Editorials

The Irish Times view on the hybrid car grant: pulling the plug

The Government is betting that potential plug-in hybrid vehicle buyers will now move to full-electric

We are still some way off the current Climate Action Plan target of 57,000 EV cars and 94,000 PHEVs on our roads by 2025, with a goal of 550,000 EVs and 290,000 PHEVs by 2030. Photograph: Benjamin Girette/Bloomberg

Sun Oct 24 2021 - 18:45

The decision to pull the plug on grants for buyers of new plug-in hybrid cars seems premature and ill-timed. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) differ from regular hybrids in that they can offer 50km or more in range as a purely electric vehicle and are therefore potentially less polluting than regular diesel or petrol cars. They offer drivers the opportunity to benefit from electric power, without always having to rely on the State’s still-developing charging networks to complete a journey.

However, if you make longer journeys or don’t recharge, most of the battery becomes a dead weight when it’s flat, so the vehicle potentially emits more CO2 than a standard car might. Environmentalists have dubbed PHEVs as the car industry’s “wolf in sheep’s clothing”. Nevertheless, when driven properly and charged they offer a worthwhile bridge to an electric future for many.

The Government is betting that potential PHEV buyers will now move to full-electric. That seems optimistic. They are just as likely to turn to regular hybrids or petrol and diesel cars. Incentives and tax breaks have a major impact on car sales. Just ask the Danes. In 2015, Denmark opted to phase out tax breaks for EVs. In the first six months of 2016 EV sales fell by 80 per cent.

According to Department of Transport figures, in a national fleet of 2.86 million vehicles at the end of 2020 there were 13,694 EVs and 12,490 PHEVs. So far this year 7,820 new EVs and 7,452 PHEVs have been registered, equating to 15 per cent of the new car market. We are still some way off the current Climate Action Plan target of 57,000 EV cars and 94,000 PHEVs on our roads by 2025, with a goal of 550,000 EVs and 290,000 PHEVs by 2030.

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Cutting off the PHEV grant at this stage seems premature. Doing so just before the busiest sales period for the Irish motor trade and without prior warning also seems an exercise in bad faith. Most people accept that grants have a limited shelf-life and the Government needs to protect its resources. However, consumer uncertainty about taxes and incentives undermines EV policy goals.

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