Established in 2011 and jointly managed by the Department for Regional Development (DRD) and Department of Environment (DoE), the points were part-funded by the Office of Low Emission Vehicles, which was matched by a consortium of 26 stakeholders including local councils, utility companies and the motor industry.

Under ESB control, the next phase of the ecar project will install a new operating system to enable the network to be run commercially. The team within the DRD and DoE will now concentrate on public sector estate infrastructure and policy development to support private and business use of ultra-low emission vehicles in Northern Ireland.

Speaking at the handover, Transport Minister Danny Kennedy said: “The completion of the network has contributed to the increase in the number of ecars registered here from 5 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."