EV tolls discount may end Dec 31 2023

I think it would be unfair to extend for existing owners if new EV owners are not allowed the same benefits.

How much was it costing the government annually?

Hopefully whatever savings they make from removing the subsidy will be put into improving charging infrastructure.

The scheme always had a limit of 50,000 vehicles from the outset. If it has reached this number, it does not necessarily mean that it will be finished out at the end of the year. I thought it would keep going for as long as there was money in the "pot". Wasn't there something like €5 million set aside for this scheme originally?

I don't find this limit to be unfair for new EV owners. A lot of us who became EV owners in the last few years missed out on the free public charging that was out there and I never considered it unfair. Incentives like this are to encourage adoption, if you don't adopt (for whatever reason) while the incentive is in place then that is just life. These things come and go all the time.

Some people got variable rate mortgages years ago, and had low rates for years. A few years later there were no tracker mortgages available.

Sometimes that's the way it goes.

I've changed cars recently can I de-register old car bringing the count to 49,999 and register my new car bringing the tally back to 50,000 ??? :)

I doubt if the requirements will change as long as HGVs are diesel powered.

Disappointing that they’ve decided not to extend it but it was probably costing too much. Tolls have gone up significantly since it was introduced. It doesn’t say much for the influence the Green Party have in government.

I only got a tag and added mine a month or so ago and only got a tag in the first place because of the savings. I don't use the tolls apart from the M50 often enough to warrant otherwise. You'd think that they could have told me at the time!

There's now no logical sense in offering discounts on tolls for EVs, makes no difference if the Green Party has a total majority in government.

At this stage, when we have <5% of EVs out of the total fleet, this is a despicable, chaotic and outright moronic move by the governement. This has a very high ROI for the government in terms of supporting transition to EVs vs how much it costs - it costs peanuts but it's a nice perk for the EV owners.

We see the government scaling back the already feeble and malnurished incentives while we're only in the early adopters stage (few % penetration). FYI - Norway started scaling back incentives when they reached 70% EV sales and 20% EVs out of the total fleet. This is a sensible pragmatic policy. What the Irish government doing is plain stupid and can't be even called policy. Incentives are being slashed but polluting cars (primarily diesel) aren't taxed to offset that. So what will drive the EV adoption exactly? There's too little carrot and no stick essentially.

Where can I complain about this? 😀

I would have preferred to see no grants except for home charging units- certainly not money off new cars - it provided a false economy for a while and didn’t encourage car companies to incentivise - the sooner we stop wasting money on these stupid “incentives” the sooner car companies will be forced to reduce prices.

Roughly the same amount they are giving RTE next year!!

Decentralisation is the way forward. Plenty very quiet towns and small cities here.

TBH, I bought my first EV, in 2016, to reduce my motoring costs

Subsidy on Tolls Ends end of 2023

Less road tax, road tax while still low, possible that might change, there is a suggestion of increased tax based on vehicle weight

Reduced servicing costs, vs a petrol car, my experience service costs (with Hyundai) have increased

Cost of EVS has shot up, and its possible will go up more , if Europe implements a tariff on Chinese cars being sold in Europe

Outside of our control, electricity costs has increased globally

Any other country in Europe has 0 motor tax equivalent. That an EV is taxed 120 pa here and dirty poisoinous diesel taxed at 200 is completely unacceptable and insane.

Slapping tarriffs for EVs would be a suicide for European automotive that can't compete (in low-medium segment, BMW is fine). The only result of that would be the Chinese automakers setting up joint ventures in Europe, especially East and South of Europe, to avoid tarrrifs and transport costs. It's a delaying tactic and I belive the Chinese will set up joint ventures anyway, just like the Japanese and then Koreans did.

From the ZEVI page

"Government investment for electric vehicles will continue to rebalance towards supporting EV charging infrastructure. This change aligns with similar polices in European nations, where countries including Norway, Germany and France have begun to curb vehicle subsidies and government investment in EVs is moving towards infrastructure."

It is a hit, I use the M3 everyday (both tolls). The cost of tolls now will be 34 euro per week for work commuting. That is on a par with my weekly electric cost for the commute. I am annoyed, but I knew this was going to end sometime, so I didn't factor it in when purchasing the ev. Still it was a nice bonus. And before anyone asks I am not in a position to move closer to work or vice versa.

Isn't the toll just for the bridge, not the whole M50?

Is it any different to the M25 and the Dartford Crossing?

For a few years when on the way to France, I used to think the Dartford Crossing was the same price as the M6 toll, so I'd choose to go West and South around London instead of North and East 🙂.

It's much the same in terms of distance...if anything slightly quicker as you're avoiding the more populated north and east areas of London as opposed to large stretches of Surrey, Sussex and Kent when travelling anti-clockwise.

Elections coming up in May, hold your politicians to account at the door when they come knocking

If it's not in the parties manifesto then your local politician can't do anything. If it's in the parties manifesto they can just ignore it like most of the things they put in their manifestos.