Number of public electric car chargers in Ireland significantly behind EU average

The data comes amid a surge in new registrations of electric vehicles so far this year

Sales of electric cars have surged so far this year, up over 60% compared to 2025. 

Ireland's public electric car charging network is significantly behind the rest of Europe with one electric car charger for every 30 cars in comparison to the European average of one for every seven, new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows.

As of the end of 2025, there were 1,125 different charging locations across the country with 3,416 individual charging points. This included 1,883 fast charging points and 3,662 connectors — used to connect the electric vehicle to the charger — at these locations.

Of those charging points, 82%, or 920, were located in urban areas which included 76% of the charging points and 75% of the fast chargers.

There was one charging point — fast, medium or slow chargers — available for every 30 electric cars in Ireland and one fast charging point for every 54 electric cars as of December last year.

As of May this year, the EU average was one charging point for every seven electric cars with the Netherlands reporting the lowest number — three electric cars per one charger — while Malta had the highest number at 91 per one charger.

For fast chargers, the EU average was one fast charger for every 37 electric cars, with Latvia reporting the lowest number of nine per one fast charger and Malta the highest at 2,595 per charger.

Dublin and Cork alone accounted for 30%, or 332, of the national charging locations, with 34% of the total charging points and 34% of the total fast charging points.

In contrast, Leitrim had the lowest share of charging locations at 0.4%, with five locations, 0.3% of charging points, and 0.4% of fast charger points.

In rural areas, there were 205 charging locations: 824 charging points; 468 fast chargers, and 893 connectors. This data comes amid a surge in new registrations of electric vehicles so far this year.

According to the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI), between January and June this year there have been 29,814 new electric cars registered for the first time — up over 60% compared to the same period last year and up 115% compared to this period in 2024.

The best selling electric car brand so far this year has been Volkswagen followed by Kia, and Hyundai. Volkswagen has the best selling car model with the ID.4.

According to the Government’s draft National EV Charging Infrastructure Strategy, published earlier this year, approximately 80% of all electric car drivers in Ireland primarily charge their vehicles at home.

However, the strategy also said that reaching charging infrastructure power output targets of 712 megawatts by 2030 “will present a continuing challenge”.

According to EU regulations, by 2027 publicly accessible EV charging pools for cars and vans must be installed at least every 60km along the core Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T). 

Each site must provide a minimum total capacity of 600kW, including at least two charging points delivering 150kW each. By 2035, these requirements will also apply across the entire comprehensive TEN-T.