Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 51, 63 and 75 together.

The progressive introduction of electric vehicles into the road transport fleet is being promoted and supported in a number of ways in line with the Government target of 10% by 2020. These include the agreement with Renault-Nissan together with anticipated further agreements with other car manufacturers, the roll-out of infrastructure by ESB networks and the VRT exemptions for electric vehicles together with the tax incentive for businesses.

The VRT exemption for electric vehicles and the VRT reliefs of up to €2,500 for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which were due to end in December 2010, have been extended for a further period of two years. In addition, I recently announced the introduction of a grant scheme for up to 6,000 vehicles over a two year period commencing in January 2011. Those purchasing a full battery electric vehicle will be grant aided by up to €5,000, depending on the price of the vehicle. I also announced that grant aid of up to €2,500 is being provided for eligible plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

The electricity used in the on-street charging points comes from the grid and currently around 15% of this is produced from renewable energy. The proportion of renewable electricity in the system and, by extension, being supplied to electric vehicles will increase year on year as progress is made towards the target of 40% for renewable energy in electricity by 2020. The International Energy Agency recently forecast that approximately 30% of road transport vehicles will be electric by 2030. Research, recently published in the Energy Policy Journal, has suggested that electric vehicles using electricity from the Irish grid would use 50% less energy per kilometre than fossil fuel powered vehicles and would result in similar CO2 savings. The research forecasts that savings of more than 70% greenhouse gas emissions per kilometre travelled will occur by 2020 as the level of renewables in the grid increases to meet the 40% target.

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