One in three Irish motorists planning on buying a new car in the near future will go for a full-electric vehicle, according to a new survey.
A total of 37% of people questioned said they will buy an electrified car next time around.
However, research indicates that full-electric driving is unlikely to be mainstream until 2033.
The survey of 690 Irish car drivers who are planning on buying a new or used passenger vehicle within the next two years found that 26% of them said they were likely to opt for self-charging hybrid electric cars.
It now makes them the second most popular car choice after petrol.
When asked what type of car those surveyed would purchase next, petrol ranked highest at 38%, followed by self-charging hybrid electric at 26%, diesel at 25%, full-electric at 7% and plug-in hybrid at 4%.
Steve Tormey, CEO of Toyota Ireland, Steve Tormey said about the results: “In my opinion, one of the key take-outs from the research is that despite the incentives on offer for electric and self-charging hybrid electric vehicles, adoption has been slow and if we are to progress at pace towards a zero emissions driving environment more may need to be done to ensure that customers are considering alternative powertrains and moving away from fossil fuels.”
He added: “At Toyota we agree that zero emissions motoring is the future, and electric and hydrogen fuel cell powered cars should be widely embraced for the sake of our planet and future generations. Like any new technology it takes time for mass consumer adoption.
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“This is something we saw with self-charging hybrid electric vehicles.
“However, I do believe that full electric mass adoption will come earlier than the survey suggests given advancements in technology, a more widespread roll-out of charging stations and the fact that we will have younger, more environmentally conscious generations joining the motoring ranks year on year.”
The nationwide study, which was conducted by iReach on behalf of Toyota Ireland, asked motorists about their preferences on passenger cars including petrol, diesel, self-charging hybrid electric, full electric and hybrid plug-in variants.
Of those who said they were unlikely to purchase an electric car in the near future, when asked about their longer-term potential to purchase full-electric, 2% could see themselves moving into full-electric within three to five years, 19% within six to 10 years and 24% within 11 to 15 years.
Rounding these figures up and adding in the 7% of respondents who are likely to choose an electric within the next 24 months.
However, in theory it will take until 2033 for 52% of the current driving population to likely make the switch to electric.