Mr. Brian Cooke:

I do not agree with Deputy Whitmore's statement about retailers selling electric vehicles. The problem is they cannot get enough of them at the moment. If they have an electric vehicle, they will have a customer for it like that. They want more electric vehicles than they can get at the moment. If an electric vehicle is available for a customer, they will sell it to them.

It is very hard to know what can be done to bridge the gap. At the moment there is Government support and that helps to bridge the gap. There is a message for consumers, which is to look at the total cost of ownership. The electricity costs much less than the fuel costs and the servicing costs are less for electric cars. We need to get that message out on the total costs of ownership because there is a focus on the upfront price, the metal price of two comparable cars, whereas the running costs are less for EVs. The SEAI does quite a good job on that at the moment. Over the lifetime of the vehicle, the equation between the total cost of ownership between the two cars is starting to narrow. For some people the upfront costs are the biggest challenge of all, so if you do not have the financial wherewithal to buy, you will not be able to benefit from the longer term savings.

Our members cannot get enough electric vehicles, both new and used, at the moment. They have no issue with selling them. If you look at the amount of investment that the industry has put in at a local level, some retailers have put substations in their premises for cars they do not even have yet because they are investing in the future. Even in the independent sector, we provide a level of training and upskilling to get them ready for cars they are not servicing yet. There is a big investment in the industry. There is a huge interest and there is a substantial appetite for electric vehicles.