It may be hard to believe in 2026, but less than 20 years ago Irish motorists were being pushed towards diesel cars as the more environmentally friendly option.
Their CO2 emissions tended to be lower than those from petrol engines and, in July 2008, motor tax and vehicle registration tax (VRT) were adjusted accordingly.
In the years that followed, Irish motorists followed the money.
Before the changes in 2007, the number of petrol cars in Ireland stood at more than 1.6 million – double that of diesel.
RM Block
By 2014, diesel had passed out petrol and by 2017 the dynamic had almost completely flipped, with more than 1.6 million diesel-powered vehicles on Irish roads, compared to just over one million petrol.
The legacy of that decision is still with us today, with hundreds of thousands of older diesels still on our roads.
As deadlines for cutting carbon emissions loom, with an ultimate target of Ireland becoming carbon neutral by 2050, Irish drivers are being encouraged out of their old motors into pristine new electric cars.
Ireland has set itself the lofty target of having 845,000 electric vehicles (EVs) on the roads within four years’ time.
From July, a “first come, first served” pilot scrappage scheme is to be rolled out, targeting vehicles that were registered before 2013. Owners of petrol and diesel cars aged 13 years and above will be able to secure grants of €5,000 for scrappage and a further €3,500 towards a new EV.
Not surprisingly, the car retail industry has welcomed the plan – announced this week by Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien – and many within the trade hope it gets a proper extension later in the year.
Enda Conefrey is principal dealer at Bradys Dublin, where he sells electric Volvos and Seats. He expects a large number of sales will be done through personal contract plans (PCPs). That involves a deposit payment – with the remainder being financed for a period of either two or three years. At the end of the period, owners can either roll the payments over to a new finance agreement on a new vehicle or buy the car outright for a pre-agreed sum.
“For repayments of between €200 to €350 a month, you will drive out in quite a handsome new car – and you’ll then be on to a three-year cycle,” says Conefrey. “For people on fixed or lower incomes this brings them right back in to the game.
“You now have over 90 models of EVs on the Irish market. Go back five years and you probably had less than 20. Go back 10 years and it was less than five. The offering out there now is immense.”
Dealers expect the pilot scrappage scheme to be fully subscribed.
“The scrappage schemes in 1996 and 2010 were very successful,” says Emma Mitchell of the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (Simi).
“There were around 30,000 cars sold on the last scheme and it ran for 18 months. It’s positive in the sense that it will increase the number of fully electric cars – which is a good thing – and remove some of the higher-emitting cars.”
Mitchell points out that the current scope is very limited – about 2,000 cars are slated for purchase under this pilot run. It is her expectation, however, that it will prove to be “hugely successful”.
“It is good to gauge the appetite,” she says, “It won’t run for the six months – it’ll be over much sooner than that.”
The wider context is that Ireland lags significantly behind other European countries when it comes to EV uptake – and it is on course to fall badly short of its emissions targets in 2030. Acknowledging this factor, the Minister said he hoped Ireland would be able to avoid billions of euro in EU fines as a result of more EV uptake.
The last 12 months have seen a significant increase in the number of new EV and hybrid sales. In the latest figures, Simi reported that sales of hybrids, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and full EVs accounted for two-thirds of new car sales.
Conefrey says he believes it has been due to a confluence of factors. Worries about the cost and availability of charging batteries have eased due to positive “word of mouth” about EV ownership. This combined with surging petrol and diesel prices due to the conflict in the Gulf has led more people to seek out an electrified option.
But despite the recent upwards trajectory, there are still only about 235,000 full EVs in use here. Hitting that 2030 target of 845,000 still seems ambitious.
Price has certainly been an obstacle to EV ownership here – and the scheme aims to help people who would be buying at the cheaper end of the spectrum. Money has been diverted away from more expensive EVs, and the maximum eligible vehicle price threshold for a grant will now be €50,000 rather than €60,000.
Studies have shown that ownership, and positive attitudes towards electric cars in general, have typically been highest among the better-off. There has also been an identifiable urban-rural divide, with people outside the larger cities less willing and less able to make the leap from petrol and diesel.
A joint study by Trinity College Dublin and Queen’s University Belfast in 2022 found that the grant system in place at the time privileged “high-income people”. Looking at where home recharging points had been installed throughout the country, it found the equity gap was most obvious in south Co Dublin.
Prof Brian Caulfield, who headed up the research, calls this the “green divide”. This divide extends to solar panels and heat pumps, which are also more prevalent in the wealthier parts of the country.
“The research on sales data today demonstrates that the majority of electric vehicles are being sold in affluent, urban Ireland,” says Caulfield. “I’ve long argued that targeted measures such as those announced by the Minister could have the potential to level the playing field.”
The scheme is weighted towards rural areas where the take-up of EVs has traditionally lagged behind. To be administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), 65 per cent of the €10 million on offer is to be aimed at what it calls “rural dwellers”.
“The location of where these vehicles are being sold is very important,” says Caulfield. “Over 50 per cent of these vehicles are being sold in Cork and Dublin. People that live in urban areas tend to drive shorter distances. Therefore, those in rural parts of Ireland with limited public transport alternatives are driving longer distances and creating higher emissions.
“Our research has shown that an electric vehicle in rural Ireland could save 35 per cent more emissions due to the greater distances travelled than those electric vehicles sold in urban Ireland.”
Dr Agnieszka Stefaniec of the University of Southampton Business School collaborated with Caulfield on his research. She welcomes the scrappage scheme but questions how effectively it can be disbursed.
“I am not sure how they will ensure a certain amount will go into certain areas – you can’t guarantee that people will want them,” she says. Nonetheless, she says the scrappage idea is a good one.
The fact it will take older polluting cars off the roads is what makes it appealing, she says. It means cars will be replaced – as opposed to having wealthier households simply add another vehicle to their family fleet.
She says there has been evidence to show that many EVs were being added to households that already had two cars “so it was not a big risk for them to buy an EV. If something wasn’t working well – a problem with charging, or the distance to be covered – they had more options or possibilities.
“If it is the only car in the household, there could be some kind of worry or risk about making certain journeys.”
That doesn’t mean that this pilot scheme – or the larger one that is widely anticipated will follow – won’t be tapped by those wealthier households in the likes of south Dublin. Conefrey points out the scheme will be available to households where people are cohabiting – and older cars that have been handed down to adult children could soon be arriving on to forecourts destined for the scrap heap.
“The oldest car around the yard – the one the kids have learned to drive on – is probably the car that will be traded in,” he says. “The first car then becomes the hand-me-down – there are lots of little nuances there.
“We are 50 years plus in the business here and we have seen plenty of scrappage schemes. People will find ways of getting the maximum out of it.”
