The Minister for the Environment has said that concern over the second-hand value of electric vehicles, along with "range-anxiety", contributed to a fall in demand this year, and insisted that a cut in a Government grant was not "the primary reason".
The maximum grant available for purchasing an electric vehicle was cut from €5,000 to €3,500 in summer 2023.
Eamon Ryan told the Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications that, for those looking at a three-year leasing purchase option, uncertainty over depreciation had dampened demand.
However he insisted that the fall in sales has "started to taper off" and that demand is starting "to rise again".
While "range-anxiety was an issue in the public mind", the minister said that this could addressed as Ireland has "a wide-spread network of charging infrastructure".
Mr Ryan argued that the reduction of the EV grant in last year's Budget did not drive down demand as the price of EVs "fell quite significantly".
Money was instead directed towards infrastructure, he said, adding that the return on this €100m investment is "starting now to really kick in".
This includes charging facilities at 200 sports clubs and on motorways which will come on line next summer.
But Mr Ryan conceded that the roll-out of infrastructure has been slow, and criticised the "reasonably poor" performance of local authorities.
