An economist based at Trinity College Dublin has been awarded a €347,434 grant to carry out research into consumer buying decisions relating to electric cars.

Prof Eleanor Denny has been awarded the grant by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). The grant is one of 50 projects to receive a combined €11 million awarded by the Minister of the Environment, Richard Bruton.

Prof Denny, an associate professor in the economics department at Trinity, is teaming up with Hyundai for the Greencar research project, which will also trial initiatives aimed at boosting sales of electric cars.

In a bid to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and cut greenhouse gas emissions, the Government has set a target that all new car and van sales will be zero-emission by 2030. However, this is a considerable challenge given that just 2.6 per cent of car sales in the first nine months of 2019 were electric.