The Society of Motor Industry Ireland has today warned of the major price hikes facing those looking to buy new vehicles as soon as 2022.
According to recent proposals from the Tax Strategy Group, an increase in the price of new electric vehicles and lower-emitting new family cars will see costs increase by over €1,500 next year.
This proposal would also see other new cars, even those with much lower emissions, experiencing a major surge in price - estimated to be over €1,300.
Changes to VRT would also mean that consumers will have to pay more tax next year “to make a better environmental choice.”
The Industry union has said a move like this by the government will only encourage people to keep their older, more polluting cars for longer - which will grossly add to our Carbon emissions with the 900,000 cars over 10 years old already on Irish roads.
According to a spokesperson for SIMI, if we were to take the 900,000 cars that are over 10 years old off the road and replace them with newer cars we could reduce emissions by a staggering 270,000 tonnes of CO2.
“To put this in context, this is equivalent to the growth of 13.5 million trees in one year.”
SIMI Director General, Brian Cooke, said; “It is entirely unconscionable that the retrograde step of effectively increasing VRT on Electric Vehicles and low emitting cars is under consideration when we are at such a critical juncture in driving down emissions from transport.
“The Motor Industry, while currently operating at recession levels in terms of new car sales, is now emerging from the pandemic, and is a sector that is vital to the economy, as the second-highest contributor to retail consumer expenditure.
“The Industry is putting forward clear and positive plans to assist the Irish Government to reduce emissions by:
- helping consumers to make a real and informed choice to remove the oldest and most polluting vehicles from the Irish fleet
- upgrading as many people as possible to cleaner newer vehicles and
- incentivising the new car market to move more rapidly towards electrification with an integrated achievable plan
Mr. Cooke explained that consumers and the Industry itself have delivered over 120% growth in Electric Vehicle sales alone this year.
“This level of achievement would not have been attainable without the Government support currently in place”, he said.
“To reduce the EV support now, or to increase VRT on cars already burdened by last year’s substantial tax increases, only serves to add tax to consumers who want to make better environmental choices. It also adds to customer confusion as to whether an Electric Vehicle is the right decision for them, at a time when there is more and more choice out there.
“These proposals, if implemented, will simply slow down growth in Electric and low emitting vehicle sales. For consumers to make better environmental choices, the best options need to be affordable. We can succeed in significantly reducing our transport emissions.”
