Cork ’s ‘primitive’ EV situation slammed
Electric vehicle (EV)charging infrastructure is well below par in county Cork, with fast charge facilities absent in places like Midleton and Cobh.
That’s according to Labour Cllr Cathal Rasmussen who has renewed a call to Government for the rollout of vastly improved EV charging options across Cork.
At Monday’s meeting of Cork County Council, Cobh representative Cllr Rasmussen said, at a time when Ireland is doing its best to reach carbon goals, Cork is “still no closer to having a policy for EVs”.
“I can’t believe it will nearly be three years from the time the discussion started before we get down to maybe installing the EV chargers in all our towns and villages.”
According to chargefinder.com, Cobh has one 22kW Type 2 EV charging point which can charge two vehicles at a time. This is the slowest version of charging point available, with the ESB saying it can take anywhere from 1-6 hours for a full charge. Towns with faster charging points of 50 kW CCS include Macroom and Youghal. According to the same website, Passage West, Glanmire, Ballydehob, and Rosscarbery currently lack any charging points at all. Towns with the slower 22kW Type 2 charging points include Crosshaven (one point for two vehicles), Ringaskiddy (one point for one vehicle), and Monkstown (one point for two vehicles).
Cllr Rasmussen said: “My concern is that (policy) won’t be completed until later on this year and then we’ll have to start negotiating with providers.”
Fianna Fáil Cllr Gillian Coughlan said: “It’s not fair for people to invest in an electric vehicle and then for the infrastructure not to be there to support it.”
Social Democrats Cllr Liam Quaide added: “There’s been a very concerning decline in new EVs in Ireland over the last few years. I think it’s about 25%, and there’s probably multiple factors involved in that including price. There’s also instability involving the retention of value.
“I think the primitive nature of our charging infrastructure has to be one of those variers, and it’s an absolute disgrace that in a town the size of Midleton we don’t have a fast charger,” he added.