One in five car new car sales ‘must be electric by 2020’

One in five new car sales must be electric within the next five years, if Ireland is to meet its renewable energy targets, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) has today warned.

The SEAI, which is running a major exhibition in the RDS in Dublin, has urged dramatically improved efficiency and renewable energy targets by 2020, to help reduce Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Forty thousand homes and 550 businesses are already using some form of renewable heat technologies in Ireland, but this level needs to increase, according to Ireland's Energy Targets - Progress, Ambition and Impacts.

The report says the roll-out of electric vehicles must be greatly accelerated to the point where within five years electric cars must account for 20 per cent of all new cars sold in Ireland.

In 2015, electric cars accounted for 0.23 per cent of new car sales, comprising a total of 562 vehicles sold that year.

The report said every year in Ireland, passenger cars travel an average of 500 km using biofuel that has been created by blending regular petrol and diesel with biofuel.

Dr Eimear Cotter, Head of Low Carbon Technologies with SEAI said meeting our energy targets is “a huge economic and societal opportunity for the country”.

“This report is the first of its kind to give a sense of the scale of what needs to be done to meet our binding EU energy targets by 2020.

“It demonstrates that the energy system must be looked at in its entirety with energy use in transport, and heat and power generation all inextricably linked – with efficiency and renewables options in all sectors,” she said.

“The scale of the challenge is equally evident in the transport sector. The use of biofuels added to traditional transport fuels needs to treble,” she said.

The report said the benefits of achieving the 2020 targets could mean Ireland avoiding costly compliance fines associated with energy and emissions reductions targets, renewable electricity displacing €750 million worth of imported energy annually and avoiding 15 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.