ESB will install home EV chargers

As part of its electric vehicle strategy, the ESB will install suitable home charging points in the homes of everybody who buys an electric vehicle.

This will eliminate the problem of owners having to trail leads through windows for overnight charging, which poses security as well as safety risks.

And ESB chief executive Padraig McManus also expects that the first 250 on-street fast charging points will be installed by the end of this year, well in time for the arrival of the first global carmaker's family-sized electric car on the market here, Nissan's Leaf.

The ESB boss said his organisation's infrastructural rollout is on schedule, including the provision of fast-charging points every 60km on Ireland's main road routes. But he said as EVs come to market here, he expects that the vast bulk of charging will be done overnight in owners' homes.

He also said that until service areas are built on the motorway network, the inter-city charging points will likely be off the motorways, in strategic villages and towns.

He was speaking yesterday after the signing of an agreement between the ESB, the Government, and Renault-Nissan on the promotion of EVs in Ireland.

The Government is offering €5,000 as an inducement for the purchase of electric vehicles, as well as exempting them from VRT.