Electric or hybrid cars now make up one-in-five new car sales in Ireland

Over 1.800 electric vehicles were sold in January.

More than a fifth of new Irish cars sold in January were either electric or hybrid, as a new study predicts 130 million EVs on European roads by 2035, up from 3.3 million today.

Figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that while the number of new cars last month fell by more than 1,100 or 7% compared to the same month last year, some 21% were either full electric vehicles (EV) or hybrid.

Statistician Nele van der Wielen, said: "The number of new electric cars licensed more than doubled from 739 in January 2021 to 1,813 in January 2022. New plug-in hybrid electric cars licensed grew by 82% in January 2022 compared with January 2021 — 1,507 compared with 827. 

"At the same time, the number of new diesel cars is decreasing. At the beginning of this year 3,116 new cars licensed were diesel cars compared with 5,801 in January 2021."

However, the number of used cars in January 2022 fell by 55% compared with January 2021.

EV experts have said that the easing of barriers to import readily-available second-hand cars from the UK must happen if Ireland is to get ahead of its ambition to see one million EVs on the road by 2030.

Editor of IrishEVs.com, Tom Spencer, has repeatedly said the Government must remove Vat and vehicle registration tax (VRT) from second-hand EV imports from the UK to ensure there are enough affordable electric vehicles to meet the already significant demand.

A joint study by financial services EY and electricity industry body Eurelectric claimed that 130 million electric vehicles, up from 3.3 million today, will be on European roads by the middle of the next decade.

The study predicts passing the 65 million mark by 2030.

However, while there are over 360,000 public chargers in Europe today, at least 65 million chargers will be needed by 2035, the study concludes.

Some 85% of those chargers are expected to be residential, 6% will be in the workplace, 4% will be public chargers, and 5% at selected destinations, it said.

It means a €115bn cumulative investment is needed between 2022 and 2035, while EV penetration will see electricity demand in transport grow by 11% per year, the authors added.

"The electricity grid will not collapse due to exponential growth in EVs. It will cope with the predicted 130 million EVs on the roads by 2035," it said.

It did warn that as urban areas filled up with EVs, "unmanaged charging could lead to voltage deviations and affect the quality of power supply," the report said.

It added that "an unmanaged approach to charging infrastructure risks creating major congestion", and that "already heavily loaded grids could become bottlenecks" in the rollout of EVs.

Technological advances in the coming years will be crucial in the management of charging, the report said.

"Smart charging will manage capacity and prevent the grid from buckling under the pressure of millions of EVs plugging in at the same time. 

"It will use algorithms to read grid load and to shift EV demand to times when green energy is plentiful and cheap," it said.