Speakers and delegates from all over the world have gathered in Dublin today to attend Fully Charged 2012, an International electric vehicle summit organised by ESB ecars on behalf of the Green eMotion EU project.

Pat Rabbitte TD, Minister for Communications, Energy & Natural Resources opened the conference and announced that Ireland would be the first country to trial an electric vehicle IT platform that will facilitate international roaming and seamless charging across Europe. International payments are settled via your home account much like with mobile phones.

As one of the ten demonstration regions within Green eMotion, Ireland has been selected as the first test region because of its advanced charge point network which already covers 82% of the country's main towns and cities. This roll-out is based on, and supported by university conducted end-user and vehicle research trials which commenced in 2010. The Green eMotion project is focused on achieving mass market adoption of electric vehicles through the development of standards, policies and interoperable systems so that motorists can easily charge anytime and anywhere in Europe.

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Speaking at Fully Charged 2012, Pat O'Doherty, ESB Chief Executive said: "Electric vehicles bring the automotive and electricity worlds together and here today at Fully Charged we have representation from all the major players who are collaborating on the solutions required to build this new industry. As one of the leading countries in the rollout of a smart charge point infrastructure we are particularly pleased to be at the forefront of the development of the electric vehicle IT systems for Europe as well."

Five Irish companies will showcase electric vehicles products and services that have been trialled in Ireland in conjunction with ESB ecars. Examples include Dublin based, M2C, which has developed a smart home charge point that operates as part of a home energy management system and allows the end user to charge when electricity is at its cheapest or greenest, JTM from Wicklow who have developed one of the first mobile chargers for electric vehicles for use with rescue fleets, and Eveo solutions whose first public charger was recently installed at the Topaz service station in Dublin Port.

(CD/GK)