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14

NEWS

June/July 2012 www.esb.ie/em

Brian Cullen and his family prior to their departure for Cork.

Ecar owners drive the distance

NATIONWIDE COVERAGE OF ecar charging points is well under way as charge point numbers reach 715 this month. This includes 256 public charge points, of which 28 are fast charge points, and 459 domestic and commercial charge points.

The latest cities and towns to have fast charge points installed include Cork, Galway and Carrickon-Shannon in Co. Leitrim. Public charge points were recently installed in Bray, Co. Wicklow, Fermoy, Co. Cork and Birr, Co. Offaly. As the coverage of charge points expands more ecar owners have been travelling across Ireland and blogging about their journeys.

Brian Cullen, one of the first Nissan LEAF owners, drove from his home in Killiney, Co. Dublin to Cork for the May bank holiday weekend. Remarking on his journey he said, “We headed on the M50 and stopped for a coffee and a quick break for the kids at Monsterevin Junction 14 (M7) where we fast charged for about 25mins. We then continued on to Cashel, which is all motorway, and fast charged there while we had a bite to eat. It was the car that ended up waiting for us in both cases! Commenting on their first long distance journey Brian said “It was the first time we embarked on a journey from Dublin to Cork in our Nissan LEAF and were pleasantly surprised at how well the car performed over the 560km round trip”.

To find out more about the network of charge points, check out our charge point map at www.esb.ie/ecars and on our facebook page www.facebook.com/ESBecars

Departed friends

The final countdown to Fully Charged 2012!

ONLY A FEW weeks to go to Fully Charged 2012 International Electric Vehicle Summit, which will take place in the Convention Centre Dublin on the 11th of July.

There have been a number of exciting new additions to the speaker line up in recent weeks including:

• Ms Maria van der Hoeven, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency
• Laure Chapuis, Cabinet Member of the EU Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas
• Prof C.C. Chan, University of Hong Kong
• Edwin Owens, U.S. Dept. of Energy
• Andre Postma, Enexis
• Mr Ryuichi Hasuo, Mitsubishi Motors Corporation
• James E Francfort, Idaho National Laboratory.

The organising team at Fully Charged 2012 is also delighted to announce the Irish premier of the new all electric Volkswagen Golf. The car will be available in early 2014.

Companies already signed up to attend include: RWE, Enel, IBM, Nissan, ABB, Renault, Trinity College Dublin, Verbund AG, Topaz Energy and many more.

Fully Charged 2012 will also be hosting Public Test Drives on the 11th July in conjunction with the conference. For more information visit www.fullycharged2012.com

“RECHARGE YOUR BATTERIES” in Irish destinations this Summer

Continued from page 1

THE “GREEN HOTEL Drive” is an ESB ecars initiative, in association with Failte Ireland, to install ecar charge points in 100 green hotels around Ireland.

ESB ecars, in association with Fáilte Ireland and the Environmental Protection Agency, is providing electric car charge points to 100 green accredited hotels as part of the nationwide charging infrastructure rollout and to support the development of green tourism in Ireland.

There has been an overwhelming positive response to the first phase of the Green Hotel Drive scheme which was promoted directly to qualifying green hotels at the end of April. More than 60 hotels have registered to date and the installation of charge points has already commenced in hotels countrywide.

With a range of electric cars entering the auto market, more drivers are looking for convenient places to charge their vehicles. Hotels are an ideal location as electric car drivers can charge during an overnight stay, “top up” while in meetings or during a meal. All participating hotels will be listed on the ESB ecar charge point map where drivers can view all available charge point sites. http://www.esb.ie/ecars

“ESB ecars is partnering with organisations such as Failte Ireland and accredited green hotels to expand the network of charge points further and provide locations where motorists can conveniently charge their cars during their hotel stay. Our goal is to provide nationwide coverage offering drivers point-to-point access to ecar charge points no matter where they are located in Ireland.” said ESB Managing Director Paul Mulvaney.

Paddy Mathews, Manager of Destination Development with Fáilte Ireland said that “this exciting initiative will make it more feasible than ever to holiday in Ireland with an electric car. Teaming up with green certified hotels throughout Ireland also serves to reinforce Ireland’s positive environmental image which is such a core element of our marketing campaigns.”

“Environmentally certified hotels represent the cutting edge in the hospitality industry’s response to increasing business and consumer demands for more responsible businesses - the roll out of ecar charge points across Ireland in Green Hospitality Certified Hotels is another step along the Irish Hotel sector’s move to satisfy these customer demands, and a clear signal that these hotels take the environment seriously”, said Maurice J Bergin, Managing Director, Green Hospitality Programme.

Green accredited hotels must be certified under one of the following schemes - Green Hospitality Award, EU Flower, Green Tourism Business Scheme, STEP or EcoTourism Ireland and be a Fáilte Ireland registered hotel. To register hotels fill in a form online and ESB ecars will follow up to arrange the charge point installation. Hotels are encouraged to mark out the car park area as an ecar priority space and offer free ecar charging for guests for the first 12 months. More information is available at www.esb.ie/greenhoteldrive