Government must take 'decisive action' to address 'collapse' in confidence in electric cars

'Speaking now at the end of December 2024, it's a situation where a lot of the problems are fixed, the charging network is getting rolled out, home charging is available — unless you’re in an apartment — and electric cars are now significantly cheaper than the equivalent petrol and diesel cars.'

Consumers' "collapse" in confidence in buying electric vehicles over the last year is in spite of market conditions being as "good as you need them to be", industry experts have claimed.

They say the incoming Government must take “decisive action” to get that confidence back if it wants to cut emissions.

The last Government set an ambitious target of one million EVs on the roads by 2030 and, while that will almost certainly not be reached, it must not “lose more momentum” after the latest figures available from the Central Statistics Office show sales of EVs in the first 11 months of 2024 down 25%.

“Speaking now at the end of December 2024, it's a situation where a lot of the problems are fixed, the charging network is getting rolled out, home charging is available — unless you’re in an apartment — and electric cars are now significantly cheaper than the equivalent petrol and diesel cars,” said Denis Murphy, managing director of Blackwater Motors in Cork.

The market conditions are as good as you need them to be. And that’s the first time we can say that. But there’s a lot of consumers needing to have confidence in the product.

In summer 2023, the Government cut the maximum grant available for purchasing an electric vehicle from €5,000 to €3,500.

While it was denied by Government that cutting this grant was a primary reason for a subsequent fall in EV sales, both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were among those committing to looking again at these grants in their election manifestos.

Pledges were also made to expand the charging infrastructure around the country.

While car industry figures have played down the impact of just reducing the grants, they said Government actions had an overall effect on consumer confidence, which has played a role in seeing electric vehicle sales nosedive.

“The reduction — in the home charging grant, SEAI purchase grant — and removal of incentives like the toll discount not only have a monetary impact on consumers but also send a negative message to Irish consumers about the Government’s view of the transition to EVs,” said Brian Cooke, director general of the Society of the Irish Motor Industry.

Reinstating supports and extending consumer incentives and benefit-in-kind support, along with investment in charging infrastructure now, will build consumer and business confidence to encourage uptake if we are to meet our 2025 target.

At the end of July, Department of Transport figures showed a combined total of 128,317 electric cars or plug-in hybrids on the roads. Under the Climate Action Plan, the Government initially set a target of having 175,000 electric passenger cars on Irish roads by the end of 2025.

In the first 11 months of this year, only 27,000 such new vehicles were sold in this country. That is 24% of all vehicles sold compared to petrol and diesel, which still has 54% of the market.

Mr Murphy said consumers had been turned off by a plethora of negative commentary around electric vehicles and the Government had pushed electric cars at a time when they were significantly more expensive and home charging was not readily available.

“Electric is the future,” he said. “It’s not going anywhere. Even if you increase the grant again, that’d just make them cheaper than they’ve already become.

“Thankfully, our order take for 2025 is significantly higher than at this time last year. That wouldn’t be hard as it collapsed then, and it’s still not as good as two years ago but it’s coming back.” 

Mr Cooke said: “The new programme for Government must take decisive actions to regain the lost momentum; increase investment in EVs and don’t increase taxes on other vehicles if we want to support consumers in trading up to a newer lower emitting vehicle.”