Irish Government, ESB, Mitsubishi Motors, MC Automobile (Europe) and MMC Commercials to Promote Electric Motoring in Ireland
25 May 2010
The Irish Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan; Electricity Supply Board (ESB); and Mitsubishi Motors Corporation; MC Automobile (Europe), N.V.; and MMC Commercials Ltd. signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the parties to promote the electric vehicle (EV) industry in Ireland.
At the same time, Ireland’s first EV trial-project, conducted by Trinity College Dublin’s (TCD) School of Engineering on behalf of ESB, was also announced.
As part of the trial, the electric i-MiEV will be used throughout Ireland to support the planning and implementation of the ESB nationwide charging infrastructure. TCD will research customer behavior and attitudes to gain an understanding of how customers want to use their EVs. The parties intend to make the vehicles available to a wide range of users—both residential and pilot corporate customers—and to promote EVs in light of the recently announced enhanced Irish Government incentives. The Irish Government has set a target of 10% for all vehicles on Irish roads to be electric by 2020.
A “Smart Home Charging” system will be trialed which will allow the cars maximize the amount of energy they get from renewable sources, while also facilitating the operation of the electricity system. ESB has committed to installing 1,500 publicly accessible charging stations, 2,000 domestic charging points and 30 fast charging units on a nationwide basis throughout Ireland by the end of 2011.
Mitsubishi Motors has made available 15 all-electric Mitsubishi i-MiEVs in advance of the general European launch in October 2010.
Get TATA and GE to make a cheap car with GE's new (ZEBRA) sodium batteries and perhaps lithium ones for acceleration. Don't forget the range extender, for the island is not all that small. ..HG..
Posted by: Henry Gibson | 25 May 2010 at 04:22 AM
I am not quite sure why they are dong this.
We have no vehicle manufacturing, and do not have excessive hydro resources, although we have some wind.
All we could realistically hope to do is to work out a set of rules for "smart" chargers which either charge at night (easy) or when there is wind (needs some comms) or to postpone charging if wind is expected in the next 24 hours.
However, I am not sure you could build an industry on that, and otherwise, as an early adopter, you pay a lot more for something which becomes obsolete in 2 r 3 years.
On the other hand, there is probably a case for spending a few millions of public money to see if is any good.
A better idea might be to add in some electric bicycles to our very successful bicycle rental scheme to see if more people would use them.
Posted by: mahonj | 25 May 2010 at 04:35 AM