{"id":79121,"date":"2026-04-30T10:16:03","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T09:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.autotrade.ie\/?p=79121"},"modified":"2026-04-30T15:29:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T14:29:23","slug":"lack-of-chargers-sees-electric-buses-worth-almost-e40m-sit-idle-for-over-500-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.autotrade.ie\/index.php\/lack-of-chargers-sees-electric-buses-worth-almost-e40m-sit-idle-for-over-500-days\/79121","title":{"rendered":"Lack of chargers sees electric buses worth almost \u20ac40m sit idle for over 500 days"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost \u20ac40 million worth of electric buses are sitting idle due to a lack of charging infrastructure, according to a new report from the Irish Independent.<\/p>\n

It said that 76 double decker battery electric buses, at a cost of around \u20ac500,000 each and destined for Dublin, Galway and Limerick, have been unused for more than 500 days.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Ireland’s first all-electric bus service was introduced in Athlone in January of 2023, with 18 charging points currently in operation for the 11 bus fleet.<\/p><\/div>\n

It also said that 14 of those have been parked for 860 days, or around two-and-a-half years.<\/p>\n

In total, 110 electric buses are currently not in use on public services due to delays installing charging points in depots.<\/p>\n

The Public Accounts Committee has called on Transport Minister Darragh O’Brien to act urgently.<\/p>\n

Energy equipment and solutions provider Schneider Electric, said Ireland lacks the underlying infrastructure and grid capacity needed to support EV charging.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the appetite for EVs is now growing, today\u2019s electricity infrastructure was never designed for mass, high-powered charging at scale,” Darren Kinsella, business development manager at Schneider Electric Ireland, told AutoTrade.ie.<\/p>\n

“Superfast public chargers, fleet depots and logistics hubs place concentrated demand on local distribution networks already under pressure. Without action, grid constraints and long connection timelines will continue to slow EV rollout and put Ireland\u2019s Climate Action Plan (CAP) targets at risk.”<\/p>\n

Kinsella added that decarbonisation\u00a0can be achieved through grid upgrades and investment in distribution networks, local substations, battery storage systems, and a smarter digital layer to support a scalable, reliable EV charging network.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost \u20ac40 million worth of electric buses are sitting idle due to a lack of charging infrastructure, according to a new report from the Irish<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":79122,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1001,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irish-news","category-news","cat-1001-id","cat-1-id","has_thumb"],"yoast_head":"\nLack of chargers sees electric buses worth almost \u20ac40m sit idle for over 500 days - Autotrade.ie<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.autotrade.ie\/index.php\/lack-of-chargers-sees-electric-buses-worth-almost-e40m-sit-idle-for-over-500-days\/79121\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lack of chargers sees electric buses worth almost \u20ac40m sit idle for over 500 days - 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