It’s that time of year when new cars are arriving on the road and I wonder how many Electric Vehicles we will see this year. A couple of years ago I went to the local Ford Dealer Gerry Sheridan and told him I was thinking of buying a Fiat 500. Gerry’s response was that I should give up all manly pursuits and hang my Christmas Baubles at the front door.
Thankfully with the surge in options for EV’s, purchasing one for a man will mean hanging on to those precious Baubles. You also have the added advantage if you are receiving a company car that you won’t pay BIK.
However Paschal Donohoe in the last budget put a cap on this BIK of €50,000 ,so any value over this will incur BIK. The other catch is the cap comes before SEAI grant and VRT rebate of €10k combined. So, not only is the Tesla and the Jaguar I-Pace out but if you add any fancy extras to the BMW I3 you might break the 50K cap.
In my opinion this was a very narrow minded approach. The EV tax break is a short term incentive to get more EV’s on the road and reduce emissions. In the US, EV targets are being reached and grants are being withdrawn. The real issues with EV’s are the charging infrastructure and the range. Tesla has approximately twice the range of other brands so why cap the BIK incentive. Furthermore the take up on new Tesla’s or the Jaguar I-PACE will be relatively small. There is the potential to buy a second hand Tesla that would tick the range anxiety and cost approx. 50K, but unfortunately you are dealing with original market value.
Other incentives Paschal could do to improve the EV uptake could include, free tolls and the use of bus lanes, but he really needs to put money into the recharging network. Contrast this with Norway, where one third of all new cars sold last year were electric, striving to end sales of fossil-fuelled vehicles by 2025. Norway exempts battery-driven cars from most taxes and offers benefits such as free parking and charging points to encourage change.
Some of the Electric Vehicles available are:
| Make | Price Before Grants € | Range |
| BMWI3 | 45,750 | 260 |
| e-Golf | 45,550 | 300 |
| Nissan Leaf | 38,690-42,600 | 270 |
| Hyundai Iniq | 38,995 | 280 |
| Renault Zoe | 33,590-39,990 | 300 |
| Renault Twizy | 19,995 | 100 |
| Tesla Model S | 95,198-162,698 | 500 |
| Tesla Model X | 101,870 | 500 |
I did purchase the Fiat 500 and had immense fun with it. To be fair to Gerry I was trading my 13 year old Jag, but I held on to my Baubles. Did go back to a pre-loved Jag after a couple of years though.
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