South West College hosted a large group of motoring enthusiasts and electric vehicle industry experts at its Erne Campus in Enniskillen on Saturday 23rd September for the Northern Ireland Regional EV Talk Live Roadshow, organised in support of the FASTER Project. The key point of discussion on the day was the continued transition to the use of electric vehicles in Northern Ireland and the requirement for further public charging infrastructure in rural areas.
Over the coming months the FASTER Project will install 73 rapid charging stations for electric vehicles across Western Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (Border Region). The project has received ern Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (Border Region). The project has received €6.4 million EU funding under the INTERREG VA programme with match funding provided by the Department for Infrastructure (Northern Ireland), Department for Transport (Republic of Ireland) and Transport Scotland.
South West College is one of seven project partners and is responsible for the delivery of initiatives designed to increase knowledge about electric vehicles and improve confidence in the EV markets across the project regions.
Donal Monaghan, FASTER Project Officer at South West College said;
‘ South West College is delighted to host this event here at our ground-breaking Erne Campus today and we are pleased that so many motorists from across Northern Ireland and indeed the border region made the trip to Enniskillen to share their stories or to find out more about Electric Vehicle use.
Our fantastic line up of guest speakers from organisations including Cenex, Changing Lanes, Weev, EasyGo, EVANI, Everun and GoPlugable have helped to demonstrate that Northern Ireland is embracing a modal shift to the use of electric vehicles and despite a pro-longed shortage of public charging infrastructure we are now seeing big improvements in the network and with the addition of the 24 FASTER Project chargers over the coming weeks we expect market confidence to grow even further.’
Andrew Benfield, Ireland Country Manager at Cenex added;
‘These events are very important to give people an opportunity to see and try electric vehicles for themselves and ask any questions that they might have around the use of EVs.
Maebh Reynolds, Co-Founder and CEO of the award-winning, community charging company, GoPlugable was a guest speaker on the day and commented that the FASTER Project is creating really nice focus groups and environments for these important conversations to take place regarding the use of electric vehicles.
Go Plugable was named the overall winner of this year’s INVENT awards run by Catalyst in partnership with Bank of Ireland UK and is the first Greentech winner in 10 years.
Chris Kelly, Chief Executive Officer at EasyGo is working closely with the FASTER Project team to install the new electric vehicle chargers In Northern Ireland and said the event offered a great opportunity to meet drivers, explain how public charging works, how motorists can get access to those charges and help allay any fears that may exist around the switch to electric vehicle.
A number of electric vehicles were also available for test drives on the day supplied by Tesla, Monaghan Brothers, Donnelly Group, Western Cars Enniskillen, Lochside Motors and Weev.
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- Pictured at the EV Talk Live Roadshow at South West College Erne Campus in Enniskillen are (l-r), Donal Monaghan, FASTER Project Officer and Dr. Barry McCarron, Head of Business Development at South West College, Caroline Kidd, Motoring Journalist and Andrew Benfield, Ireland Country Manager, Cenex (event host)
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- EV Talk Live guest speakers Maebh Reynolds, GoPlugable, Chris Kelly, EasyGo and Michael Thompson, Everun respond to questions from delegates at the event in South West College’ Erne Campus on Saturday 23rd September
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- Electric vehicles are the future as attendees of all ages discovered during the EV Talk Live Roadshow at South West College Erne Campus on Saturday 23rd September
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- Pictured at the EV Talk Live Roadshow at South West College Erne Campus in Enniskillen are (l-r) Ian Roddy, Corporate Relationship Manager, Weev, Dr Barry McCarron, Head of Business Development, South West College, Thomas O’Hagan, Chief Commercial Officer, Weev, Andrew Benfield, Ireland County Manager, Cenex, Motoring Journalist and Changing Lanes founder, Caroline Kidd, Donal Monaghan, FASTER Project Officer, South West College and Michael Thompson, Managing Director at Everun
