IEVA meeting with Minister of State Ossian Smyth

On Tuesday the 4th of June, members of the Irish EV Association travelled to Government buildings and to the Department of Public Expenditure to meet with Minister of State Ossian Smyth. On the day, Thomas McGuire (Secretary) and Matthew Sealy (Chair) met with the Minister to discuss the work of Irish EV Association and to highlight the key challenges we see with the adoption of EVs in Ireland, and how we can work to promote and bring this issue forward to have a successful EV adoption in Ireland.

We discussed a lot of our topics in our time with the Minister, and we would firstly like to thank him for giving us the time to meet with us and to go through so much of the EV space with us. As an EV owner himself, and one without the ability to charge at home, he is more than aware of the issues that people commonly see.

Our conversation covered a number of topics, from on-street charging, to accessible charging for all, the current market conditions, EV & home grants and the cost of charging. As an Association  we were able to highlight the good that is happening in this space, and where improvements need to be made. To highlight our key points:

• A Just Transition for on-street charging and the use of charging arms, ev charging cable gully, or local hubs that is a consistent solution for all areas. Individuals lacking dedicated charging spaces should not face undue financial burdens when refuelling their EV due to not having access to a home with designated parking. To investigate Time-of-use pricing for the public network for those who are not charging at home.
• The Universal Design Guidelines as set out by ZEVI are completely welcomed by us at IEVA, but that they are just guidelines. We want EV charging locations to be accessible by all, this is not currently what we see in the network.
• To maintain the existing grants for both vehicles and home charging to allow us to move through the Early-Majority stage as efficiently as possible, and for this to be reviewed once we approach or surpass ~50% new BEV sales.
• Education is still the most critical item to be addressed at this point in time for mass-adoption. We will continue our work to leave people informed and understand clearly where they stand around the charging network and the vehicles themselves. ZEVI's National Road EV Charging Network Plan is the correct path, and its delivery targets are important to meet.

Again, we are extremely thankful for the time given to us by Ossian Smyth, and we greatly appreciate the help in regards to some of the important topics discussed and the follow up items to come from this meeting. As we look forward to sharing more details in the future, we remain dedicated to advancing our efforts in promoting and driving this much-needed transformation.

Pictured: Thomas McGuire (IEVA), Minister Ossian Smyth, Matthew Sealy (IEVA)