Irish government may relaunch €5,000 EV scrappage incentive next year

In July, Ireland introduced a temporary scheme offering a €5,000 incentive to drivers who traded in cars older than 13 years for brand-new fully electric vehicles, supplementing the standard €3,500 purchase grant. The offer attracted enough applicants to fill its quota within 75 minutes, resulting in the removal of roughly 2,000 older, higher-emission cars in less than an hour and a half. Transport Minister Darragh O'Brien described the response as "incredibly successful" and said the data, to be published soon, shows particularly strong participation in rural counties.

The programme allocated €6.5 million for applicants outside the major cities of Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford, with the remaining €3.5 million reserved for those urban areas. O'Brien said the government will assess the results and may launch a comparable grant next year to continue reducing older vehicle numbers and promote electric mobility.