IrishEVs: Two Years On

Today, 1st May 2022 marks the second anniversary of the launch of IrishEVs, and we thought this was a good opportunity to look back at how things have changed since the launch of the site, and how we plan to proceed going forward.

Before we go any further, we must thank the 6,000 or so people who visit the site on a monthly basis. The aim was to provide a free consumer advice website to help people make better informed decisions about the vehicles they use in the face of the Climate Crisis, and to fight the common myths that were delaying electric vehicle adoption in Ireland.

We’re delighted to see that since May 2020, EV adoption has increased by 1,212% in Ireland, and we hope in some small way that we’ve contributed to enabling this trend.

While many media commentators are still fixated on the 1 million EV sales by 2030 target set out by the Irish Government, we must not lose sight that more than 19,000 new EVs have been sold since IrishEVs began.

Furthermore, as we wrote in February 2021, the Sigmoid Curve for new technology always starts slowly but soon begins to boom – as clearly show by the rise of mobile phones. It is undoubted that EVs will follow this path, but we still need greater support from the Irish Government to make this possible.

From misinformation to greenwashing

While one of the primary aims of IrishEVs was to provide free, unbiased and accessible information about electric cars to the people of Ireland – so that they could make better informed decisions about the role of cars in the Climate Crisis – we have always had one eye on misinformation.

Myths about electric cars were rife in Ireland in early 2020 and were contributing to low sales, alongside poor incentives. The common myths and misinformation present here were more prevalent than in many other EU nations, and needed to be addressed to help people separate fact from fiction.

Since that time, our focus has moved from misinformation – the sowing of untruths to confuse consumers – to greenwashing: the act of deliberately lying to consumers, praying on their consciences and ethics to make them spend more money on products which proclaim to have some ‘green’ value, but in reality do nothing to actually address the Climate Crisis.

This will very much be a focus of IrishEVs going forward.

Through a lack of industry regulation, government legislation and the growing cost-of-living crisis, Irish people are more exposed than ever to corporations making massive profits while worsening the Climate Crisis – and making us pay more in the process.

This is why 2022 saw the launch of the inaugural IrishEVs Irish Greenwashing Awards. While on the surface they were a satirical way to draw attention to how rife greenwashing has become in Ireland, they were also a somewhat desperate attempt to try and galvanise action on this issue.

More than 150,000 people engaged with the Awards on Twitter in the launch week alone, and we know from the feedback that many people had previously been unaware of the issue – so in that sense alone we consider the event to be a triumph.

We hope that 2023’s Awards will surpass this and leave those brands profiting from worsening the Climate Crisis with nowhere to hide.

But none of this could have been possible without our readers and our followers on social media. Never underestimate the impact that you can have when calling out greenwashing brands on social media – their reputation is directly linked to their profits, and you can make a difference!

Although we have averaged one new story every week for the past two years, having published 104 articles and countless other guides since going live in May 2020, you may have seen that there has been a reduction in the number of articles being published on a regular basis over recent months.

This is directly tied to our focus on investigative journalism around the issue of greenwashing, with everything from contacting TDs and PR agencies, to collaborating with international partners taking more time. However, we believe that this makes our work more valuable and we hope that it will lead to articles have a greater change of effecting tangible changes in legislation in the near future.

EV Incentives

EV incentives are still woefully poor in Ireland – something that has remained consistent since IrishEVs was launched – and this is something we aim to draw more attention in the year ahead.

While awareness of EVs has grown, and demand for them has increased in kind, we still have a system that is severely skewed in favour of those who already have the means to make the switch. As the cost of living has increased over recent years, it has only served to expose this inequality further and we want to step up and address this issue.

In the coming year we plan to increase pressure for fairer incentives, expanded incentives and support for affordable second-hand EV imports.

Furthermore, we know that our article about ICE to EV conversions is one of our most popular stories on the site, with more than 30,000 unique views. Not only will we explore this topic further in the coming year, but we hope to convert a vehicle ourselves, sharing the experience and the learnings along the way. Stay tuned!

Accessibility & Safety

The issue of accessibility at EV chargers is still being widely ignored in Ireland by the media, the Government and by charging operators.

As such, we plan to make this issue unavoidable in the year ahead and will be collaborating with disability charities and action groups to address this issue and push for change.

Frankly it is shameful that this has not been a key consideration for charging operators before now, and it is even more disgraceful that they have so consistently rebuffed our enquiries with nothing but lies and dismissal.

The same can be said for the issue of women’s safety at EV chargers. This is something we have been very proud to have addressed in the past year, but so much more needs to be done, and we plan to keep the pressure on so that the matter of women’s safety at EV chargers is unavoidable until it is taken seriously.

Climate Crisis

At its heart, IrishEVs has always been focused on the Climate Crisis.

We’re one of the few sites focusing on the relationship between cars and the Climate Crisis, and perhaps still the only one with this primary aim in Ireland.

Since our launch the Climate Crisis has only worsened, and the effects of the Climate Emergency have increasingly manifested around the world – from famines to floods, and wildfires to heatwaves.

While we have always sought to reiterate that we have all the necessary tools and knowledge to overcome the Climate Crisis, events such as COP26 have left us feeling ever more helpless as global governments continue to fail to act – with Ireland being a key example of this.

With this in mind, and the recent warning from the IPCC that we must act before 2025, we will increasingly focus on the need for urgent action and reframe the consequences of a failure to act: discussions around the number of degrees of warming continue to be seen as arbitrary by the majority of people, and it is instead time to highlight that we face mass extinction by the end of this century if we do not meet our targets.  

Long Term

While we have always focused on EVs, we’re conscious that they are only a short-term solution in the face of the Climate Crisis that is necessary to tackle the public health and Climate Crisis implications of Irish cars producing more than 6 million tonnes of CO2e per year.

It is our hope that by 2028 that many of the prevalent issues about EVs will have been overcome, with suitable legislation to tackle misinformation and greenwashing supported by ample incentives and an affordable second-hand market.

At this point, it would be our aim to transition to a website dedicated to the importance of public transport and active travel – as these are the modes of transport which have the lowest impact on the Climate Crisis, while also offering the biggest public health benefits.

As of writing in 2022, this still feels some way off, and the concept of the car feels like a difficult genie to put back in the bottle, but we hope this will change in the coming years as people become more aware of the climate breakdown that is already rapidly accelerating.

Thank You

It has been a fascinating, thrilling, exhausting and rewarding first two years, and none of this would have been possible without the support of our readers and our followers on social media.

An enormous thank you to everyone who has got involved by reading and sharing our articles, those who have contributed to them and to all who have shared ideas for new articles.

Your feedback, enthusiasm and input is always incredibly welcome, and we are proud to have such an active and educated community who so regularly get involved. We hope to continue to be a helpful resource in the years ahead, and hope we offer some solace that there is a large and growing community who care about these issues.

Here’s to another two years, and a sustainable future!

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