Fine Gael TD for Dublin Fingal, Alan Farrell has said that improving existing infrastructure investment to support electric vehicles will increase purchases of E-Vehicles.
Deputy Farrell said, “This Government has taken proactive measures to make sure that we meet our responsibilities in limiting the worst effects of Climate Change, a challenge that is one of the most important that face our generation.”
“As part of the Government’s Climate Action Bill, we have set the goal of banning new petrol and diesel vehicle sales by 2030 and reaching 1 million electric vehicles on the road by the same year.”
Deputy Farrell continued, “Part of making sure we can meet this challenge will be encouraging the purchase of electric and hybrid vehicles. Key to this will be making sure that consumers are not discouraged by a perceived lack of infrastructure to support electric vehicles.”
“Increasing the number of charging points will be an important step in developing a reliable network to deal with increasing demand as more people choose electric or hybrid vehicles. There are currently 147 charging points in Dublin, 20 of these are in Dublin Fingal. This is clearly not sufficient in terms of public infrastructure.”
Deputy Farrell added, “The introduction of other incentives such as SEAI grants and the Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) tax in January of this year have given the electric vehicle industry a boost as more and more people buy them. As of 2019’s end one in ten vehicles on our roads were either electric or hybrid.”
“It is vital that we do not impede this progress by not investing in the necessary infrastructure.”