Irish charging operator EasyGo, which boasts a network of 1,200 charge points and 7,000 customers, has formed a partnership with telecom company Eir to replace 180 telephone kiosks around Ireland with Tritium DC fast chargers.

EasyGo Director Gerry Cash said the idea of transforming phone boxes came about because of their locations around the country. “We’ve a culture of going into towns and places of convenience. Typically, the locations of the phone boxes are in those types of places. And that’s what we want to do—make the experience of charging a car easy, comfortable and safe for people.”

Eir is enthusiastic about the plan to repurpose its vastly under-used phone kiosk sites. “Replacing our little-used legacy infrastructure with state-of-the-art rapid chargers will make the transition to electric vehicles a viable alternative for thousands of people across the country, further driving forward the decarbonisation of Ireland and helping to meet our climate targets,” said Carolan Lennon, CEO of Eir.

Under its Climate Action Plan 2030, the Irish government aims to have almost a million EVs on Irish roads by the end of the decade. According to the country’s Department of Transport, there are currently only around 10,000 fully electric cars in the country—less than 0.5% of the national fleet.

The companies hope the new charging locations, which they say will offer prices as low as €5 for 100 kilometers worth of range, will encourage drivers outside of cities to go electric. “If you live rurally, you’re not going to get on a bus at the bottom of the road,” Mr. Cash said. “That’s why it’s important that, if we’re going to transition from petrol or diesel to electric, we’re going to have to be able to charge cars in rural locations.”

Source: RTE