David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle's office for selecting this matter for debate and for the Minister of State for being here. Unfortunately, this is the second time that the Minister for Transport cannot be here with us but that is another story.

I recently purchased an electric vehicle, EV, and they are a great job, really fantastic, charging at night and so on. However, the charging network nationally leaves a lot to be desired. I know a lot of work has been done. I have read the implementation plan and the strategy that has been established by the Department and the Minister. It is very good and very impressive. However, a few things need to be done. First of all, we to need to ensure the user experience is as pleasant as it can be. It is easy to pull up and fill up with petrol or diesel at the moment. Trying to do the same with an EV is a different ball game altogether. First, you have to find a working charging point that is fast charge and where there is no queue. You do not know at the start how much it is going to cost and people may often be out in the rain. When people refuel with petrol or diesel they are covered. EVs are an add-on, so if it is lashing rain people are going to get wet. You do not know how fast they are going to be either. Charging points have different speeds and different connections.

I know there is a strategy in place and it is very good, but we really need to get working on this. The customer experience is hugely important. The user experience is the new buzzword and that really needs to be taken on board when people using these charging points. I can understand range anxiety and charger anxiety. If a person is driving along the motorway and the range is going down rapidly, he or she begins to wonder about where the next charging point will be, if it will be working and if there will be a queue. This is hugely important. There are five principles involved in the strategy. We need to make sure that the chargers are interoperable, so that when people pull up, they know it will fit their car and will not be something that does not fit it. Charging has to be seamless and it has to be relatively inexpensive. There are points of friction at the moment. There are physical limitations and issues with the number of charging stations around the country. There are not nearly enough.

The Minister of State might tell us in a moment what is the plan to beef up the infrastructure to make sure it is user-friendly and that people are not going to be out in the rain. That might sound like a moot point, but not if you are trying to figure out how to use these things and it is spilling rain. The apps to use these chargers are quite complicated. People need to download an app. We should have a situation where people can use their bank card to swipe and get it done. This can be done with petrol and diesel; the same experience should apply with electric charging. If you buy electric vehicle, you have to download an app and some of the apps are quite complex. I found the ESB one extremely complex. The other ones are not as complex but they are something people have to work with. The number of people buying electric cars has increased, and that is a good thing, so the number of electric cars on the road is increasing dramatically, but the infrastructure is not keeping pace.

I am little bit worried about the timescale on the strategy. It looks good but I think we need to make it faster. I am really impressed with the strategy of the people in zero emission vehicles Ireland, ZEVI, which is the organisation in the Department overseeing all this, and with what they have done, but we need to move it faster. People are moving ahead of us at this stage. The experience I had last Saturday was not great, to be honest. I know other people with electric vehicles. I came across one gentleman who was sitting there for quite a while waiting for his vehicle to charge and the machine was only at 50% capacity at the time. These are new technologies. I know a lot of people do home charging and so on.

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