SO CALLED ‘MOBILITY Hubs’ will be rolled out across three Irish cities next year, where people will be able to share access to bikes and electric cars. 

While the three cities have not yet been confirmed, Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan said he expects they will be operational by the end of next year.

The project began two years ago with a pilot hub in Finglas where a car and bike sharing station was installed.

“We’re going to go big on these,” Ryan told reporters at a roundtable interview.

The hubs will cost approximately €40mn, with this funding drawn down from the Climate Fund announced as part of this year’s Budget. 

In total, 200 hubs are planned for across the country.

The Minister explained that the rationale behind the hubs is to reduce the number of cars on the road and give people living in urban areas access to electric vehicles as they may otherwise be unable to own their own due to lack of charging infrastructure. 

The scheme will be administered through local authorities.

“The real challenge is the grid connection, having a good charging infrastructure. So it will be up to the local authorities to find similar spots [to the one in Finglas],” Ryan said.

“My own area outside Rathmines swimming pool there, you’ve got a front courtyard area that you could put aside as public parking – half a dozen cars, so that would be really significant,” he added.

Electric vehicles

Elsewhere, Ryan said he expects the government to hit its target for electric car sales by the end of 2025.

“Electric vehicle sales are up 45% up year-on-year. We will have, by the end of this year 110,000 electric vehicles on the road.

“Our target for the end of [20]25 is 195,000. So the way things are going we’re going to exceed that.

“The sales are just going to take off because every supplier is coming in and the price is going to come down so that’s not going to be a challenging target. We’re going to exceed it,” he said.