Grants for privately purchased electric vehicles to be reduced - Kilkenny Live

The maximum private vehicle car grant is to be reduced to €3,500 for applications from July 1, 2023, down from the current maximum of €5,000.

The news was confirmed by Zero Emission Vehicles Ireland (ZEVI), an office within the Department of Transport, has yesterday. Administered by the Sustainable Authority of Ireland (SEAI), the grant has been in operation since 2011, supporting the purchase of over 40,000 electric vehicles in that time.

The private vehicle grant provided early adopters with an incentive to switch to an EV, with almost €200 million in funding granted for the purchase of privately-owned vehicles over the past 12 years.

Many elements of the EV grant system remain unchanged.

Vehicle incentives for business stay the same and SEAI will continue to administer the commercially bought EVs and large panel vans grants at current levels.

The small public service vehicles (SPSV) grant for taxi and hackney drivers administered by the NTA was renewed in February, while the Alternatively Fuelled Heavy Duty Vehicle Purchase Grant Scheme, managed by Transport Infrastructure Ireland, has also remained unchanged.

In addition, there is no change to the existing generous VRT relief which is available to a maximum of €5,000 to purchasers of electric vehicles up to the selling price of €40,000, with a reduced scale for vehicles up to the selling price of €50,000.
Ireland has a buoyant demand for electric vehicles; 2022 saw an 81% increase in registration of EVs compared to the previous year (CSO). As of end December 2022, there were 73,574 electric vehicles on Irish roads.

This year is also seeing the arrival of newer EV models on the Irish market that are lower in cost. Government investment strategy for electric vehicles is to begin to rebalance towards supporting EV charging infrastructure.