The new ‘green flash’ registration plates for zero-emission vehicles are ‘absolutely ridiculous,’ a leading Meath car dealer has warned.
The Department of Transport yesterday announced that electric vehicle owners will soon be offered special green registration plates to display their car's zero emission status.
Announcing the measure, Transport Minister Eamon Ryan said the plate would "help us visualise our zero-emission future".
Objections to the plates
On Newstalk Breakfast, Ashford Motors owner Nadia Adan said that the plan was "absolutely ridiculous".
"This isn’t really fundamentally doing anything for the EV drivers,” she said.
Ms Adan said the lack of infrastructure and cost of electric vehicles in Ireland is putting drivers off going electric.
"It’s very frustrating to see people lose a serious amount of money and not be able to operate their vehicles properly," she said.
"I know a lot of people have charging points at home but a lot of them don’t. They operate on public chargers and work chargers.
"The infrastructure is not there."
Introduction of green flash plates
The new plates will look the same as the existing ones, but they will have a green flash or stripe on the right-hand side to mirror the European Union blue stripe on the left.
The will come on-stream next year and to qualify, vehicles must emit zero emissions at the tailpipe.
Full battery electric vehicles and fuel cell hydrogen vehicles will be permitted to display the green flash.
Other countries across Europe, including Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom, have already introduced similar arrangements to denote zero emission vehicles.
Minister Ryan said the system has worked well in other countries, adding, “Drivers like it and it’s a great way of tracking the ongoing move to electric on our roads”.
