Cork to get seven new EV charging stations by the end of the year
Cork is to get seven new electric vehicle (EV) charging stations under new plans announced by the Government on Wednesday.
The stations will be along the N20, N22 and N25 and will be located at:
Lee's Centra, Charleville
Mac's Place Mallow Plaza
Dano's Supervalu, Mallow
Charleville Park Hotel
O'Leary's, Lissarda
Centra, Carrigtwohill
Centra, Castlemartyr
Kerry and Limerick will each see three new EV stations introduced.
Kerry's will be at Fairtree Café, Centra at The Rock and Centra in The Reeks, while Limerick's will be at Weev Charging in Templeglantine, Hodkinson's Centra in Patrickswell, and Dooley's SuperValu in Newcastle West.
Two new stations will be located in Waterford at Applegreen Lemybrien and Kilmeadan Business Centre.
Making the announcement, Transport Minister Daragh O'Brien said the move would result in 'more chargers, more choice and more support,'
'We're taking real, practical steps to make electric vehicles work for everyone. With more chargers, more choices, and more support, we hope even more people will feel confident making the switch to electric," Mr O'Brien said.
These high-powered chargers are a key step in that process.
"We're committed to building a sustainable and cleaner transport system, and that means making it easy to charge wherever you are.'
An allocation of almost €8m will be provided to support grants for recharging infrastructure at the selected sites, with chargers set to be in place by the end of this year.
The new sites will deliver 175 new fast and ultra-fast recharging points, at 53 locations along the national road network, making it quicker and easier for EV drivers to top up on longer journeys.
The announcement is part of a wider plan to build a reliable recharging network across the country, with the distance between recharging hubs to be 60km or less.
None of the 53 new high-power recharging hubs are located in Dublin. Donegal has the most new hubs with seven.
The recharging hubs are funded through the Light Duty Vehicle (LDV) initiative operated by Zero Emission Vehicles Ireland (ZEVI), and delivered by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII). This phase of the initiative focused on over 1,200km of national single-carriageway roads.
Enterprises such as petrol/service station operators, car park owners, hotels, supermarkets/retail outlets, and others with publicly accessible sites, could apply through a competitive grant process for funding. The total allocation for this aspect is €7.9m.
Peter Walsh, CEO of TII, said: 'Working in partnership with ZEVI and the private sector, this scheme is helping us build the kind of infrastructure people can rely on: fast, efficient and accessible.'
At the weekend, the local authorities in Cork county and Kerry announced plans to team up to plan the delivery of EV charging infrastructure across the southwest.
Cork and Kerry County Councils launched a joint public consultation process seeking public input into the potential location and type of EV charging points that need to be installed in both counties over the coming years, in a bid to facilitate the move of more people to EVs.
The public consultation for the southwest is open until 4pm on June 30.
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