Initial figures for the first 10 days of the year show electric vehicle (EV) sales have now overtaken those of regular petrol cars, a milestone in their acceptance by mainstream motorists.
Yet the price of new vehicles and issues with charging infrastructure remain major hurdles if we are to reduce the emissions of our transport fleet.
As of December, there were 2,511,627 private vehicles on our roads, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office. Of these 100,499 were EVs. For last year, EV sales rose 36 per cent and petrol and diesel vehicle accounted for less than half of all sales for the first time.
That’s commendable, but a far cry from the ambitious targets set for the end of the decade.
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One major hurdle remains an affordable charging option for those without access to off-street parking. At present they are left to charge at the public access points, which in some instances can be as costly as running a car on petrol or diesel, when range is taken into account. Some kind of communal facility may be required to entice those in apartments and terraced houses to make the switch.
Another is the cost of new cars, though thankfully there are signs that the exorbitant new car price inflation of recent years has abated. That’s partly due to the fleets of new Chinese cars arriving on the market. Sales figures from the last decade demonstrate that most Irish buyers are not brand loyal when it comes to shopping for a new car.
They are perfectly happy to opt for a new brand if they know the local dealer and the price is right. Ireland welcomed the Japanese brands in the 1980s and have been equally welcoming to the Koreans since the early 2000s.
The fear is that if China uses European markets as a crutch for falling domestic sales, it could decimate the continent’s indigenous car makers. And while many Irish motorists might not harbour nostalgia for the European brands, it would be unwise to let them collapse, only to find ourselves at the mercy of Chinese brands in the future.
Other sectors, such as solar, are learning the cost of that sort of price-driven short-term thinking.
