Yesterday, members of the IEVOA committee joined the launch event for the office of Zero Emission Vehicles Ireland, which is part of the Dept. of Transport. In attendance were other industry bodies, OEMs, press and interest groups.
We have asked if we can share the slides presented yesterday, and will update this post once a response has been received.
As part of the launch, several schemes were announced. Including:
- Home charger grants being applicable to folks, even when an EV is not yet owned
- Commercial fleet trials allowing companies with EV ambitions to test EVs for a quarter of the year
- Grants for sports clubs to install chargers
- And finally, a push towards schemes for apartment and multi-unit domiciles to have chargers installed
IEVOA Treasurer and founder of Range Therapy, Eamon Stack, asked two pertinent questions. First, of Aoife O’Grady (head of zevi), he noted a personal story following the All-Ireland semi final match between Limerick & Kerry, where the infrastructure was totally inadequate on motorways from Dublin for EV drivers. New owners in particular were baffled at up to two-hour queue times. Second, Eamon Stack asked Minister Eamon Ryan about the plans to lean into state-owned ESB Networks & ecars to accelerate the rollout of fast and rapid charging hubs around the country, harking to his story from earlier.
Kevin Dowling, IEVOA chair noted, “we would like to congratulate Aoife and her team on a successful launch. As always with these kinds of things, this is just base camp. We look forward to a fruitful & collaborative relationship over the coming important years. Ireland’s goal to decarbonise our vehicle fleet is ambitious but an important step in reducing the 61.5bn tonnes of carbon per year we put into the air here.”
Following the launch, committee members Kevin Dowling, Eamon Stack & Thomas McGuire enjoyed a fruitful conversation with Minister Eamon Ryan & NTA CEO, Anne Graham.