What's all this about?

Northern Ireland's 334-point electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure has been privatised, following a four-year government installation scheme.

Oh yes? And which company takes control?

Dublin-based Irish company ESB (Electricity Supply Board) is the group tasked with taking the EV charging network forward as a commercial entity.

Have the next steps of the project been confirmed?

Yes, ESB now has to implement a 'cutting edge' operating system for the network in order to run it within the electricity sector.

When does ESB take control?

It already has. A handover ceremony on July 30th saw Northern Ireland's Transport Minister Danny Kennedy and Environment Minister Mark H Durkan cede control of the 'ecarNI' project to ESB.

Has the charging infrastructure seen EV numbers grow in NI?

Yes. Speaking at the handover ceremony, Mr Kennedy said: "The completion of the network has contributed to the increase in the number of e-cars registered here from five in 2011 to around 750 today, a number that continues to rise steadily month on month. Charge point usage has significantly increased in parallel with this growth and there have been over 23,000 individual charging events carried out over the past three years."

Matt Robinson - 31 Jul 2015