Ireland's electric vehicle (EV) industry has been boosted with an major new appointment.

EV platform Monta is expanding in the region with the appointment of Ricky Hill as Ireland Country Manager.

A background in managing mergers and acquisitions and tech, Hill will oversee the company's regional growth and partnerships with local chargepoint manufacturers, wholesalers, operators, installers, and businesses.

With one in five car sales in Ireland now electric or hybrid vehicles, Hill says the region is a key growth market for the company despite the country's current EV charging infrastructure growth lagging behind EV sales.

"The EV industry in Ireland is at a critical point as sales skyrocket, yet the charging infrastructure is significantly behind where it needs to be," Hill said. "We're here to help change that by facilitating the charging infrastructure expansion, providing seamless chargepoint management for installers and operators, and, most importantly, providing an effortless charging experience for EV drivers through our user-centric app.

-- Advertisement --

"There is a lot of scope to improve the charging experience. Private manufacturers and operators often ring fence their customers into a network, which has led drivers needing a plethora of different apps, RFID cards and payment systems to find, charge and pay. This is unnecessary and can drive a poor charging experience. Monta seeks to remove this hassle so the charging experience is seamless."

A number of initiatives have been announced recently to drive EV and Charging infrastructure growth, the latest being an expansion of EV Home Charger Grant which allows any homeowners to avail of the SEAI grant to install a charger, regardless of whether they have an EV or not. This will enable homeowners to install a charger in advance of purchasing an electric vehicle, for visitor use or at rented accommodation. 

Hill added: "Monta's app offers an Airbnb-like service that enables private chargers to be made available for public use, which can be found by anyone using the app. We can see a number of businesses like b&bs, hotels, restaurants and entrepreneurial people who have a public parking space using this to generate another income."

Earlier this month, Monta announced a new partnership with Irish electrical infrastructure company Core Solutions to establish 50 new electric car charging points in Ireland.