Fees for Electric Car Charging to be introduced in April

Electric car drivers will have to pay to get their vehicles charged at charging points in Newry and elsewhere from next month. Up until now the charging at public charging points had been free. ESB who run the majority of charge points locally are charging a minimum of 49p per kWh rising to 67p for high power charging. Membership is available whch offers discount but it costs £5 a month. The fees will be introduced from 26 April.

One local driver believes that the charging costs will potentially make owning an electric car more expensive than a petrol one with electric vehicles only benefiting those who can charge from home via solar etc. The driver produced a spread sheet which shows that a car doing 50 miles per gallon would cost 13p a mile while an electric vehicle doing 3.8 miles per kWh would cost a minumum of 13p rising to 17p using a high charge facility and that doesn't include a 25p connection fee for using the facility or an overstay fee of £8 for those who stay over 45 minutes using rapid or high power charging, and of course any car parking charge!

From 26th April, EV drivers will pay to charge their vehicle with two options available, a Pay as You Go option and a membership option, with the latter designed for drivers who typically use the network more than five times per month. No matter which option customers choose to use,

ESB has already commenced the next phase of its Northern Ireland upgrade programme with 100 fast (22kW) charger replacements.

Commenting, John Byrne, Head of ESB ecars, said: “To meet the growing number of EVs on our roads, and support the delivery of clean and affordable energy, we need to ensure we have a reliable, accessible, Northern Ireland-wide public charging network. Pay for use for public charging is now the norm across GB and Ireland. This is a natural step in ensuring we improve the network and maintain high standards for EV drivers into the future.”   

ESB say that their research demonstrates that owners are supportive of a pay for use approach so that continual enhancements can be made to the network.   

Byrne added: “In the coming years as more people will be making the switch to fully electric or hybrid vehicles, it is imperative that we are able to provide drivers with the support they need. This includes the introduction of an overstay fee, widely supported by current drivers, which will help establish an acceptable etiquette for users to follow.”   

ESB operates the largest EV charging network on the island of Ireland consisting of more than 1,350 charging points, 319 of which are located across Northern Ireland. In 2021, ESB replaced 30 fast chargers (22kW) and five rapid chargers (50kW) in Northern Ireland and has now begun a necessary £10 million investment project to upgrade the network.  

This work is funded in part by £3.27m from the Levelling Up Fund and includes replacing all existing fast (22kW) and rapid (50kW) EV chargers across Northern Ireland.   

“The legacy infrastructure will be replaced with the fastest, most reliable and advanced technology available,” said Byrne. “The new chargers that EV drivers will see being rolled out have proven to be highly reliable with a 99% uptime.”       

The project will double the existing number of rapid chargers and increase the speed of these chargers two-fold from 50kW to 100kW. It will also see the introduction of high power (200kW) charging in Northern Ireland through the delivery of five high power charging hubs in strategic locations. These high-power charging hubs can charge multiple vehicles simultaneously and can provide an EV with 60 miles of range in as little as six minutes.   

ESB Charges