Just 5 per cent of Dublin’s taxis are all-electric due to a lack of charging points for electric vehicles, a new study says

ONLY five per cent of Dublin’s taxis are fully electric – with a lack of charging points being blamed for the slow transition to greener driving, according to a new study.

New research from Trinity College Dublin revealed that of the 10,050 vehicles in the FREE NOW fleet, only 456 were electric vehicles (EVs).

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The report states that converting Dublin’s taxi fleet to electric vehicles would cut the sector’s carbon emissions by 77 per cent – but there aren’t enough electric vehicles or charging stations to put the plan into action.

The study “Towards Decarbonizing the Transport Sector: The Impact of Electrifying the Taxi Fleet” used an emissions tool to model a combination of scenarios for the fleet.

The study team included Brian Caulfield, associate professor and head of the Department of Civil, Civil and Environmental Engineering at TCD, who said: “The reason we studied the taxi fleet is that taxis drive about 2.5 times more each year as private vehicles.

“Therefore, if we could decarbonize this sector, it could result in a significant reduction in emissions.”

The study found that the stock of plug-in hybrid and fully electric vehicles in the fleet is currently “extremely low to meet the all-electric vehicle target by 2030” and that “the growth rate would need to be significantly improved.

It states: “Research has shown that the government grants provided will increase the rate of growth, but charging infrastructure needs to improve for this to happen.”

The researchers said that home charging as an option for people living in apartments is problematic and that a major obstacle is the cost of electric vehicles, even if grants are allowed that could reduce costs.

A spokesman for FREE NOW said approximately 38 per cent of its fleet in Ireland are ECO (electric and hybrid vehicles), with a significant proportion of this coming through the existing eSPSV grant scheme.

The spokesperson said: “We are now welcoming an average of 10 to 20 battery electric vehicles into our fleet each week, suggesting that drivers and passengers alike are embracing sustainable journeys.

“It is widely acknowledged that the taxi sector has unfortunately faced a decline in drivers accelerated by the pandemic in recent years.

“FREE NOW drivers are now making more journeys than they did before the pandemic – they’ve made around 35% more taxi journeys since the beginning of 2022 than in the same period in 2019.”