I was intrigued to learn that the Irish government will give grants of 5,000 Euros (£5,600) when their citizens buy an electric car.
Not only that, but electric vehicles will also be exempt from vehicle registration tax. To support the boost in numbers of electric cars roaming around, the Electricity Supply Board will ensure that 3,500 charge points will be available throughout Ireland by December 2011.
Wow, the Irish government is really encouraging its citizens to adopt electric car technology. In fact, it has ambitions to be the European leader in this sort of initiative.
Of course, the population of Ireland is small, and mostly centred around the major cities. It also helps that Ireland is a small country so you presumably don’t have to drive your electric car very far anyway.
This news breaks today, however, when I was horrified to see petrol costing 117.99p per litre at our local supermarket this morning. As you know, most of that cost is tax.
Am I being cynical, or should whoever wins the election be brave enough to lose a big chunk of tax revenue from petrol duty and really put their green credentials on the line?
The next UK government should follow the excellent example of the Irish and offer similar incentives for electric car adoption.
For the sake of the environment and our wallets, I hope they do. Well done Ireland!