EVs have a place but…

Ireland's has seen EV sales surge, but poor public transport leaves consumers with little choice but cars, says Jason Walsh

Blogs

Image: Kindel Media via Pexels

Upon sitting down to write this, my plan was to look at what we can learn from the numbers for electric vehicle (EV) adoption globally. I will still do a little of that, but a nagging thought has intruded, and it is to do with several recent slogs across the country, not trade or technological competition.

Anyway, accounting giant EY recently published its Mobility Lens Forecaster, and the results make for interesting reading.

Unsurprisingly, China is leading the pack when it comes to electric vehicles, with flooding the world’s markets with low cost EVs becoming an increasingly obvious stand of Chinese industrial strategy. Domestically, too, EVs are being pushed, with EY saying battery electric vehicle will achieve 50% market share by 2033

Equally unsurprising is the US lagging. Europe, home to giants such as Volkswagen and car conglomerate Stellantis, finds itself somewhere between the two. In truth European, like Japanese, manufacturers seem to have had a rocky start in EVs, but EY’s figures suggest a catch-up is expected. According to the firm, China’s share of global battery electric vehicle “sales [will decline] from 70% today to 54% by 2050”.

Even if this turns out to be accurate, China will have gone from being a country with no export market in cars to speak of in the 2010s to a world leader. That is certainly something worth thinking about.

Charging forward

In the meantime, 2024’s EV slump is over, at least in Ireland it seems. Central Statistics Office (CSO) data shows a strong rebound in EV uptake in 2025, with new electric vehicle registrations rising by 64% in July of this year compared to the same month in 2024, and a 27% increase in the first half of the year.

Much of this is driven by subvention, which is another way of saying ‘handouts to the already comfortable’ in the form of government support through grants. In addition, EY notes toll discounts and charging infrastructure expansion add to the forward momentum.

On the negative side, the absurdly backward state of Ireland’s public transport ‘network’ acts as a powerful stick to drive consumer behaviour.

A recent visit to Ireland reminded me of some harsh facts: driving between Belfast and Dublin twice daily on several days was less than enjoyable, but cheaper and faster than the train. A journey to Wexford, meanwhile, demonstrated the limits of the railway network: single track rail. Plenty of places have no access to rail, either, leaving buses as the only option.

In this context it is no surprise that EVs are pushed to the public as Green, and while I have no particular objection to EVs, seeing them as environmentally sound requires skipping over the energy (and, indeed, carbon) embodied in their production, not to mention the use of rare earth materials in battery production.

I’m not stupid. I know that Ireland’s miniscule population means the country will never see a railway network to rival, for instance, that of France. Nevertheless, the irony is hard to miss. Rather than building the necessary public transport infrastructure, Ireland’s policy attempts to look Green while forcing us to sit behind the wheel.

Honestly, it’s a wonder we haven’t fallen for one of the many wacky ‘robotaxi’ schemes. Yet.

Read More: Blog Blogs electric vehicles Jason Walsh