In an ideal world, we'd all be driving vehicles that didn’t burn fossil fuels and contribute to climate change. Instead, we’d be driving vehicles that are emission-free. For a short time, it seemed as if we were heading in that direction – albeit slowly – and the government’s target of almost one million electric vehicles (EVs) on Irish roads by 2030 seemed, well, not exactly attainable, but less fantastical. Then figures for car sales for the first quarter of 2024 landed and they were not good for EV adoption.

On Drivetime, Colm Ó Mongáin was joined by Geraldine Herbert, Motoring Editor at the Sunday Independent and Brian Cooke, Director General of SIMI (the Society of the Irish Motor Industry) to discuss the reasons for a 14% drop in sales of EVs in Ireland in the first three months of the year. This drop came despite overall new car sales growing by 8%. Geraldine believes that we’ve moved into a different type of market when it comes to EV sales:

"We’re moving from the early adopters into the more mainstream market. I think also that the prices of petrol and diesel, the fuel prices being low for the last few months has probably had an impact. Electricity prices are high. There’re high prices to be paid on the public charging network. Also, new car prices are falling, and I think people are probably thinking, 'Will they fall further, should I hold on?’"

So, if fewer people are opting for EVs, but the overall car sales numbers are up on the first quarter of 2023, what are people buying? Well, both petrol and diesel sales are up, with the former now accounting for 33% of sales. Geraldine:

"I think there is still a perception as well that you get better value if you buy a petrol car as opposed to an electric car... People don’t realise that there are a lot of electric cars that are the same price now as similarly-priced petrol cars."

A survey from AA Ireland revealed that over 50% of people will not choose an EV as their next car due to what they call misinformation and a lack of education. And Brian Cooke believes the sort of misinformation alluded to in that survey is a key part of the reason why EV sales have fallen this year. A lot of potential buyers on forecourts have concerns about the length of the battery life in EVs:

"The AA survey highlighted that people think that it’s less than 100,000km, when most manufacturers are giving 8-year or 160,000km warranties, which actually isn’t, it isn’t finite, the battery will last longer than that."

Then there are the environmental concerns – people have the notion that EVs are somehow worse for the environment than petrol and diesel cars, which, Brian says, is simply not true (as anyone who’s cycled behind an electric car compared to a diesel or petrol car can confirm). Some of the misinformation that people in the survey mention relates to carbon emissions at the manufacturing stage of EVs, but that’s a red herring, Brian says, because even if there are more emissions during manufacture, that’s quickly made up for in usage:

"Transport and Environment in Brussels have done a survey and they say that 30,000km worth of driving will make an electric vehicle emit less carbon than an equivalent petrol or diesel car. And in the Irish context, 30,000km is actually less than 2 years’ driving. So, over the lifetime, there’s actually significant savings."

The irony of the fall in EV sales so far this year, Brian says, is that Ireland is as close to ideal for EV usage as you can get – 80% of our housing stock allows for home charging, which is much cheaper than public charging; we’re a small country, so range anxiety is not as much of a factor and we have a temperate climate, which helps battery performance.

But one part of any negative perception of EVs that people may have is not so easily explained away. The public charging network is not yet where it needs to be, Geraldine says:

"For those people who are thinking about buying an EV, they need to see working, reliable charging points that are plentiful in their own area, that are on journeys that they make and they’re not seeing those at the moment. It is improving, but we’re only playing catch-up."

It’s a lot to ponder if you’re thinking of taking the plunge and buying a new car, but as with any other major purchase, the more reliable information you have, the better placed to make an informed decision you’ll be. You can hear Colm’s full conversation with Geraldine and Brian by clicking above.