The electric car has faced a hard road in convincing Irish motorists of its merits.
But in a country where, not that long ago, drivers were once incentivised to switch to diesel, electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers have recently grown their share of the new car market to about 22 per cent.
Sales of new electric cars more than doubled last month compared to April last year, while diesel sales dropped 30 per cent.
However, the prospects for growth of battery-powered vehicles within the haulage industry is much slimmer.
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Last year, a €1 million State fund to support zero-emissions HGV infrastructure went largely unspent.
Designed to bolster a network of dedicated chargers around the country, only €200,000 was drawn down, and almost all of this (bar €12,000) was spent on administrative costs.
Critics of the slow uptick such as Labour TD Ciarán Ahern – who raised the matter in the Dáil – say Ireland is being left behind the rest of the world. The fleet in China, notes Ahern, is about 25 per cent electric.
In Europe, that same figure is 4.5 per cent – whereas in Ireland, it is just over 1 per cent.
Brendan Dixon, operations manager at Dixon Transport Ireland, is within that small fraction of Irish hauliers who have electric trucks among their fleet.
Out of 300 lorries based at the Food Central industrial estate in north Co Dublin, the company currently has four Volvo EVs.
They were ordered in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when diesel prices started to rise dramatically – and deployed by Dixon in 2023.
“They work every day, we have a lot of business around Dublin – around the belt. But it wouldn’t be economically viable to send them beyond that into the UK and Europe,” he says.
“They fit into that kind of zone around Dublin very easily, with their range of 300km. The range on a fully fuelled diesel truck is probably 4,000km – there’s a massive difference in the capability.”
Dixon says most of the work carried out by his company’s EVs involves an evening run to the Coca-Cola production centre in Lisburn, Co Antrim. The trucks are fully charged on site in Dublin and can make the return trip without stopping.
“We put in our own infrastructure on site,” he says. “We have two superchargers and four standard chargers. So we have a charger that charges in 12 hours, and one that charges in an hour and 40 mins.
‘We are all long-distance travel as well – continental routes with the boats. You have to wonder, do they allow them on boats with the fire hazard that is involved?’
— Brendan Ryan, Martin Ryan Haulage, on electric HGVs
“We try and work them at night. We have solar that charges them here during the day – and that works extremely well.”
Dixon says one of the things holding back further expansion of EVs in the HGV sector is the prices at commercial charging points.
“Our illusion when we put in the investment was that the Government was going to put in a network at a competitive rate,” he says. “But there is no regulation on what people can charge.
“It has to be under 40 cents a kilowatt hour to be commercially viable – the open network out there is not under 40 cents.
“If we had one ask it would be for the Government to regulate it with the likes of Circle K and Applegreen, to come up with a commercial rate of charging – and that would encourage other people.”
[ Electric vehicle sales rebound with 29% growth in MarchOpens in new window ]
Dixon also says there is no dedicated infrastructure for HGVs – and if one of his four EVs do have to charge at a motorway service station, it usually involves “dropping the trailer” and manoeuvring the truck into a car-charging space.
“We’re still in the infancy of it – if a commercially viable network became available, we would certainly consider buying more trucks. The newer ones have a longer range – the new Mercedes is meant to have a range of 600km.
“That would be a game-changer for our business – you’d get a full day’s work out of them.”
Like in 2022, the cost of diesel is again close to record highs – even after the excise cuts implemented by the Government.
As people ponder a future where the prices of fossil fuels potentially become more volatile and costly, people are considering switching away from petrol and diesel. Many consumers are also keen to see an overall reduction in carbon emissions for environmental reasons.
‘The batteries are too heavy, the infrastructure is not there, the charging costs are too high, there is no resale value – and the range is quite limited’
— Eoin Gavin, Co Clare haulier
According to many in the haulage industry, however, the chances of a big shift in how goods are delivered here is a long way off.
Brendan Ryan, a director at Limerick-based Martin Ryan Haulage, says that, at present, he can only see electric HGVs being used as a “last mile option”.
“The last mile would be the likes of Rathcoole into Dublin or the Dublin suburbs – you could possibly see it working there,” he says.
“We are all long-distance travel as well – continental routes with the boats. You have to wonder, do they allow them on boats with the fire hazard that is involved?”
Ryan says the size of the batteries required also makes the trucks larger and heavier – adding to costs. And he is cautious over claims made about the range that currently available electric trucks can travel between charging.
“It’s like a car – they will say it will do 500km. But they don’t tell you that that would be in ideal conditions. A flat road with no aircon on and no lights on – and it is the same with a heavy goods vehicle.”
Another big impediment to rolling out electric HGVs wholesale, he says, is the limitations placed on driving hours. European rules mean drivers are not allowed to drive more than nine hours in a day, with a maximum weekly limit of 56 hours.
“You are restricted with the tachograph and hours – drivers are only allowed to drive a certain amount of hours – and electric trucks take too long to charge,” Ryan says.
He notes that several haulage customers have inquired about how carbon emissions can be reduced, but when the costs of doing so are unveiled to them, that “conversation quietens down”.
For companies based outside Dublin, there seems little option at the current time but to stick with diesel tractor units.
“The batteries are too heavy, the infrastructure is not there, the charging costs are too high, there is no resale value – and the range is quite limited,” says Eoin Gavin, managing director of his own haulage company in Bunratty, Co Clare.
Gavin says while there is a willingness among many customers to seek to reduce the carbon footprint of delivering goods, the growth of online shopping means there are more vehicles clocking up more miles than in the past.
He says he regularly encounters delivery vans and trucks on narrow roads in the likes of West Clare – many of which would not be there were it not for online purchasing.
“You see some electric vans – but it doesn’t matter if they are using electric or diesel. They are still using energy,” he says.
Meanwhile, the Government says it is making electric HGVs more affordable. In March, it announced changes to the Zero-Emission Heavy Duty Vehicle purchase grant scheme which, it said, would “make it easier and more flexible for companies to invest in electric trucks and buses”, with grants of up to €500,000 per year now available.
Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien has, however, conceded that the HGV sector has been slow to embrace such efforts. He has acknowledged that the weight of the new vehicles is a significant sticking point.
Battery-electric trucks (BEVs) used in Europe weigh on average 1.5 to 2 tonnes more than diesel counterparts of similar capacity, says industry lobby group the European Automobile Manufaturers’ Association. The difference is down to the battery pack, representing up to 15 per cent of total vehicle mass in long-haul set-ups, it says.
Hauliers also say that, given the sharp increase in the overall costs of keeping lorries on the road, the electric proposition becomes even less appealing.
Ryan says operators are now contending with higher wages, pension costs and extra holiday entitlements. He is dismissive of Government grants such as the one that made the news last week.
“They go on about grants this, grants that – but they come nowhere near what is required. That is a token grant rather than an incentive grant.”
