Dr. Aoife O'Grady:

I thank the Chair and committee members for the opportunity to outline the Department of Transport’s draft national electric vehicle, EV, charging infrastructure strategy for the years 2022-2025. I am principal officer of the climate delivery division, which is part of the new climate action pillar established in the Department in the past 12 months. I am joined this afternoon by my colleague Ms Patricia Waller. In the climate delivery division, Ms Waller and I work on facilitating the transition to electric vehicles in Ireland.

The Climate Action Plan 2021 has set a high ambition for the electrification of transport, with a target of almost 1 million electric vehicles on Irish roads in 2030, including private cars, small public service vehicles, light and heavy goods vehicles and larger public transport vehicles. The Government strategy to increase the uptake of electric vehicles in Ireland involves two main elements. First is incentivising the purchase of electric vehicles through both financial supports and regulation and second is the provision of a high-quality, seamless electric vehicle charging infrastructure. There has been significant investment from the private sector in delivering EV charging infrastructure in Ireland and this has been critical in supporting the uptake of electric vehicles to date. However, in anticipation of much-needed step change increase in electric vehicle ownership, it is appropriate and necessary for the Government to set a framework and national plan for the provision of Ireland’s EV charging infrastructure.

In this light, the Department developed a draft EV charging infrastructure strategy and issued it for public consultation in March of this year. The strategy considers the different charging needs of urban and rural communities, as well as the need for a just transition to EVs in Ireland. In developing principles to underpin the roll-out of EV charging infrastructure, the strategy takes into account the anticipated trajectory of EV uptake and the increasing demand that will be placed on electricity distribution networks through the electrification of transport. Currently, the majority of EV charging, about 80%, is done at home. Access to and installation of home charging infrastructure is relatively well established in Ireland. A more significant gap exists in the provision of publicly accessible charging infrastructure, the demand for which will grow as EV uptake increases. The strategy identifies four main categories of charging infrastructure, all serving different user needs depending on where and when people need to charge their EVs. The first category is home charging or multi-resident unit or apartment charging. It is expected that this will be the default charging option for the vast majority of people living in Ireland.

This type of charging will be standard, requiring a number of hours for a vehicle's battery to be 80% charged. The strategy proposes that off-peak or night-time charging should be encouraged to ease demand on the grid. The strategy also proposes promoting shared charging solutions. This would be an Airbnb-type system for home chargers, whereby the owner would rent out his or her home charger, typically via a third-party app. For people who do not have the access or the space to install their own home charging solutions, the strategy proposes that residential or neighbourhood charging solutions are developed in higher density residential areas. These would replicate the home charging solution by providing standard and, preferably, off-peak charging options. This concept has been successfully delivered in cities such as London, Oslo and Amsterdam to support the uptake of electric vehicles.

A variety of top-up charging solutions are then also needed for people who need to charge their batteries while on the go. These solutions include destination charging, which involves a faster charge at a trip location or destination, taking typically between one to three hours to charge, depending on the duration of the visit, and en-route charging, which would more or less replicate the current forecourt refuelling option used by internal combustion engine vehicle drivers. En-route charging will be in locations where the only purpose is to refuel, that is, there is no other reason for stopping there. Therefore, en-route charging infrastructure needs to be at the highest charge power capacities. Ideally, a charge at these locations should not take more than ten to 20 minutes, and that time will even come down in future years.

The strategy also sets out a high-level plan for the delivery of charging infrastructure over the coming years, with key delivery groups proposed to take forward the implementation of the strategy. As well as publicly accessible charging infrastructure, there will be a need to consider charging infrastructure for niche sectors such as the electric small public service vehicle, eSPSV, sector and for the piloting of EV charging infrastructure for heavy goods vehicles.

A key element of the delivery plan is the establishment of an office called zero-emission vehicles Ireland, ZEVI, which will be launched next week and will co-ordinate the implementation of the EV infrastructure strategy and the delivery of EV charging infrastructure. The office will be based in the Department of Transport and supported and resourced by colleagues in a number of agencies, including the SEAI; Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII; the National Transport Authority, NTA; and ESB Networks.

We were very pleased with the level of engagement with the strategy through the public consultation, with over 13,000 responses to the online survey. One hundred stakeholders participated in two half-day strategy workshops, and we received about 60 detailed written submissions to the strategy. The consultation responses are being reviewed, and we expect a revised strategy to be published alongside an implementation plan by the end of this year.

Finally, I should note that electric vehicle technology is changing rapidly, with new technologies being developed and introduced to the market at speed. In this fast-changing context, while the overall trajectory of action is clear, predicting the specifics of charge point types and interfaces that will be available by the end of this decade is less so. For that reason, while the strategy sets out the long-term structures and frameworks that will be put in place to deliver a comprehensive national EV charging network, the detail in the strategy relating to infrastructure delivery is mainly focused on the years from now until 2025. In 2025 the strategy will be reviewed, with an updated strategy published for the years from 2026 to 2030. That will review progress to date and reassess and refine the provisions, initiatives and funding pathways for future delivery. We look forward to continuing our work in this area. I am happy to take or to share any questions with my colleague.