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A DECLINE IN electric vehicle sales has been driven by a reduction in grants provided by the government, the chair of the Irish Electric Vehicle Association (IEVA) has said.
New registrations of electric vehicles were down 29.3% last month compared to the same month the year before, according to figures released by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) today.
Both the IEVA and SIMI are calling on the government to increase supports for electric vehicles in the upcoming budget.
New car registrations for August 2024 overall were down 8.4% (7,567) compared to August 2023 (8,261).
1,259 new electric cars were registered last month, which was 29.3% lower than the 1,782 registrations in August 2023.
To date this year, 15,129 new electric cars have been registered, a 25.3% decrease compared to the same period in 2023 (20,266).
Speaking to The Journal, IEVA Chair Matthew Sealy said that the key issue is government’s decision to reduce the level of grants available for EV buyers.
In July 2023, the government reduced the maximum rate of the private electric car grant from €5,000 to €3,500.
“Since then, the figures have started to come down,” Sealy said.
Sealy said that reducing the grants “sends out the wrong signal” to people considering an EV purchase.
He added that there are other European countries that have reduced EV grants and consequently have seen a similar drop in EV sales.
“That’s something we would like to see brought back to where they were to give consumer confidence,” he said.
Sealy also said that there needs to be more public education and information about EVs and efforts to make them easier to use, such as accessibility of charging locations.
“The situation is already better than people assume it to be,” he said, adding that making people aware of where chargers are located is key.
SIMI Director General Brian Cooke has similarly said that the government should use Budget 2025 to provide more support for electric vehicles, such as extending the benefit-in-kind incentive and accelerating the rollout of national charging infrastructure, in addition to restoring the grants “until the EV market recovers”.
“At this crucial stage in the EV transition, these measures will increase the sale of EVs, signalling their importance to consumers, boosting confidence and reassurance in electric vehicles,” Cooke said in a statement.
“Budget 2025 presents an opportunity for Government to demonstrate its commitment to fleet electrification and is an opportunity they should not miss.”
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It should be a crime to deep fake someone without their consent.
@Jimmy Savage: Agreed, but when it happens to Martin, who in fairness went to the high court, he was derided.
And Google, etc, aren’t doing anything to prevent this, I’ve seen Anne Doyle, The girl from TV3 ,I’ve reported each one, the last one was ” Google couldn’t find the ad that I reported ” eventhough it still appears .
@Jimmy Savage: It is though. The Online Safety Act now makes it a criminal offence to share, or threaten to share, a manufactured or ‘deepfake’ intimate image or video of another person without his or her consent.
@Jimmy Savage: Sure, but over and over we see those social media companies not care a single whit once they make their profits. Any fines are are a rounding error.
I’m fine with labelled satire or parody or some stuff that is actually fun (things like Sassy Justice or ‘if My name is.. was written in 2021′.
There’s so much more that is just not okay at all that propagates on those platforms… faked political or Hollywood starlets…
Then you have the circular activity of bots responding to each other driving up engagement on those platforms, which is profit that they seem value more that any form of ethics.
@Jack Hayes: Explain why it continues then?
@ben wu: Absolutely and they don’t care . They have enabled suicide, self harm , allowed lies to seem acceptable they really are what the world needs to be angry at…..
@Paul O’Mahoney: There was more press coverage over here about something odd looking about a photo of Kate Middleton’s wrist in a family photo, than there has been about those issues…
@ben wu: Was there?
@Jack Hayes: no actually, it is a crime to share or threaten to share an intimate image shared with you. Nothing about manufactured or deepfake
@DerekF: Even if it was as he said then there would be nothing against sharing a non-intimate deepfake where the purpose is to deceive others.
@Paul O’Mahoney: Explain to you why people still do illegal things or how people get away with doing illegal things? You must be new to this world.
It was a paid advert so Facebook must know who paid for it. That person should be prosecuted!
Why is this not happening?
@Steve O’Hara-Smith: Most are ex our Jurisdiction, and are probably not real entities
There is some awful muck on Facebook…. Full Stop.
@james rowan: Still not as bad as all the nazi propaganda on X.
@james rowan: Hence FaceMuck
Very believable, apart from the American twang abd the way she pronounces Turbidy …
Thought it was a genuine SF broadcast. Fits well with their actual,financial policy.
@Alan: Yeah me too
Soon the default belief will be if it’s on the Internet it’s fake, hallucination, or just plain lies and propaganda.
Aka “I gave them all the tools but they could not use them.”
@smatrix mantra: I disagree with that , the Internet was launched for good intentions, and a reasonable return by investing is fine, but the way a minority has essentially monopolised its content is the problem.
All those software engineers, etc, could have equally written code that was of use to the world’s problems, but that didn’t happen .
I’m using it now to share thoughts, most don’t
@Paul O’Mahoney: Every leap in technology can be used as a tool or a weapon, unfortunately most of the time it’s both but weapons seem to have more impact globally.
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. Albert Einstein.
That’s plain fake , not exactly deep fake
So sort it you legislators. It might cost a few thousand jobs. But what is the price of political stability?
Dennis O’Brien will take these charlatans to China Town. They are going down now.
Delete your Facebook account and other social media crap.
You will live happier
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