The Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan T.D. today (Thursday, 1st July 2021) announced the first approvals for funding under the SEAI’s on-street public charge point scheme for Local Authorities. These are the first grants under this particular scheme to roll out public Electric Vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure across counties and towns in Ireland.
Announcing the funding, Minister Ryan said:
“I am delighted to announce that Louth County Council and Dublin City Council have been allocated funding under the local authority public charge point scheme. This funding will see an additional 29 charge points rolled out for public use. There is significant growth in the number of electric vehicles with EVs making up 12% of new car sales from January to May 2021. As more people are making the switch to clean and efficient electric vehicles, it is important that infrastructure keeps ahead of demand. I encourage other local authorities to follow Louth and Dublin’s lead so we can grow this scheme all over the country”.
Further details on ESB charge points nationwide can be found at https://esb.ie/ecars/charge-point-map and further details on this project can be found at https://esb.ie/ecars/our-network/network-upgrades.
This investment in EV charging infrastructure will be of particular benefit to the SPSV Industry and will supplement previous incentives aimed at ‘greening’ the SPSV fleet, such as the eSPSV Grant Scheme 2021 which:
- Provides grants of up to €20,000 for those seeking to replace a scrapped vehicle with a non-wheelchair accessible vehicle (non-WAV) BEV/FCEV;
- Provides grants of up to €12,500 to support the purchase of electric vehicles in the taxi/hackney/limousine sector; and
- When combined with the Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Grant Scheme 2021, provides an enhanced level of grant support (up to €32,500) for those seeking to replace scrapped vehicles with WAV BEV/ FCEV.
For more information on the eSPSV Grant Scheme 2021, visit Forms and guides – National Transport.
Today’s announcement is part of broader strategy for EV infrastructure which will be led by the Department of Transport to ensure sufficient public infrastructure is in place to meet the increasing demand. To view the full Department of Transport press release, visit: https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/5da6c-minister-ryan-announces-funding-approval-for-on-street-charge-points-for-electric-vehicles/.