eir and EasyGo partnership see first installation of Electric Vehicle Chargers across Carlow Town and County

Members News - Environment - May 24, 2022

eir, Ireland’s leading telecommunications company, has today announced the installation of seven new electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in County Carlow, with further installations planned across the country, as part of its partnership with EasyGo, the owner of Ireland’s largest eMobility Service Provider network. Following the removal of the Universal Service Obligation for eir to provide public payphones in 2020 eir committed to finding alternative ways to support public infrastructure nationwide with a goal of helping communities meet their changing needs. eir identified the installation of EV charging stations as one way to provide community support. Today’s announcement marks the first installation of EV chargers resulting from the partnership, in conjunction with Carlow County Council.

Oliver Loomes, CEO of eir, said: “Electric vehicles are a critical part of the Government’s Climate Action Plan which sets out a target of almost one million electric vehicles on the road by 2030. In order for Ireland to move to electric vehicles, we must have the required infrastructure in place, not just in cities, but across all of Ireland. We are proud to partner with EasyGo and Carlow County Council to assist in the installation of EV charging points across Carlow Town and County.

This new infrastructure will benefit the community similar to the way public payphone services once did. The chargers will not only benefit people living and working in Carlow, but those travelling through. Today we are in discussion with other County Councils across the country and we hope others will follow Carlow’s lead. Wherever possible we will replace unused eir payphone kiosks with rapid EV charging units, and we will continue to assist EasyGo and County Councils across Ireland to help to make the transition to electric vehicle ownership a viable alternative for people.”

Welcoming the launch of this new EV charging infrastructure in Carlow, Cllr. Fintan Phelan, Cathaoirleach, Carlow County Council stated “This joint initiative by eir, Easy Go and Carlow County Council to install state of the art new EV chargers is a great example of how organisations working together can improve the provision and rollout of much needed electric vehicle charging infrastructure in public areas which will be of great benefit and convenience to the public that are switching to electric vehicles while also contributing to achieving our ambitious climate action goals and targets.”

Chris Kelly, EasyGo Technical Director, said: “EasyGo is on a mission to decarbonise transport, and our partnership with eir can go a long way to achieving that. Together we plan to replace up to 180 telephone kiosks with fast EV chargers at no cost to local authorities. In fact, we are pleased to report that we have active engagement with many councils across the country and will be making some announcements on those in the coming weeks. I would particularly like to congratulate County Carlow for pioneering this programme. By adding these seven new chargers in Carlow, Tullow, Bagenalstown and Borris, overnight County Carlow has become much more accessible for EV drivers. Providing EV infrastructure in both urban and rural Ireland is vital to achieving Climate Action Plan goals, and as Ireland’s largest network of EV charging stations, we are delighted to be leading that effort and helping EV drivers conveniently charge their cars. We welcome any inquiries from any local authority to our office in Maynooth, and our door is open to anyone who requires an EV charger installed!”

Transport accounts for one-third of Ireland’s energy-related Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuels and this initiative will help accelerate the replacement of internal combustion engine vehicles with EVs, the most practical solution for reducing transport carbon emissions. The seven new EV chargers installed in Carlow are a mixture of Dual 50kW DC (Rapid) chargers and Dual 22kW AC (Destination) chargers. The four Carlow Town chargers can be found at; Kennedy Street, Green Lane (2), and Green Bank Car Park, while a further three EV charging points have been installed in Tullow, Bagenalstown and Borris Main Street. These installations mark the first in the rollout of this programme nationally. Throughout this programme, EasyGo and eir will utilise Tritium’s world-first, next-generation simultaneous DC Rapid Chargers, adding up to 100km range to an Electric Vehicle and providing up to 80% of the required charge in just 30 minutes.

 


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