All new houses built with driveways will be required to have electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure.
The new building regulations announced by Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien will also apply to multi-unit residential buildings such as apartment complexes.
They aim to encourage more people to buy electric vehicles over petrol or diesel, which in turn will reduce emissions overall.
Speaking of the change, Minister O'Brien said: "The regulations will help accelerate the uptake of electric vehicles, creating and enabling infrastructure to achieve the Government commitment of nearly one million electric vehicles by 2030."
“We are sending a strong signal of Ireland’s commitment to the clean energy transition, as the building sector has a vast potential to contribute to a carbon-neutral and competitive economy."
945k EVs by 2030
There are currently over 45,000 EVs registered on Irish roads, but this would need to increase to 954,000 in order to meet emissions reduction aims by 2030.
"This new requirement for Electric Vehicle recharging infrastructure will add to the Nearly Zero Energy Building Standards already in place for all new buildings and previous Electric Vehicles recharging infrastructure regulations introduced last year", the Minister said.
"It will add to our action against climate change in the area of emissions from residential buildings construction."
Demand
Ireland is experiencing a “huge switch” towards electric and hybrid cars, according to DoneDeal.
In September, the car sales website released its latest ad-view figures with an electric model coming out as the most in demand for the first time ever.
DoneDeal examined all new ad view data on the site between January and August of this year.
According to the figures, the Volkswagen ID.4 was the most sought-after model on the new car market – with more ad views than any other car.
The Hyundai IONIQ 5 and Kia EV6 were also represented in the top 10 most popular new cars.
August 2022 saw a 30% year on year growth in the demand for new EVs on DoneDeal, while demand for new diesel cars fell by 26% in the same period.
Main image shows a woman charging an electric car at a charging point. Picture by: Cultura Creative RF / Alamy Stock Photo
