Ireland worst in Europe for up-take of electric cars in 2013 – survey

27 Feb 2014

Ireland is worst in terms of the up-take of electric vehicles in 2013 across 17 of Europe’s biggest economies, according to sales figures for 2013.

The results of a survey show that last year, only 58 electric cars were sold in the entire country, despite organisations like the ESB rolling out multiple charging points across the country and tax incentives to purchase these cars.

In comparison, the Netherlands sold a total of 23,149 environmentally friendly cars, the majority of which were plug-in hybrids that were encouraged by the Dutch government.

Countries that ranked similar to Ireland in the up-take of EVs were Iceland (72), Estonia (132) and Finland (181).

ESB, Ireland’s national electricity provider, has ambitious plans for the rollout of electric cars in the country and has stated it expects to see one in every 10 cars in Ireland to be electrically powered by 2020.

Based off last year’s car sales figures, the 58 electric cars sold in 2013 account for 0.07pc of the total amount.

With six years to go before EBS’ deadline, it would appear more needs to be done to bring its estimates to anywhere near the goal of 10pc.

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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