"To encourage better uptake of Electric Vehicles we need to have much more charging capacity and a much better system for availability notifications to EV owners"

What's your name?

Paul Girr

What position do you hold?

Chief Engineer at Jaguar Land Rover Ireland Digital Development Centre

How long have you held the position?

Approximately 18 months

What are your day to day responsibilities?

Helping to drive software programs in JLR with in house software development teams as part of our development of ACES (Autonomous, Connected, Electrified & Shared mobility)

We have teams working on Vehicle Architecture projects like software virtualisation, security/cybersecurity, functional safety. AD (Autonomous Driving) looking at sensors, frameworks, AI/ML and cloud/connectivity. Essentially end to end from vehicle side to data sharing V2X.

What is your professional background?

I spent 17 years at Intel in a number of locations working on communications, server technology and moved into an automotive role in 2004 working with some key European OEM’s and then moved to the US (Chandler Arizona) to take on a worldwide architecture role. I moved back to Ireland in 2011 to Shannon again and started working with JLR on their new Infotainment system which is now across car lines. In 2017 we had a small team start our new SW development centre in Ireland and have progressed from there.

Tell me about yourself away from work?

I love DIY and will try to learn new skills where I can – I spent a lot of student holidays working on building sites and find the civil engineering side fascinating. I have two children along with my wife and three dogs so it’s quite a busy household.

Tell us something very few people know about you?

I’ve been a bit of a nomad through my working life taking opportunities where possible – it’s allowed plenty of career development but also meant owning/renting lots of houses (I think it was 26 in total last time I checked)

You are speaking at the Sunday Business Post’s National Electric Vehicle Summit. What to you think of the speaker line-up and conference focus?

Excellent line up and really looking forward to some of the topics and speakers.

What opportunities and challenges do you see in the market at this time?

Having had two IPACE’s (Jaguar's electric SUV) in the country for the last couple of months we are not taking the infrastructure challenges seriously enough. To encourage better uptake of EV’s we need to have much more charging capacity and a much better system for fault / availability notification to EV owners – range will get better with battery technology etc. but range anxiety across EV’s is a huge concern

Where would you like to see the Electric Vehicles market in Ireland in 5 years time?

Most car manufacturers including JLR have stated that they will have EV variants or EV only models in this time frame – it would be great to see many more on the roads with the infrastructure in place to support them and encourage owners / home-owners to avail of PV (solar panels) and battery storage to firstly help run their homes and secondly allow some form of feed in tariff to allow the main supply network to take advantage of the uptake.

Paul Girr is speaking at The Sunday Business Post’s Electric Vehicle Summit on October 24 in Croke Park. Seewww.evsummit.ie for full details.