Dr. Hannah Daly:

I thank the Deputy for the question. I agree that if it is a question of a pure battery EV in two or three years versus a plug-in hybrid now, we should go for the EV in a number of years. The plug-in hybrids are an important transition technology and they are good to get that bottom curve of the EV deployment off to a start. We are beyond transition technologies now, however.

As the Deputy pointed out, the emissions savings accounted for in the testing cycles are less than we would see in real world driving because people simply do not plug them in or have longer distances to travel than they would have. They are also large SUV-type vehicles. We must remember, therefore, that any new car sold now will be around for 15 years and in 15 years, things will be very different. I agree with her on the analogy with diesel.