Ireland cuts electric vehicle subsidies
The Irish government has announced a reduction of its subsidy for privately purchased electric vehicles. From 1 July 2023, the purchase premium will drop from 5,000 to 3,500 euros.
The reduction of the registration tax will remain unchanged. Buyers of electric cars with a list price below 40,000 euros will receive up to 5,000 euros. A reduced rate applies to electric cars with a list price of up to 50,000 euros.
According to the government, 40,000 electric vehicles have already been subsidised from the funding pot since 2011, which means almost 200 million euros have thus flowed to private EV drivers in the past 12 years. And demand is growing. In 2022, 81 per cent more electric vehicles were registered than in the previous year, according to government figures. According to a climate protection plan presented in November 2021, a total of one million electric vehicles should be on the country’s roads by 2030.
The purchase premiums for companies will continue at the current level. The same applies to taxis and the subsidy programme for the purchase of alternatively powered heavy commercial vehicles. Subsidies for plug-in hybrids were already discontinued in 2022, after having been halved the year before.
The focus is now on infrastructure, the Ministry of Transport announced. Earlier this year, Zero Emission Vehicles Ireland (ZEVI), a department of the Department of Transport, had published Ireland’s first charging infrastructure strategy. Shortly after, the Shared Island Sports Club EV Charging Scheme was launched, funding €15 million in fast charging stations for electric vehicles at sports clubs across Ireland.
The news ought not to impress BYD, which set up new dealer partnerships in Ireland, among several other European markets, last month. Charging infrastructure is also still in the process of being ramped up on the island nation, for which the government has announced plans to invest €100 million over the next three years. At the end of last year, the Irish utility company SSE Airtricity had also announced plans to build a fast charging network over the next four years.
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