Lack of electric car charging points here a real turn off

NEW research shows that there are less than 500 electric car charging points in total in the northwest and west.

The research from the Northern and Western Regional Assembly (NWRA) also reveals that 79% of those losing in the region are “very unlikely” to buy an electric car within the next 12 months.

The Northern and Western region (Donegal, Sligo, Mayo, Galway, Leitrim, Roscommon, Monaghan and Cavan) has 488 publicly available EV charge points.

Northern Ireland has 529, the Southern region has 920 and the Eastern and Midland region has 1,261.

The counties with the highest number of publicly available EV charge points were Dublin (639), Antrim (240), Cork (239), Kildare (174) and Galway (172), with the lowest number located in Leitrim (8), Longford (19), Monaghan (24), Offaly (27) and Fermanagh (29). In addition to it being the most rural-oriented region under Project Ireland 2040, the Northern and Western Region registered the lowest concentration of publicly available EV charge points per km2 on the island of Ireland.

The lack of adequate electric vehicle (EV) charge point infrastructure in rural Ireland raises serious doubts about the government’s ability to deliver on the Climate Action Plan’s commitment to have almost one million EVs on Irish roads by 2030, the report says.