After years of stagnation, Northern Ireland is at last seeing very significant progress around its electric vehicle public charging infrastructure.
The Numbers
Rapid Charger numbers hovered around 20 in the middle of last year. Since then there has been a profound change that has seen numbers grow 5x in the last 18 months and our latest analysis shows that there are now a total of 102 DC chargers in Northern Ireland.
The ZapMap derived data used for the official Department for Transport figures measures “Devices”. One device may have multiple connectors so we have shown both metrics. It should be noted that while some devices with multiple connectors can charge 2 vehicles simultaneously, others cannot.
Illustrating the growth in the DC Rapid public charging network in 2023 (click for larger version)
Breaking down the current DC Rapid public charging network by market share (click for larger version)
Market share growth in DC Rapid public charging network by CPO over time (click for larger version)
Next Year
As we talk to Charge Point Operators, and see recent announcements like these, it’s clear that the progress is set to continue in 2024. Lets hope planning, grid connections and other statutory stakeholders will work hard to allow all these schemes to advance in a timely manner.
On the AC side, ESB are now well underway with their replacement programme and we look forward to seeing the tender for the ORCS (On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme) finally released for the 124 chargers announced back in August 2022. We continue to lobby for DfI to launch a pilot scheme on solutions to cross the pavement for homeowners without off-street parking and we hope to see the EV Task Force publish recommendations on this in early 2024.
Let’s continue to build on the fantastic progress of 2023 and keep the momentum going.
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