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Back in 2010, when the first Nissan Leaf was still a prototype, the Irish Government made a bold claim - that by 2020, ten per cent of cars on Irish roads would be electric and that there would be huge investments made in infrastructure and purchasing rebates to help that cause along.
Now though, according to Nissan Ireland, the plan has utterly failed and the consequent failure to tackle the issue of vehicle Co2 emissions is making it likely that Ireland will be fined as much as €6 billion by the EU for exceeding its emissions targets.
"The initial target set in 2010 was to have 230,000 EVs on our roads by 2020. It was re-set to 50,000 EVs in 2014 and a new target of 20,000 EVs is now proposed. How do you hit a moving target?" asked Nissan CEO, James McCarthy at the Transport and Climate Summit in Dublin. "The delivery of an electro mobility strategy is central to Ireland meeting its commitments to reduce CO2 emissions. The combined 2020 and 2030 costs to the State of failing to meet those commitments is estimated at between €3 billion and €6 billion."
"Ireland is failing utterly in its EV strategy and C02 emissions continue to increase as the population and car ownership grows. 20,000 EVs by 2020 is achievable if the government gets serious, takes action and stops making grand statements of intent," he continued.
He proposed the introduction of policy requiring 20 per cent of the car fleets purchased by the State, public bodies and local authorities to be EVs, levying fines against local authorities who fail to achieve EV targets and a BIK exemption for those driving EVs for business.
"Local authorities have no skin the game. Dublin, with about 40 per cent of the national car fleet should have a minimum of 8,000 EVs registered by 2020. The Dublin taxi fleet should be mandated to go EV from 2018 with the support of a scrappage scheme," said Mr. McCarthy.
"Dublin City Council has shown no evidence of its commitment to implement European best practice to establish an e-vehicles network in the Dublin city region. Best practice requires the provision of a comprehensive charging infrastructure and 'soft benefits' such as free parking, free road tolls and access to bus lanes for EV drivers," he added.
Mr. McCarthy said Ireland had much to learn from Norway where the introduction of such 'soft benefits' to encourage and reward EV drivers had succeeded in attracting 126,000 people to adopt EV driving.
"Currently, there are around 2,000 EV drivers in Ireland. The population and demographics of Ireland and Norway are quite similar and the same EV cars are available in both countries. Norway has succeeded in changing the dial on EVs because it took action to encourage and reward EV driving," he stated.