In the U.S, a considerably larger country than Ireland, greater-than-EV-range journeys are outliers.
The same purchasing decisions that are applied to vehicle capacity will get applied to range. People don't own large vans for the once-in-a-decade they move house with all their furniture. Owning an EV that can do 200 miles might be the norm, but the regular journeys are <10% of that.
The borders of an island simply cutting off the long tail of trip distances does a lot to reduce required range.
With the current lithium-ion technology, high speed charging (over-volting) causes battery degradation due to extra heat. I suppose batteries can be actively cooled to mitigate the process.
Also it'd require to hide them under + a way to pay for (but that's trivial compared to the power lines).
Yet, all cars would need standardized plugs too.
It's doable but I'd consider it a futuristic idea. --
Again, it doesn't solve the issue with long trips. Last summer my family took a trip through Europe (central/west), often driving 600-800km a day. The range would have not been sufficient, esp. with the high speed German highways.
For long trips Tesla's supercharger network seems to work okay.
Not really, because not all parking spots would be charging at full capacity simultaneously. For that reason you can have a lot more charging-enabled parking spots than you have electrical supply for: in the event of unusually high demand, the outlets can throttle themselves to ensure that breakers aren't tripped, etc.
Norway has some experience building these sorts of facilities already: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktNKWLwjQJM
> "Last summer my family took a trip through Europe (central/west), often driving 600-800km a day. The range would have not been sufficient"
That's where high speed charging comes in. The new charging networks currently being built by Ionity (in Europe) and Electrify America, for example, are capable of 150-350kW charging. At those speeds, you only need one charging stop - of under 30 minutes - to complete that 600-800km day of driving.
We've all got to eat and take toilet breaks, so few people would drive that far without stopping even if they could!
But not a lot more time than the average stop already, accounting for human necessities such as stretching, restrooms, food, etc. Full 30 minute or so breaks every 4-6 hours are good for the humans doing the driving, and would reduce some forms of road rage among other psychological benefits.
I'm a gearhead, I daily drive a ~320HP car and am building a 600HP car, so I realize I'm a statistical outlier when most people just wanna sit in their appliance and commute to work as cheaply and safely as possible. A future of nothing but minimum-range electric toasters on wheels is probably resource-efficient, but definitely sounds depressing and boring to me.
My sole car is a Prius C, which I think is in the neighborhood of combined gas/electric 100HP. A co-worker of mine has a Charger with a ridiculous amount of HP and a large SUV. He likes to tease me about my the hamster under my car's hood, and I like to remind him I've spent less than $500 in gas in the past 24 months.
I don't need a fun car to get to work, and I can rent trucks for hauling. To each their own.
Telsas generally trounce all other cars off the line. The (still vaporware) Rivian has a 200hp e-motor at each wheel.
Most folks won't ever use this type of performance, and most folks won't buy high-spec EVs, but to write them off as an entire class seems silly IMHO.
But from a driver experience/driver engagement standpoint....they are lacking. Same reason why car enthusiasts would rather have a manual transmission than an objectively faster-shifting dual-clutch trans. It's about how your interaction with the machine makes you FEEL.
The other half of the equation is that many people have trucks as a dual purpose vehicle: work and every day use. People need to get grain buckets out to cows, or tow back hay on a trailer. People need to get down the street when it's snowing from October to June. Probably 20% of the roads aren't even paved.
Any kind of sweeping legislation like has been discussed in these comments would basically grind life out here to a halt. Which wouldn't be good considering how much food comes from this area.
Most households have multiple cars, and most (90%) of people's commutes are less than 50 miles (75 km). So for most households, having one car that is EV with a range of (say) 150 miles will cover your most common situation: getting to work and back. It would also probably cover a good portion of errand running on weekends.
The second car can either be full-ICE, or a hybrid. If the latter, if it has a 100 mile battery range, it would also basically be EV-only for commuting.
Personally I'm off the opinion that all vehicles should be full-EV by default, and have an option for a range extender (small generator) for those that need extra distance.
Well, for me thats nearly every weekend in the Summer where I go hiking and I need 300-400 miles roundtrip.
Charging off bunker fuel, ouch. How common is it for Irish cars to take a ferry?
Still, between the hectic on- and offloading and the acute awareness of fire hazards customary on ferries, I have a hard time imagining boatside car charging ever becoming mainstream.