Just 0.3% of the 2.2m cars on State's roads are fully electric

Just 9,170 vehicles in the State's car fleet are fully electric, according to new figures from the Department of Transport.

Despite efforts by the Government to encourage a move to electric, and targets for one million electric vehicles on our roads by 2030, they made up just 0.3 per cent of the Republic’s vehicle fleet by the end of last year. Of these 8,473 were passenger cars.

There were an extra 88,117 vehicles on our roads last year, bringing the total national fleet to 2.8 million, according to the Department’s statistics.

The number of passenger cars rose by 3.25 per cent to 2,174,779, with 66 per cent of the Republic’s car fleet over five years of age. Diesel makes up 57 per cent of the passenger car fleet, with 40 per cent petrol. Just 8,473 were fully electric, representing less than half of one per cent of the private car fleet.

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According to the figures published in the Irish Bulletin of Vehicle and Driver Statistics for 2019, the total number of licensed (taxed) vehicles recorded on Irish roads on December 31st, 2019 was 2,805,839, up 3.24 per cent on the previous year. Aside from passenger cars, the fleet also comprised 366,760 goods vehicles, 75,863 agricultural tractors, 50,447 vintage vehicles and 42,492 motorcycles .

The report says 71 per cent of goods vehicles are four years old or more, while 57.5 per cent are 6 years old or over.

There were 3.047 million current driving licences in use, of which 92.35 per cent held full licenses. There were 233,025 Learner Permits, a decrease of 7,039 on the 2018 figure.