Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 July 2018
2110. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the cost of extending the grant by €2,000 for each category of electric vehicle under the SEAI grant scheme. [34965/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe electric vehicle purchase grant, introduced in April 2011, provides grant aid of up to €5,000 towards the purchase of a new Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) or new Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV). From the introduction of the scheme to the end of June 2018, grant support has been provided for the purchase of a total of 3,508 new vehicles to the value of €16.38 million. To date this year, over €4 million has been provided to support the purchase of over 900 new electric vehicles. Six million euro was allocated in my Department’s budget for the scheme in 2018 which will grant aid circa 1,300 electric vehicles. Increasing the grant amount by €2,000 for this number of vehicles would add circa €2.6 million to the spend on this scheme in 2018.
The purchase grant scheme is demand led and it is therefore difficult to predict exactly how many vehicles will be supported in future years. However, the trend over the last number of years shows increasing numbers of new electric vehicles purchased year on year and the scheme is kept under review.
