Increase financial incentives for electric cars – Noone

Fine Gael Dublin Senator, Catherine Noone, has called for Norwegian-style incentives to increase the popularity of electric cars.
Senator Noone said: “According to the World Health Organisation, air pollution from particulate matter, from both petrol – but more so diesel engines – is causing serious respiratory and cardiovascular illness from diseases such as lung cancer.
“According to other health experts – life expectancy is being reduced by 9 months due directly to the ingestion of these toxic fumes.
“Currently one thousand Dublin buses are diesel. In London there has already been substantive move away from diesel and towards electric and hybrid.
“In my view, we should be introducing the same initiative here as a matter of urgency.
“Moreover, I believe we should also take a leaf out of Norway’s books in terms of increasing incentives for people to buy electric cars.
“According to the latest figures, 37% of new cars bought in Norway last January were electric. This represents the highest rate of Electric Vehicle adoption globally.”
Senator Noone continued: “Here in Ireland in 2008, the then Coalition Government announced a target of having 200,000 electric vehicles (EVs) on Irish roads.
“It was an ambitious target, yet eight years later, despite the building of infrastructure to support electric cars, there are only 2,000 EVs on our roads – that’s a mere one percent of the then Government’s original target.
“Although I’m aware that those who purchase electric and hybrid cars in this country are currently paying a lower rate of VRT than those buying petrol or diesel – there are several other incentives offered by the Norwegian Government that I believe we could introduce here also.
“These include no VAT on new electric cars, free parking in public car parks, driving in bus lanes, free access to toll roads, free road ferries and lower annual road taxes.
“Furthermore a ‘negative incentive’ is that petrol is taxed heavily in Norway, making it expensive. Electric vehicles are cheap to run by comparison.
“With a 25 year legacy of support for electric vehicles, Norwegian experience can’t be replicated overnight. But there’s no doubt that we can do far more to encourage motorists to make the switch.”

ENDS