DUBLIN, Ireland: Beginning July 1, private car owners in Ireland who purchase electric vehicles will see the state subsidy drop from 3,500 to 1,500 euros per auto.

An office within the Department of Transport, Zero Emission Vehicles Ireland, said the reduction in individual grants will allow Ireland to redirect the money to building a nationwide electric vehicle infrastructure.

Over 200 million euros has been issued to 40,000 Irishmen purchasing electric vehicles in the past 12 years, officials noted.

There were 73,574 electric vehicles in Ireland, as of the end of 2022.

Officials noted that the reduction in subsidies are similar to those established in Norway, Germany and France.

Meanwhile, Ireland's largest energy company, ESB, said it is preparing a 10 million euro investment in installing EV chargers in Northern Ireland. Officials said 50kW chargers are to be replaced with faster 100kW chargers, along with the doubling in the number of EV chargers.

ESB will also build five rapid-charging hubs, each able to charge six cars at once at speeds of up to 200kW each.

"The original network in the North was installed as far back as 2011 by a consortium of which E-Cars was part" said ESB's John Byrne. "Over time, the reliability of that network has fallen quite a lot. Some of that is down to the fact that some suppliers of the chargers that were used either went bust or, in the case of the likes of Siemens and ABB, stopped supporting those particular models."

In the North, costs for using the new chargers will be 49p per kWh for slow pay-as-you-go 22kW charging or 46.2p per kWh for drivers who subscribe to ESB membership for 4.99 euros per month.

The cost for faster charging - between 50kW and 100kW - will be 57.7p per kWh on pay-as-you-go or 54.3p for subscribers.

There will also be charges of 8 pounds for autos remaining above the 45-minute wait time on rapid charging points, or 10 hours on slow chargers.

In Ireland, high-speed charging hubs are to be installed in Barack Obama Plaza, with the ability to charge up to eight cars at once, and three more high-speed charging points are to be placed in north Dublin.

Additional high-speed charging locations are planned for Killarney, Tipperary town, and Waterford.