Urgent support and investment is needed for Northern Ireland's "dire" existing electric vehicle charging network, a group representing franchised car and commercial vehicle retailers has said.
Members of the Northern Ireland division of the National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA) have added their voices to the growing calls for more charging points here.
It has written to MLAs, calling on them to address what they say is the "critically low" level of charging infrastructure and investment to support Northern Ireland’s transition to electric vehicles in the run-up to 2030.
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The NFDA, which represents car and commercial retailers across the UK, said that of 37,055 charge points, only 366, or 1%, were located in Northern Ireland. In comparison, Scotland has 3,915, Wales has 1,657 and Greater London has 12,817.
According to the NFDA, for Northern Ireland to have a proportional share of public charge points, then NI would need to build approximately 8,000 chargers by 2030, at a rate of over 1000 charge points annually.
However, its current installation rate stands at only 2% of what it needs to be to reach the 2030 target, with only a net increase of 21 public charge points between January 2022 and January 2023.
NFDA chief executive Sue Robinson said: “Northern Ireland’s electric vehicle charging network lags far behind both the Republic of Ireland and Great Britain.
“It is now of growing concern that not enough investment is being made to address the lack of working charge points, which is continuing to hinder the mass adoption of electric cars in this space.
“The longer this situation remains unchanged, the more expensive and more drastic the changes will need to be to bridge the gap.”
The level of investment in Northern Ireland is found lacking in comparison to other places, the NFDA says. The largest investment still remains to be the £3.27 million from the Levelling Up fund.
In comparison, the LEVI fund announced £381 million to local authorities across England and the Republic of Ireland launched a new strategy which will see €100 million spent on charging infrastructure over the next three years.
Sue Robinson continued: “It is critical that there is a sufficient charging network for electric vehicles in Northern Ireland to appeal to consumers and drive demand at a time where dealer networks are investing heavily.
“The current NI EV charging infrastructure is old, underperforming and broken in many instances and is disincentivising EV adoption considerably.
“To combat this, NFDA is calling for cross-party support on this important issue to ensure that developing the charging network is the key priority for the Transport Sector in NI and to put an end to the inertia that is all too common in Northern Ireland’s Public EV Charging projects.”
In response, a spokesperson for the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) said: “Publicly accessible EV charge points are provided and operated on a commercial basis by a range of charge point operators in Northern Ireland including ESB, Weev, BP Pulse, Maxol and Easygo.
“The market is also open to other commercial operators who would wish to provide charging infrastructure. UK Government funding opportunities for the installation of charge point infrastructure are provided by the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles.
“Following the receipt of funding from the Levelling Up Fund to expand and enhance its EV charging ESB announced that it will be replacing all existing Fast and Rapid EV chargers, doubling the existing number of ESB Rapid chargers and the delivery of five high power charging (150kW) hubs in strategic locations. This work is due for completion by the end of 2024.”
They added: “The Department for Infrastructure is leading on the transport elements of the Executive’s Energy Strategy including the actions that need to be taken forward to achieve a cleaner, greener transport system.
“The Department established an EV Infrastructure Task-Force bringing together representatives from government, consumers, energy providers, industry and EV drivers to consider our EV Infrastructure requirements and to help set out a clear action plan to deliver a fit for purpose, modern EV charging network.
“The EV Infrastructure Action Plan was published in November 2022. Increased provision of charging infrastructure and operators, the cost of charging and how to pay for charging have been highlighted as fundamental issues which need to be addressed now for people wanting to make the transition from petrol and diesel to electric vehicles.
“The Department is committed to working with partners across government and other stakeholders to improve access to EV charging. The Task-Force is now reviewing other key areas and will bring forward further actions to be addressed, particularly, in the areas of charging for those without access to off-street parking and the development of local EV infrastructure plans.”
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