Ola Elvestuen briefs Irish Electric Vehicle policy makers at the SEAI Energy Show

• Ireland to take key learnings from global leader in electric vehicles
• Almost 50,000 electric vehicles in use in Norway

ESB ecars today (26th March, 2015) hosted Ola Elvestuen, Chair of Norway’s Environment and Energy Parliamentary Committee, who was in Dublin speaking to a group of Ireland’s key energy and environment policy makers and representatives of the automotive industry at the SEAI Energy Show. Mr. Elvestuen outlined Norway’s success in the mass adoption of electric vehicles (EV) and how this success could be emulated in Ireland.

Norway is now widely recognised as the world leader in the uptake of EVs, with almost 50,000 EVs currently in use and over 18% of new car sales in January were electric. Mr Elvestuen outlined the initiatives Norway have taken to promote low emission transport in its cities and towns in his talk today at the RDS.

Key factors for the success of zero emission vehicles in Norway include promotion of EV awareness in cities, use of a strong EV charging infrastructure and a range of incentives for owners such as free access to toll roads, access to bus lanes and free parking.

Ireland already has one of the most advanced and integrated EV charging infrastructures in Europe, which has been installed by ESB. To date there are 1,200 public charge points for EVs across the island of Ireland connecting all main urban centres. The EV network in the Republic is completely inter-operable with that of Northern Ireland, which means an EV driver can now drive seamlessly from Cork to Belfast using a common charging system from start to finish.

EV sales are steadily increasing in Ireland, with a better range of models available on the Irish market and a growing awareness of the cost savings available to those who choose to purchase an EV.

Pat O’Doherty, ESB Chief Executive said: “The adoption of electric vehicles in Norway demonstrates that with the right conditions, Ireland – which has a similar size population to Norway – could achieve comparable success with EV uptake. As Norway is a global leader in electric vehicle usage, we believe we can take key learnings from the success of their initiatives and try to adapt them to our Irish market to further promote and increase the use of electric vehicles on Ireland’s roads.”

Mr Ola Elvestuen is a member of the Norwegian Parliament from Oslo and leader of their Environment and Energy Committee. He is Deputy Chairman of the Liberal party since 2008 and was Commissioner for Environment and Transport in Oslo from October 2011 to 2013. He is currently the leader of the Environment and Energy Committee in Norwegian Parliament.

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