Electric vehicles, or EVs, have become quite the hot topic in the island in recent months.

The Department of Infrastructure announced earlier this month that two new public charging points in Douglas will soon be available to electric vehicle owners, taking the grand total number installed in the capital to 10.

One EV user contacted Isle of Man Newspapers regarding a dispute in their building, stating he has been informed that he is no longer permitted to charge his electric vehicle where he lives (he wanted to remain anonymous in case it becomes a legal matter going forward). He raised the question of where EV users can feasibly charge their cars, and argued new EV infrastructure could be better placed.

According to information from Electric Vehicles Isle of Man (EVIoM) - a blog site dedicated to Electric Vehicles, charging infrastructure and clean energy on the Isle of Man - there are different methods of charging an EV.

These include: charging from home or public charging via destination chargers or rapid chargers on the road. These are usually found at motorway service stations in the UK and Ireland.

On the island at present there are no rapid charge points.

The island does have a small number of destination charge points - some are provided by local authorities in conjunction with Manx Utilities, and others are offered by local businesses such as at the Isle of Man Motor Museum in Jurby.

According to a map on the EVIoM website, there are more than 25 different charging points dotted around the island, but not all EVs are compatible with the same charging type - which raises further issues.

The reader who spoke to us stressed that the apparent lack of adequate charging is an issue for more people to be concerned about.

He said: ’People need to get on board because [the production] of petrol cars and diesel cars are going to be banned in the UK very shortly, in less than a decade, so if the apartment complexes and the government don’t really start ramping up the charge network then everybody’s going to be pretty stuck.’

He argued the location of charging points is the issue.

He said: ’There are a number of charging points on the island, there’s not many public ones. If you look at the number of EV registrations, the ratio is not really there.

’The problem is, unlike a petrol station, you want to charge when you’re not inconvenienced, so, [for example] if you’re going shopping, you just want to put the plug in, go shopping, come back and unplug it, which is way more convenient than even a petrol station.

’That’s where the chargers need to be, they need to be in places where people go for long periods of time, and when you look at those areas on the island, such as the cinema, hotels, supermarkets, hardly any of these areas have chargers.’

EVs have even become an issue in this week’s general election, with candidates standing in Douglas North even discussing the issue in a recent radio debate.

Manx Utilities confirmed to the Examiner an update will be coming later this week regarding the island’s EV network.

l We asked whether islanders would make the switch to electric cars in this week’s Word on the Street, on page 14.