The Irish government has extended the 0% rate of benefit-in-kind tax applied to electric company cars until 2022.
The renewed tax rate, aimed at incentivising the uptake of electric vehicles across Ireland, comes alongside the continuance of a €5,000 tax rebate on Vehicle Registration Tax for individuals purchasing fully electric vehicles; though the government will end a scheme offering grants of up to €3,800 to businesses purchasing electric vehicles from 23 October this year. A statement from the Irish Department for Environment said: ‘As the whole life costs of EVs reduce, the targeting of Government grant support must be adjusted to reflect this. Accordingly, the grant of up to €3,800 for businesses purchasing an electric car will be discontinued; the generous benefit-in-kind tax relief that is available for these vehicles is considered adequate incentive to drive growth in this sector.’ The grants will still be made available to companies purchasing electric vans, however.
Grants made available through the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland for users purchasing hybrid cars are to be subject to increased limits: after 23 October, the €5,000 grant will only apply to plug-in hybrids which produce less than 50g of CO2 emissions per kilometre and which are capable of travelling a minimum of 50km in fully electric mode. Meanwhile €3m in funding will be allocated for the implementation of electric vehicle charging infrastructure; and €1.5m will go towards supporting the widespread rollout of fast charging points to be installed at taxi ranks.
The Irish government, which has declared its aim to put a million electric vehicles on Ireland’s roads by 2030, says on its website: ‘Government grants have supported a fivefold increase in electric vehicle purchases since 2016. Budget 2020 will see €36m allocated in 2020 (compared €18m in Budget 2019) to incentivise uptake further. We will double the number of home chargers installed, and the fast charger network will also double in 2020. We will further roll out the nationwide network of on-street chargers.’
