Oliver Loomes, CEO eir, Chris Kelly, Director at EasyGo and Ken Murnane, Mayor of Carlow.Telecommunications company Eir and EasyGo have together launched the first of a new collection of electric vehicle chargers in locations replacing Eir telephone kiosks around Ireland.
County Carlow is the first location in Ireland to pioneer this new scheme.
Under the new partnership, seven new electric vehicle chargers have been installed around County Carlow, including Carlow Town, Tullow and Bagenalstown, at no cost to Carlow County Council.
They include a combination of dual 50kW DC chargers and 22kW AC chargers. The four chargers in Carlow Town can be found at Kennedy Street, Green Lane, and Green Bank Car Park, while a further three EV charging points installed in Tullow, Bagenalstown and Borris.
The new chargers are capable of charging two electric vehicles at the same time. The hardware platform of the EasyGo chargers allows for faster maintenance and improved service and reliability and are built for any environment.
The new chargers will form part of the EasyGo network, where EV users can pay for charging at more than 2,300 charge-points nationally.
Commenting on the installation of the first Eir / EasyGo charger, 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!”
Cllr. Fintan Phelan, Cathaoirleach, Carlow County Council said:
“This joint initiative by eir, EasyGo 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.”
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.”