Should electric car incentives be more creative?
Q: Should governments/cities offer citizens shared mobility vouchers or a car scrappage scheme as an alternative to grants and incentives for the encouragement of EV private car ownership, to make better use of vehicles and speed up the electrification of our transport? And are autonomous robo taxis the next evolution of public transport?
–
Cormack McK, Co Dublin
A:
The first question here is particularly pertinent, as there does seem to be a groundswell towards a new scrappage scheme to encourage Irish
car
buyers to opt for an
electric car
next time out.
It's certainly worked in the past. Back in 2000, a scrappage scheme that encouraged owners of older, less-safe vehicles to trade-in for a new set of wheels arguably overperformed, and saw the Irish market for new cars jump to a record of 247,000 sales. Ever since then, the Irish car trade has been moaning that it doesn't sell enough cars.
There was another scrappage boost in 2009, aimed to lure motorists towards cars with
lower CO2 emissions
(ironically, largely diesel-engine cars) while also helping the motor trade weather the dire economic headwinds of the time.
READ MORE
Both certainly put more cars on the road than would have otherwise been the case.
However, there are inevitably trap doors when it comes to scrappage schemes. Many consider a scrappage scheme to be an inequitable way to distribute finite State funds. The claim is that such incentives are merely subsidising car purchases for the well-off in society.
Equally, there's a solid argument that finite funds should be prioritising
public transport
over private, especially if we really want to make a dent in CO2 emissions. Electric cars certainly have their place in that reduction, but they're not the be-all and end-all for lowering carbon emissions.
It's also often dismayingly easy to game a scrappage scheme unless very strict terms and conditions are applied and we've been burned by scrappage in the past. In 2009, the scrappage scheme was meant to encourage people to buy cars with lower CO2 emissions, which it duly did.
[
EV Q&A: Should I buy an out-of-warranty, used electric car?
Opens in new window
]
However, as noted above, almost all of those cars came with diesel engines. First off, diesel power did most certainly not suit everyone's driving style, as legions of clogged-up diesel particulate filters came to prove.
Secondly, Dieselgate was just around the corner. While it certainly seems that encouraging everyone to shift to electric motoring is the right thing to do, it's worth remembering that many of us thought diesel was the right thing to do in 2009. We don't have the luxury of a second go at this.
It certainly seems as if a potential scrappage scheme would encourage more interest in electric cars.
Second-hand classified site Carzone has seen EV searches up 16 per cent year-on-year.
'Models such as the
Volkswagen ID4
,
Tesla Model 3
,
BYD Atto 3
and
Hyundai Ioniq 5
remain among the most searched, reflecting the growing appetite among Irish motorists,' according to Carzone.
'However, barriers such as cost, charging infrastructure and range remain significant considerations. A well-structured scheme that addresses these challenges would play an important role in making EV ownership more accessible.'
And therein lies a significant problem. The Government already offers as much as €8,500 off the price of a new electric car in grants and incentives, as well as other ongoing savings.
Yet EV sales, although growing, are nowhere near where we thought they'd be.
EVs are also becoming cheaper, due to the tumbling cost of batteries, so would a scrappage scheme that offered maybe €1,000 or €1,500 off the price of a new electric car make that big a difference? Possibly not, and even if it did, the argument that such a scheme is just aiding car purchases for the well-off would still echo.
Surely the issue of getting more EVs on the road would be better tackled by more effort in improving the charging network.
More fast chargers are being added, driven by EU legislation, but we're well behind others when it comes to setting up slower chargers in car parks and on kerbsides, and the cost of public charging is fast becoming a barrier to uptake.
Running an EV is cheap if you're doing most of your charging at home, but it's far from affordable if you're reliant on the public charging network.
The idea of shared mobility vouchers is an interesting one, and Ireland is – again – well behind the curve when it comes to the affordability of public transport (not to mention its availability).
A recent trip to Prague, for example, showed that a monthly ticket for public transport covering buses, trams, metro and local trains costs the equivalent of €22, and there's a discount for students and minors, which means it costs them just €5.20.
Even at the best Taxsaver rate, a monthly ticket for Dublin commuters costs €45, and that's just for Zone One. Clearly, providing better and more affordable public transport would be a massive boost to carbon reduction figures, not to mention potentially a tool for regenerating city centres.
As for autonomous 'robo atxis' – don't hold your breath.
Such technology certainly exists, but its price has not meaningfully come down since companies such as Google's Waymo, or Uber, started large-scale robotic taxi testing in the US.
The tech needed to create a robotic driving system that's genuinely as skilled and aware of its surroundings as even a half-decent human is mind-bogglingly expensive.
[
EV Q&A: Why do electric cars still have old-fashioned 12-volt batteries?
Opens in new window
]
General Motors, the US' biggest car maker, pulled the plug on its Cruise robot taxi service late last year, and
Renault
has recently said that it sees autonomous tech as more useful for large-scale public transport systems – buses and trains – than for individual cars. Equally, adding more cars to our streets isn't going to resolve the congestion problems in our city centres.
What does that leave us with? Well, we know that incentives are certainly a useful way of encouraging people to buy an electric car.
Indeed, without incentives many of the EVs on the market right now would be €8,500 more expensive, and that would definitely hurt their sales.
The experience of the German government, which ended incentives almost overnight and saw a subsequent plummet in new EV sales, would seem to show that incentives work.
Are they a perfect solution? No, not in the slightest, but perhaps perfection is not what we should be looking for here. Any encouragement is useful, and any one person who makes the switch from combustion to electric motoring is another step on the long road to carbon neutrality.
In the background, though, we need to be working on the bigger picture: on a charging network that functions properly and reliably for all users; expanding renewable energy for the grid; developing viable e-fuels and biofuels to power the existing car park of combustion engine cars; at least considering the potential for hydrogen as a power source; and creating an electricity supply set-up that's affordable at the point of use when charging.
Those are the actions which will truly transform both electric car ownership and emissions from transport. Incentives are really just an early-days sticking plaster.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
McDonald's Irish investments jump in value amid climb in profits
Profits at McDonald's Irish franchise operator jumped 17 per cent jump last year as it reported a more than fivefold increase in the value of its Irish investments under construction. New accounts for McDonald's Restaurants of Ireland, the burger chain's main Irish entity, also reveal the company declined to pay a dividend to its UK parent despite climbing profits. McDonald's had 95 franchised restaurants in the Republic last year, according to the accounts. The company does not directly operate any outlets here since it franchised out its last remaining owner-operated restaurant at Dublin Airport in 2022. The Irish entity reported that it had almost €23.2 million worth of assets under construction in the Republic at the end of last year, up from €4.3 million in 2023. READ MORE The more than 400 per cent uplift comes after McDonald's announced plans in August 2024 to invest €1.2 billion and open more than 200 new restaurants in the Republic and the UK over the next four years. At the time, the New York-listed group declined to specify its plans for the Republic, insisting only that the new restaurants would be tailored to meet 'the needs of the community'. 'The plans will also see a renewed focus on opening high street restaurants, demonstrating an ongoing commitment to supporting successful high streets across the country as town and city centres continue to evolve and respond to a variety of challenges,' the company said at the time. The latest filings also show that, having paid a dividend of €51 million in 2023 and €25 million the year before that, the Irish business did not make any dividend payment to its immediate parent company, a UK-registered entity, last year despite rising profits. McDonald's Restaurants of Ireland reported a 17 per cent jump in before-tax profits to €42.4 million last year even as revenues fell 1 per cent to €84.4 million. In a note attached to the accounts, the directors of the Irish company said administrative expenses were €8.5 million lower due to site closure costs and technology costs incurred in 2023. The Irish business has shareholder funds in excess of €114 million. Last month, the burger group's ultimate parent in the US posted its biggest drop in US sales since the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in the three months to the end of March. McDonald's chief executive Chris Kempczinski said at the time that US consumers were 'grappling with uncertainty' in the early part of 2025, adding that 'geopolitical tensions added to the uncertainty and dampened consumer sentiment more than we expected'.
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Moneypoint power station ends coal use ahead of schedule
The ESB has ended coal use at its Moneypoint electricity generation station in the Shannon estuary in Co Clare and is switching to oil use for the coming years. Generating power with heavy fuel oil is less carbon intensive than coal, while the station is expected to be used less in the future. The exit from coal use is six months earlier than anticipated at the facility, which has been in operation since the mid-1980s. The move is part of the continuing transformation of Moneypoint into a renewable energy hub. The power plant has been burning coal for 40 years but began its transition away from fossil fuel generation on site in 2017 with the construction of a 17 megawatt onshore wind farm. READ MORE In 2021, ESB announced its Green Atlantic @ Moneypoint project, an ambitious plan to transform the site into one of the country's largest renewable energy hubs, using its deepwater port and existing infrastructure. [ Republic may need to consider nuclear power to meet energy demand and climate goals, says EirGrid chairman Opens in new window ] This is planned to coincide with scale-up of offshore wind projects off the west coast in coming years. Phase one of this plan was completed in 2022 with the installation of a €50 million synchronous compensator to facilitate more efficient accommodation of renewables on the national grid. Moneypoint, which at one stage supplied up to 25 per cent of Ireland's electricity needs, will continue to provide security of supply for Ireland's electricity system as a backup facility; a power plant of last resort for EirGrid. The ESB intends to end oil use in 2029.
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
Centra store in Cork City revealed as €250m EuroMillions winning ticket seller
Clifford's Centra in Shandon Street, Cork City has been revealed as the seller of last Tuesday's €250 million EuroMillions jackpot win. The top prize was the biggest ever jackpot win in Ireland. The winner, who has not yet been named, became Ireland's 18th EuroMillions jackpot winner since 2005, and they also became the National Lottery's 13th millionaire of 2025. The National Lottery has also confirmed that the winner has made contact with its prize claims team. READ MORE [ Dolores McNamara: Whatever happened to the €115m lotto winner? Opens in new window ] 'We are absolutely thrilled to have heard from our EuroMillions winner,' said Emma Monaghan, spokesperson for the National Lottery, on Thursday. 'At this point, our priority is to give them the necessary time and space to make arrangements and let this life-changing news sink in.'
