Motorists who wish to buy an electric car will be given a €5,000 grant and will be exempt from Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT), the Government has announced.
The goal of today’s announcement is to make the first commercially available electric cars competitive with their petrol equivalent when they go on sale next year.
A flat €5,000 rate for battery powered electric vehicles (BEVs) will apply for electric cars with a list price of above €20,000. A lesser €2,500 rate will apply for hybrid vehicles (PHEV) with a list price of about €18,000.
The incentive for BEVs priced at under €20,000 will range from €2,000 for those with a list price of between €14,000 and €15,000 to €4,500 for those between €19,000 and €20,000.
Prototypes of the first family electric cars to be developed, the Nissan Leaf and the Renault Fluence, were unveiled at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham this morning.
The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan, signed an agreement with the ESB and Nissan-Renault this morning following on from the memorandum of understanding which was signed last year.
Mr Ryan said Ireland would be a world-leader in rolling out the infrastructure to support the electric car fleet and the incentives announced will make it possible for people to seriously consider driving an electric car.
Mr Ryan said the aim was to have 2,000 electric car users by the end of 2011 and for 10 per cent of the country‘s cars to be electric by 2020.
The first charging points have already installed in Dublin City Centre and it is planned to have 3,500 in place by December 2011 making Ireland the first country in the world to have the whole country covered with charge points.
The hatchback Nissan Leaf and the sedan-type Renault Fluence, will be available next year, the Nissan Leaf at the start of the year and the Fluence towards the end.
The price of both models has not yet been revealed, although Nissan indicated that the Leaf would cost $25,000 (€18,000) in the US.
“It is nine months before launch so we don’t have a price yet, but we know where we want to be,” said Phillippe Klein, executive vice president of planning and control at Renault SAS. He said the goal was to make the Fluence competitively priced.
Nissan International vice president of product strategy Pierre Loing said that after Government incentives, the price of the Leaf should be comparable with cars in the same range. “I’m not saying exactly the same, but comparable. The price should not be an obstacle for customers.”
Mr Loing said the cars will have a maximum range of 160 kilometres before charging, though 120 kilometres might be a more realistic figure.
He said within two to four years they hoped to pass the “psychological” 200 kilometre range and within 10 years to have a range comparable with a petrol car before charging.
Both manufacturers estimate that the cost of motoring will be a fifth of that for conventional cars.
