The Volkswagen ID.4, one of Ireland’s best-selling new electric cars. Sale of electric vehicles was up 80% in the first eight months of the yearA leading motor industry group has called for incentives to purchase electric vehicles to be retained in the upcoming budget as new figures show a large rise in the number of EVs bought so far this year.
Simi’s director general Brian Cooke said the switchover to EVs was still in the “very early stages”, and there was a “long way to go” to meet the challenging targets in the Government’s Climate Action Plan, of having 1 million vehicles on Irish roads by 2030. Grants of up to €5,000 are currently available for the purchase of new privately-owned vehicles up to a maximum sale price of €60,000.
“In addition if we want to speed up the removal of the oldest highest-emitting vehicles from the national fleet Government should refrain from any further taxation increases. This would encourage activity in both the new and used car markets, allowing motorists to trade up to a cleaner new or newer more fuel-efficient car.”
EVs, plug-in hybrids and hybrids continued to increase their market share with a combined 40.41 per cent. Petrol continues to remain dominant in new car sales, with a 30.1 per cent share, while diesel accounted for 27.2 per cent, hybrid for 20.3 per cent, electric 13.3 per cent and plug-in electric hybrid almost 7 per cent, Simi said.