693373
Office: 028 9099 7734
Email: colm.ring@easygo.co.uk