With every passing day, a new model of electric car (EV) is being released by a major car manufacturer. Back in 2017, Toyota said it would phase out petrol and diesel powered vehicles by 2050. Volkswagen plans to go all-electric in Europe by 2033. In the US, California are moving to ban sale of petrol and diesel cars altogether by 2035 through a phased reduction through the state's Advanced Clean Cars II rule.

What this shows clearly, is there is a clear movement of both car manufacturers and governments to move towards an electric first car population. According to an Irish Examiner article in July, Petrol remains the largest share of Irish new car sales in the first half of 2023 at 31.85%, Diesel accounting for 21.87%, Electric 18.46%, Hybrid 17.37% and Plug-in Electric Hybrid 7.80%.[1] While the first number of note is 18.5% are pure electric, we are seeing a changing of the guard as pure petrol and diesel cars are now less than 55% of the total new cars sold.

With this in mind, we are faced with a stark reality. In Ireland, we are not yet equipped to meet the demand of electric cars. While some drivers have fears over range, car owners in rural Ireland feel there is almost no public infrastructure available. To get ahead of this, both legislators and private companies need to work together to meet the demand for public EV charging points.

At EGO EV Chargers, we know searching for public charging for electric cars can often be a frustrating experience, with broken charge points and long queues. 

Our goal is to ensure that there are EV Charging points not only at every forecourt in every town and village in Ireland, but there are also EV Charging points at sports facilities, schools, and other public areas.

While we can negotiate the range anxiety with innovations such as planning a route with with the EGO EV App which will highlight area's where you can charge on the go, and where is also convenient. 

Another challenge is the lack of adequate charging points on the motorway network. Many major motorway services only have a few rapid chargers, resulting in long queues. Moving away from the traditional forecourt model of EV charge point installation, we want to look at the problem differently. Towns up and down the country have been bypassed for motorways. One such town in Urlingford on the border of Kilkenny and Tipperary off the new M8 motorway. By providing such towns and villages with easily accessible public charge points at pubs, restaurants, coffee shops, and other convenient locations, we can proactively rejuvenate towns which have supported the weary driver for decades, and as such support local rural communities.  

Our approach at EGO EV is not to reinvent the wheel or compete with forecourts, but to challenge the current charging experience. By proactively planning and engaging with local councils, we hope to make EV charging easier for the public, and to also help local communities.