Shane Ross did not buy electric car because of range anxiety

Minister for Transport Shane Ross considered buying an electric car – but rejected the idea because he had concerns about range.

Mr Ross, who has since been made Minister for Transport, had occasion to take the bus to work in Dublin, from his home 26km away in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow.

Asked about the Government’s promotion of electric vehicles on Monday, Mr Ross said he had “looked at the possibility of driving an electric car a little while ago” but “the range seemed to be a little bit low for me at the time”.

However, he did not close the door to the possibility, saying, “I gather a lot of improvements are being made, and when improvements are made I’ll look at the possibility of doing it again”.

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Mr Ross said he was “very interested” in promoting electric vehicles and they would feature strongly in his address to an all-day Cabinet meeting to be held on Wednesday.

“This will obviously come up as a major issue and I’m making a presentation to the Government and this will be included in it,” he said.

At 26km there are few – if any – electric cars on the market today that would not be able to make that journey and return home on a single charge.

On the range

At the top of the range is the Tesla S, which would give Mr Ross some 550km range between charges. Even tirelessly criss-crossing his south Dublin constituency, it would be hard to exceed that range. But a 20-minute charge would get him back to 50 per cent and about 275km, which is more than enough to get him home.

But if the second-hand price of the Tesla S – about €80,000 – is a shade high, Mr Ross could opt for the Hyundai Iconiq at a more affordable €28,495, including a Government grant of €5,000, which has a range of 280km.

If Mr Ross wanted to do bargain motoring, he could opt for the Nissan Leaf, probably the best-known family electric vehicle. A Leaf would knock him back €21,490 for the basic 24-kilowatt version, which has a range of about 150km – or he could pay a bit more and have the bigger battery and a range of 200km.

As an alternative, many hybrid electric vehicles offer battery power about town and at slow speeds while reverting to the internal combustion engine for longer travel. Denis Naughten, Minister for the Environment, is based in Co Roscommon and travels to Dublin and about his business in a State-owned Toyota Prius hybrid.