The motor trade has slammed the government’s decision to abolish the €2,500 grant for Plug-In Hybrid Vehicles from the end of December 2021.

Trade body SIMI described the timing of the announcement as “shocking and deplorable”.

In July 2021, the PHEV SEAI grant was halved €5,000 to €2,500. PHEVs ordered up until 30 June 2021 could avail of the full grant as long as the cars were registered within four months of the application for the grant.

With the latest announcement, the cut-off date is 31 December 2021 for the €2,500 grant. The issue for car dealers is that they have thousands of forward orders for PHEV vehicles lined up for January 2022 registrations.

“In many cases this purchase would have included a finance arrangement which also may require renegotiation,” said SIMI direcctor general Brian Cooke (pictured).

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SIMI says that  7,660 PHEV cars have been sold year to date, and can dealers were expecting to shift c.11,000 PHEV units through 2022.

Cooke added: “This is a terrible decision, which is anti-consumer and anti-environment, only adding to the cost for the customer making a better environmental decision.

“PHEVs are an important stepping stone to going fully electric, particularly in parts of rural Ireland where this is a lack of charging infrastructure. The Climate Action Plan hopes to have 94,000 PHEVs on our roads by 2025 and 290,000 by 2030. The removal of these incentives undermines this plan and runs counter to the aim of reducing emissions.

“While we accept supports cannot be in place forever, it is way too early to remove this grant. It is particularly unfair to consumers and the industry who have ordered cars for 2022 in expectation of this support continuing.”

The Department of Transport stated that any PHEV or BEV (above the €60k value threshold) which has an existing grant offer and was due to be delivered in 2021 but has met unforeseen delays due to semi-conductor shortage, may avail of an extension to 31 March 2022.

This extension will be available to both private motorists and eSPSV (taxi) drivers who have grant offers in the system at the moment.

“Grant applicants should contact the SEAI in relation to private motorist grants, or the NTA for eSPSV grants, to arrange for this extension in relation to vehicles purchased in 2021,” an official stated.

Transport minister Eamon Ryan said the arrival of long range, fully electric, vehicles on the market means that range anxiety can become a thing of the past.

“While Plug-in Hybrids provided a part-electric solution for motorists who took longer journeys or were concerned about EV range, they were a compromise in terms of both emissions and air quality. Now that range anxiety has been addressed by manufacturers, we will focus our Exchequer resources on fully electric vehicles,” Ryan added.