‘People’s wallets are telling the story’ when it comes to the slump in EV sales, a Wicklow second hand car dealer has said.

Last month, 1,259 new electric cars were registered - significantly fewer than the 1,782 registered in August 2023.

Overall, between January and July this year, EV sales were 24% lower than in the same period last year.

On Newstalk Breakfast, Nadia Adan of Ashford Motors said customers are increasingly sceptical about the benefits of switching to an EV.

“I’m not against EVs, it’s just currently the way my business is set up, I couldn’t sell them,” she said.

“I wouldn’t be in business too long if I wasn’t open and transparent and that’s what my findings have been.”

A woman charging an electric car at a charging point. Image: Cultura Creative RF / Alamy

Last year, the Government cut the EV subsidy from €5,000 for each new EV to €3,500.

Campaigners have urged Ministers to rethink the decision but Ms Adan said she thinks grants are just one of the factors turning people away from EVs.

“At this stage I think people’s wallets are telling the story,” she said.

“The horse has truly bolted from the stable and even the Society of the Irish Motor Industry are calling for the Government to intervene in the upcoming budget.”

She said the lack of charging infrastructure is another fear for people considering going electric.

“I always use Norway as an example because we’ve the same population,” Ms Adan said. “They’ve 25,000 charging points in the whole of Norway.”

“We have 1,900 in Ireland and that includes rural Ireland.”

Good news today for EV drivers.

We’re putting in 17 banks of super fast chargers on our motorways -131 chargers in total.
The average distance between fast chargers will be 45 km.
This is just the first step.
More to come before the end of 2025.
👇https://t.co/a9C91ounIi pic.twitter.com/2tKGwUIx2S

— Eamon Ryan (@EamonRyan) July 26, 2024

A shortage of people with the mechanical skills to work on EVs is another factor hampering a more rapid rollout, Ms Adan believes.

“I’m a second-hand car dealer and I’m even finding it tough to get mechanics that will deal with an EV battery that comes into me after [its] manufacture warranty,” she said.

“All the young mechanics are leaving our shores to go for a better life, a cheaper life.

“It’s the Government that really needs to push the national rollout for the infrastructure.”

Ms Adan said EVs remain a “great idea” in theory but more work needs to be done before the design becomes the norm for ordinary drivers.

“I’m not saying it doesn’t work for everyone because clearly there are people who say, ‘This is the best thing that has ever happened to me’ - but those people have a lot of things set up in their lives,” she said.

“Like solar panels on their own houses.”

In its Climate Action Plan in 2023, the Government set a target of 30% of all private  cars running on electricity instead of fossil fuels by 2030.

Main image: An EV charging point with an electric car plugged in. Picture by: Geoff Smith / Alamy