| What is an electric car? An electric car is a car that is run on electricity and not the standard petrol or diesel car. It looks like any other car on the road; in fact a lot of electric cars are conversions of petrol/diesel cars. Electric cars (sometimes referred to as ecars) offer an efficient, sustainable alternative to fossil-based fuels.
In Ireland, the ESB established ESB ecars in 2010 to begin the roll out of electric cars and vehicles and to support their introduction nationally. Up until September of this year they piloted a year-long scheme called the ‘Great Electric Drive’ which saw 21 “ambassadors” trial electric vehicles for periods from three months to a year. According to the ESB, the participants managed to reduce individual fuel costs by up to 90%.
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| Charge Points The initial drawback of electric cars is the lack of charge points which may prevent a long journey from being undertaken. The ESB has said that over 1300 charge points are now available around the country. The downside is that standard chargers take over 4 hours to charge the car. Roll out of the ‘fast charging’ points which charge the cars to 80% in about 20 minutes are not yet available in all inter-urban routes. | 
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| Envoirnmental Impact In terms of the environmental aspects of comparing a ‘normal’ car to an electric one, it is not as straightforward as immediately assuming that the electric vehicle is totally environmentally friendly. Renault recently released an interesting study which noted that the environmental impact of making electric vehicles is actually greater than for manufacturing petrol and diesel vehicles. However, electric vehicle's environmental kudos is more than made up for by the greater detrimental environmental impact of petrol and diesel vehicles while they are being used. |
 | Future Use As news of the substantial cost savings that have been attributed to electric cars spreads there will surely be more demand in the country. As demand increases so too will the prevalence of more charge units. Nissan, which sells the Leaf electric car in Ireland, said it has compiled a waiting list for the latest three models, which are not expected to be seen on Irish roads until early next year. Whatever happens it is certain to say that we will see an increase of electric cars on Irish roads in the coming years. |
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Posted By: Eoin O'Donnell 27th November 2013