Ireland to fall short on electric car targets

Ireland is set to fall well short of its target of having 50,000 electric vehicles on the roads by 2020, given the exceptionally low take-up so far.

Despite state supports to the value of €10,000 for each electric vehicle, just 572 grants under the electric vehicle grant scheme have been issued so far this year.

Last year, there were 555 grants and, according to Environment and Climate Change Minister Denis Naughten, that total was more than in the previous four years of the scheme combined.

The country’s National Energy Efficiency Action Plan, published in 2014, estimated that 50,000 electric vehicles could form part of the transport fleet in 2020.

Mr Naughten, in answer to a parliamentary question from Fianna Fáil’s environment spokesman Timmy Dooley, said that apart from “general macroeconomic considerations”, technology advancement, affordability, and consumer choice were the most important levers in triggering consumers to move from petrol and diesel to electric vehicles.

“Notwithstanding substantial exchequer support of €10,000 to each electric vehicle, the reality of a halving of the price of oil and the pace of technology improvement has very significantly impacted electric vehicle market penetration,” he said.

Mr Dooley said the response showed there had been no appreciable increase in activity in the sector and he said there needs to be much greater intervention.

The Fianna Fáil TD suggested there needed to be a dialogue with some of the larger companies about giving them incentives to use electric vehicles as their fleet cars. He said other simple measures could be utilised such as allowing electric vehicles to use bus lanes.

Mr Dooley admitted that an incentive programme could be costly, but he said, there was no choice when one looks at how far behind emissions targets Ireland is in the transport sector.

He said the electric vehicle segment needed to reach a “tipping point” — a large number of people using the cars initially to inspire others to buy them.

He said the import market could be looked at in the context of developing the secondhand market.

Mr Dooley said if there was a visible market for the cars, the infrastructure, in terms of more charging points, would follow.

Earlier this week, it emerged that a row had erupted between Mr Naughten and Transport Minister Shane Ross over whether electric cars should be allowed use bus lanes, Both ministers brought memos to Cabinet aimed at increasing the numbers of people driving electric cars.

Under those proposals, drivers are to be given free parking in cities, road toll exemptions, and other tax measures as part of measures to convince them to swap existing cars for eco-friendly electric alternatives.

Mr Naughten’s department put forward the proposal of allowing electric cars to use bus lanes but, as this newspaper reported, a spokesman for Mr Ross said: “It has long been the policy view of the department that bus lanes must be for public transport rather than cars, even ones with high energy efficiency and that remains the position.”