Brite Rapid Charge launched the first multi space rapid EV charge station in the West of Ireland at Galway Retail Park this month.
Brite, a company founded by Colin Barry formed in 2023 is a spin off of Brite Mobility, a multi-modal shared micro-mobility operator.
The company divested from shared mobility in 2023 and began planning a multi-site Rapid charging network in the West.
Brite’s strategic goal is to electrify Galway and provide much needed charging services in a geographic location that has severely suffered from a lack of investment over the past few years.
This Galway Retail Park site, located in Ireland’s busiest retail park has tested extremely well since opening, delivering the fastest speeds of any charger ever seen in the West of Ireland with 185KWH achieved on several occasions.
Colin Barry said, “I am all about coming up with innovative solutions to climate change barriers, specifically around transport. It is very clear that the public want and need our service.”
“Take this great example from last week, a lady driving her EV from Shannon airport to Ashford castle visited us after 11pm and managed to bag herself a fifty percent battery charge in just over fifteen minutes and she paid the cheapest rate of any EV provider in the country at €0.41.”
“She paid with her credit card by tapping our payment terminal as she did not need to download our Fuuse app.”
“We are looking forward to launching our second site this summer in Galway with ten charge spaces which will make it one of the largest EV charging hubs in Ireland.”
Rapid EV Charging Stations are considered a necessity if electric cars are to become viable for extensive use around the country.
While the majority of EV charging is done at home, those types of low power chargers are not suitable if drivers need a top up while making a long journey.
The government is attempting to build out a network of rapid EV charging station pools with a €21 million grant scheme.
The programme launched by Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan back in February seeks to have high-powered EV charging pools located at least every 60km along Ireland’s motorway network by 2025.
Each charging pool should be located in a public space such as a filling station or hotel within 3km of the motorway and must have a 1200kW total power output.
Each charging pool must include at least four high-powered charging points with a 150kW output.
Minister Ryan said at the time that further schemes aimed at other parts of the road network, neighbourhoods, and end destinations will be announced as the year progresses.
“This will help ensure that we have pools of high-speed chargers at dependable distances along our road network,” Minister Ryan said at the time.
“It will give assurance to EV drivers that they will have accessible and rapid charging facilities on their journeys, driving even further EV adoption and helping to reduce our emissions.”
Road corridors included in the scheme are the M1, M2, M3, M4, M6, M7, M8, M9, M11, M17, and the M18.
