Stroll around the environs of Stockholm and you’ll soon start to notice parked cars in need of a ticket – old petrol and diesel-engine models parked in front of an electric car kerbside charging point. Oh dear, someone hasn’t read the rules.
It’s only when you start to look a little further ahead that you realise there’s another EV charging point in the next space. And the next. And the next. Indeed, there are so many handy kerbside chargers that in many cases the Stockholm authorities simply don’t bother reserving the spaces for electric cars, as there’ll always be one free.
Or you could try driving across France’s motorway network, from the border with Germany in the east to the ferry terminal at Cherbourg, racing against the clock to check in for one of those ferries. In an electric car.
The latest European legislation – the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) – calls for, at minimum, rapid EV chargers to be located at least every 60km on major motorway routes. Across France, on the bigger roads at least, it’s more like every 25-30km, with large ranks of multiple chargers, lined up in rows of 10, 12, even 16 individual charging points, and with several capable of 300kW power or more.
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In Ireland we currently have around 2,200 charging points across the State, which sounds like a lot but a significant number of these are “legacy” chargers from the original ESB E-Cars roll-out back in 2012.
Of the “fast” chargers, many are still capable of only providing a maximum of 50kW charging power, which isn’t much good when many new EV models are capable of accepting 100kW and upwards. Equally, there’s a paucity of “destination” chargers – enter a car park capable of holding hundreds of cars and there may only be half a dozen EV charging points. Often fewer than that.
In spite of the big players in the charging market having been told more than a decade ago that they ought to over-deliver in terms of the visibility and viability of the network so as to foster confidence in the car-buying public, the Republic’s charging set-up still lags and lags dramatically, and is oft-quoted by electric car sceptics as a good reason not to switchover to battery power.
So, what’s to be done? Catherine Guy is the chief executive of NiftiBusiness, a car leasing company which is seeing a great deal of success in switching company fleet buyers over to electric power – some 30 per cent of Nifti’s leases are currently battery-powered. She told The Irish Times a great deal more effort is needed in charging terms to reverse EV doubts.
“I think we need a mixture of solutions to meet the needs of different types of drivers,” said Guy. “For example, we work mainly with businesses who have drivers on the road every day – they may need access to fast charging stations to make sure that they are always mobile. But others may only need destination charging for top-up purposes.
“I think what is exciting too are the innovative solutions for renewable-energy EV charging – while we use solar power EV chargers at the office premises, there are innovative projects including ‘Electric Roads’ which charge your car as you drive, and EV Solar charging stations.”
Home charging is one of the keys to maintaining a lovely stress-free relationship with your EV and it is generally cost effective and convenient
— Catherine Guy, NiftiBusiness
Guy sees the main issue with public charging as the availability and number of stations, something she says the Government’s EV infrastructure strategy must address.
“Electricity costs have obviously increased in the last couple of years but a whole-life cost analysis of most EVs will show that, overall, running and maintenance costs associated with EV are still more favourable than combustion engine equivalents,” she said.
“Battery technology has improved and battery ranges have increased significantly, so I would hazard a guess that, for most people, the average battery range available more than covers their daily driving requirements. Home charging is, in my opinion, one of the keys to maintaining a lovely stress-free relationship with your EV and it is generally cost effective and convenient.”
Darren Kinsella, head of business development for new energy landscapes at Schneider Electric, believes the public “must have trust in public charging capabilities”.
“There are too many reports in the media and comments on social-media platforms highlighting problems,” he said. “There’s a job to be done to improve reliability, ensure rapid resolution of faults and build trust. Higher electricity costs over fuel can also put consumers off owning EVs, providing another barrier to widespread adoption.
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“The longer we wait to implement strategies that will accelerate the roll-out of EV charging infrastructures, the more sceptical drivers will become about the ability to keep EVs on the road. This is because they’ll be forced to queue for the limited number of public chargers available.
“Harnessing a smarter grid will help create these network efficiencies, as well as avoid pressures caused by the increase in electricity in a cost-effective and resilient way.
“With the ability to operate independently from larger grids to store and reserve energy, smart grids have the potential to enable seamless EV charging, with user contingencies, to develop a safe, efficient EV charging infrastructure in Ireland.”
The Irish Government has launched several initiatives to improve the charging network, announcing that it is going to give financial assistance for the opening of 17 new high-speed electric car charging hubs across the State, with the new locations expected to be online by the end of next year.
According to Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan, these new hubs – or “pools” as the Department of Transport refers to them – will “complement our other commitments such as the EV purchase grant scheme, which will remain unchanged again next year, our grants for home chargers and the continued VRT reduction for EVs”.
“Add this to the greater choice and price competitiveness on the market, we hope more and more people will be encouraged to choose electric,” the minister said.
However, Aoife O’Grady, principal officer at Zero Emissions Vehicles Ireland (ZEVI), the interdepartmental office which is overseeing the roll-out of the national charging strategy, said that even meeting the minimum 60km requirement of the EU’s regulations will take up to a year, possibly longer. Given the current trajectory of electric car sales in the State, that’s a year we can ill afford to wait.
