As our business continues to expand, we are getting involved with more and more exciting projects. Many of these projects are close to home but our reach is also widening. I recent weeks, we have started the process of gaining our accreditation in the Republic of Ireland and we already have some exciting new projects to work on. That said, as our customer base expands to Ireland, we thought it may be useful to take a look at the electric vehicle market on the emerald isle.
There are currently around 9,000 electric vehicles registered in the Republic of Ireland. This represents a negligible proportion of the total 2.7 million cars in the country. However, the government is currently aiming for over 950,000 on the roads by 2030. This would require an exponential increase in sales but is not unrealistic. Sales of electric vehicles in 2019 were around 3% of total vehicles sales, more than twice the level of 2018. The Irish government are also aiming to ban the sale of new petrol, diesel and hybrid cars from 2030.
There are currently around 1,200 public EV charging stations in the Republic of Ireland, around 1/10th of the number in world-leading nation, Norway. Nevertheless, the government will be the first to admit their inadequacy and have set out plans to install around 2,000 new chargers by the end of 2025. They have committed to funding 75% of the cost of any on-street charge points up to €5,000 with the other 25% being funded by local authorities.
Home charging grants in Republic of Ireland are provided by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). However, they work in a similar way to those in the UK. The government funded home charge scheme currently offers a grant value of up to €600 towards the purchase and installation of a home charge unit. The usual conditions apply in that the applicant must be the owner of an eligible electric vehicle or be planning on purchasing one within a couple of months of the grant application. The scheme only applies for private owners, not company car owners and vehicles must be registered new or purchased second hand after 01/01/2018. Notably, you must not commence any work on the installation prior to the start date on your Letter of Offer as this will make the claim null and void. An extensive list of qualifying vehicles is available. If your vehicle is not on this list, you can send a copy of your logbook to evgrantscheme@seai.ie for consideration.
At the moment, there are no grants available for commercial charge point installation in Republic of Ireland. However, this is subject to change and new schemes may be announced as funding becomes available. We remain in close contact with the SEAI and will update our customers accordingly.
If you are an individual or business owner based in Ireland and looking to switch to electric, please get in touch. A member of our team would be happy to any questions that you have. Call us on 0141 280 8890 or drop us an email at info@britetechnicalservices.co.uk.
We also have a variety of platforms available with extensive information about electric vehicles
, EV chargepoints (evchargepoints.com) and EV accessories (briteaccessories.com).