All new homes to be fitted with e-car charging points in NI

The connected home is one step closer to becoming a reality for all new self-builders in NI, with a push by the UK government to introduce e-charging points on all newly built homes.

The budget announced that the government will “make sure all new homes are built with the right cables for electric car charge points.” In NI grants of up to £5,000 are already available to buy a new electric car. Electric vehicles are also exempt from motor tax and the vehicle registration tax is £55 for all new car registrations. An extra £100 million was announced in the budget to continue funding the grant scheme. The move comes as the ROI budget in October only announced e-car supports for company-owned vehicles. Currently in ROI homeowners can however avail of a grant worth up to €5,000 to buy an electric car. VRT is paid whenever a car is registered for the first time in ROI; relief for electric vehicles is in place until the end of 2021. Motor Tax in January 2016 for an electric vehicle was €120 per year. *UPDATE October 2019 ROI Budget 2020 measures include Electric Vehicle Purchase Grants: the grant of up to €5,000 for individuals purchasing an electric car and the grant of up to €3,800 for businesses purchasing an electric van will continue. The range and emissions standards for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles will also be changed with the minimum battery range increasing from 20km to 50km and the maximum emissions reducing from 65 to 50 gCO2/km. These changes will apply to all applications received from Wednesday 23 October 2019. This gives consumers two weeks to apply for purchase grants under the existing rules – provided that the vehicles are licenced and the grant claimed before the end of 2019. Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure A further €3m has been allocated for new electric vehicle charging infrastructure from the Carbon Tax (€6m total allocation for charging network for the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment in 2020). This is in addition to €10m support to develop the public charging network from the Climate Action Fund. In addition, next year the government will introduce new regulations to require new buildings with more than 10 parking spaces to provide for the installation of charging points and, from 2025, non-residential buildings with over 20 car parking spaces to install charging facilities.