High-powered charging point for electric vehicles to be built in Laois

A new high-powered recharging point for electric vehicles is to be built in Laois.

Transport Minister Eamon Ryan announced on Friday that the infrastructure will be built at Portlaoise Plaza at Junction 17. 

It is one of 17 locations where the recharging pools will be rolled out along major roads by the end of 2025. 

Each of these recharging pools provides banks of Fast and Ultra-Fast recharging points, so that people can charge their EVs quickly.  

The infrastructure will be built by private business, grant aided by the Department of Transport. In Laois the applicant is ePower. 

Once installed the average distance between high-power recharging pools along the scheme routes will be 45km.

 “EVs are an important part of our journey to reducing emissions in the transport sector. They are cleaner, better cars but we want to provide extra certainty to people either using an EV now or thinking about one into the future. Putting in place these banks of high-powered recharging points is an important first step in our commitment to people and to a more sustainable transport system," said Minister Ryan. 

"We will follow it up with many other schemes to ensure people know that they can charge their cars easily. This will complement our other commitments such as the EV purchase grant scheme, which will remain unchanged again next year, our grants for home chargers and the continued VRT reduction for EVs. Add this to the greater choice and price competitiveness on the market, we hope more and more people will be encouraged to choose electric.”

The 131 high-power recharging points will provide 24,260 kilowatts (24 megawatts) of additional recharging capacity. They will be funded by Zero Emission Vehicles Ireland (ZEVI) under the first EV Charging Infrastructure LDV (Light Duty Vehicle) En-Route Grant Scheme and led by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII). The grant scheme was launched in February this year and aims to accelerate the development of EV recharging infrastructure across Ireland's road network by incentivising private sector involvement. 

Peter Walsh, CEO of TII, said: “Our collaboration with ZEVI and private businesses underscores the importance of public-private partnerships in advancing EV recharging infrastructure. These recharging points will not only benefit individual drivers but also contribute to Ireland’s overall environmental objectives.”