Ireland should strive to be a world leader in electric car development for its potential knowledge benefits as much as for its ability to reduce our oil dependency, according to the Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan.
Addressing motor industry executives this afternoon, he said there were significant rewards from being one of the first locations to build up an expertise on electric cars, which we can then sell on to the rest of the world.
Mr Ryan said the benefits were not just in using our renewable powers or reducing our dependency on oil, which currently stands at 165,000 barrels a day. “We also get the benefits from being one of the first locations to take the lead. By doing so you get all the process knowledge, the IT and engineering expertise. The experience in the past of these radical fundamental shifts in the motor industry is that where it starts first is where it tends to develop. “
He reiterated the Government’s aim to have 10 per cent of the country’s fleet electric by 2020.
Last month the Government announced a €5,000 grant for motorists who wish to buy an electric car. They will also be exempt from Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT). The ESB has committed to providing 1,500 charging points for electric cars across the country before the end of next year.
Mr Ryan told the annual general meeting of the Society of the Motor Industry (SIMI): “Across the world the motor industry is saying is that the future will be electric. The political system is saying the same. We have certain advantages as an island: the distances are reasonably short and we have large volumes of renewable power. We’ve a good grid. So it makes sense to develop the industry here.
“We are well placed to be one of the first places to get all the spin-off benefits and then sell on our knowledge to the rest of the world. It will be experimental and there will be mistakes, but this is the future we need to grab it and be comfortable with it.”
While acknowledging that some people perceive his party’s positions to be anti-car, he said this was simply not correct. “We know the freedom cars offer. Getting from one end of the country to the other in two or three hours, where it might have taken two or three days in my grandfather’s time, is a remarkable freedom and benefit that we have. I just think it works better if you manage it cleverly. That’s to the benefit to the motorist.”