eir & EasyGo are swapping phone boxes for rapid chargers in Ireland

eir and EasyGo have launched the first of a nationwide collection of EV rapid chargers which are replacing eir telephone kiosks in Ireland.

Ireland’s leading telecommunications company joined forces with Ireland’s largest car charging network provider to roll-out EV rapid chargers in towns and cities across Ireland.

The chargers in Carlow, Tullow and Bagenalstown have been installed to help Ireland’s growing fleet of EVs stay on the road. These have been installed at zero cost to Carlow County Council. Plans are in place to roll these out in a number of other counties.

The seven new EV chargers installed in Carlow are a mixture of Dual 50kW DC rapid chargers and Dual 22kW AC destination chargers.

EasyGo utilise Tritium rapid chargers which feature twin cables to simultaneously charge two EVs, adding up to 100km range to an EV and providing up to 80% of the required charge in just 30 minutes.

The hardware platform employed by Tritium allows for faster maintenance and improved uptime and reliability and are built for any environment, thriving in temperatures from -35°C to +50°C.

Chris Kelly, EasyGo Technical Director, said: “EasyGo is on a mission to decarbonise transport, and our partnership with eir can go a long way to achieving that. Together we plan to replace up to 180 telephone kiosks with fast EV chargers at no cost to local authorities.

“In fact, we are pleased to report that we have active engagement with many councils across the country and will be making some announcements on those in the coming weeks. I would particularly like to congratulate County Carlow for pioneering this programme.

“By adding these seven new chargers in Carlow, Tullow, Bagenalstown and Borris, overnight County Carlow has become much more accessible for EV drivers. Providing EV infrastructure in both urban and rural Ireland is vital to achieving Climate Action Plan goals, and as Ireland’s largest network of EV charging stations, we are delighted to be leading that effort and helping EV drivers conveniently charge their cars.

“We welcome any inquiries from any local authority to our office in Maynooth, and our door is open to anyone who requires an EV charger installed.”

Cllr. Fintan Phelan, Cathaoirleach, Carlow County Council, said: “This joint initiative by eir, EasyGo and Carlow County Council to install state of the art new EV chargers is a great example of how organisations working together can improve the provision and rollout of much needed electric vehicle charging infrastructure in public areas which will be of great benefit and convenience to the public that are switching to electric vehicles while also contributing to achieving our ambitious climate action goals and targets.”

Oliver Loomes, CEO of eir, said: “Electric vehicles are a critical part of the Government’s Climate Action Plan which sets out a target of almost one million electric vehicles on the road by 2030. In order for Ireland to move to electric vehicles, we must have the required infrastructure in place, not just in cities, but across all of Ireland.

“We are proud to partner with EasyGo and Carlow County Council to assist in the installation of EV charging points across Carlow Town and County.

“This new infrastructure will benefit the community similar to the way public payphone services once did. The chargers will not only benefit people living and working in Carlow, but those travelling through. Today we are in discussion with other County Councils across the country and we hope others will follow Carlow’s lead.

“Wherever possible we will replace unused eir payphone kiosks with rapid EV charging units, and we will continue to assist EasyGo and County Councils across Ireland to help to make the transition to electric vehicle ownership a viable alternative for people.”

Image: courtesy eir / EasyGo

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