The ESB is hiking the prices on EV charging by up to 15%, which means a significant increase for those who drive electric vehicles.
This means that, for larger car owners, the price of charging their EV on a public network will become more expensive than petrol or diesel.
Technology editor with the Irish and Sunday Independent Adrian Weckler said the move comes at “a very unfortunate time for the electric car business”.
“[The industry] is doing fairly well this year, it’s up about 27% on last year,” he told The Hard Shoulder.
“But that last year was so bad that even this year’s rise is still behind where we were in 2023.
“It’s still a fairly small minority of cars on the road are electric, and this is not going to help at all.”
An electric car being charged, © PA Wire/PA ImagesMr Weckler put this down in part to “a fairly thin public charging infrastructure”.
“If you’re in a terraced house but you have a space on the road outside your house, you’re not allowed use these charging arms where the wire trails over the path onto your car,” he said.
“If you’re in an apartment building, the most you can expect is maybe seven or eight charging berths, if you’re lucky.
“And that would be for developments of several hundred apartments, so it’s completely impractical.”
According to Mr Weckler, Ireland is already “about the third most expensive for electric car charging”.
Main image: Electric car charging, © PA Wire/PA Images
