VRT reduction

Yoda

According to http://oasis.gov.ie/moving_country/moving_to_ireland/importing_car_into_ireland.html

VRT Relief on flexible fuel vehicles

From 1 January 2006 vehicles capable of operating on high-grade biofuels will qualify for 50% relief on VRT. (Biofuels are fuels derived from recently living organisms or their metabolic by-products, such as manure from cows). The 50% VRT relief scheme will be introduced for a two year period from January 2006. Further details on the operation of the scheme will be available in the Finance Bill 2006.

I've bought a 1999 Škoda Octavia diesel in the UK and will be bringing it back... since diesels can make use of bio-diesel, will this relief apply to my car?

Yoda

Škoda Deutschland seems to indicate that their cars are good for high-quality biodiesel:

Kann ich Biodiesel tanken?

Alle von Škoda Auto Deutschland importierten Fabia und Superb Dieselfahrzeuge (außer Euro-4-Dieselfahrzeuge) sowie die Dieselmodelle der ersten Octavia Generation können bereits werksseitig mit Biodiesel betrieben werden. Für den Octavia der neuen Generation wird Optional gegen Aufpreis werksseitig eine Biodieselvorbereitung angeboten.

Bitte achten Sie jedoch darauf, dass Sie ausschließlich Biodiesel der Norm DIN EN 14214 RME tanken. Diese neue Norm ersetzt die bisherige Norm DIN 51 606. Kraftstoff nach der Norm DIN 14214 FAME ist für die Skoda Fahrzeuge hingegen nicht geeignet und daher herstellerseitig nicht zugelassen. Wir empfehlen Ihnen außerdem, ausschließlich auf Kraftstoffanbieter zurückzugreifen, die mit der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Qualitätsmanagement Biodiesel e.V. (AGQM) Qualitätssicherungsverträge abgeschlossen haben - dies finden Sie durch das AGQM-Logo auf der Zapfsäule ausgewiesen.

Auf diese Weise lassen sich eventuelle Verschmutzungen des Kraftstoffs und somit mögliche Beschädigungen relevanter Bauteile durch die Nutzung von Biodiesel weitestgehend ausschließen.

dts

Hey let us know if you get away with that. Not that I would buy a skoda, but a turbo diesel in any make could come under the same rule.

Yoda

It's not a question of "getting away" with something. It's a question of what the government means with regard to this entitlement.

dts

Well for me it would be how do I get a cheep car in England then only have to pay half the VRT to get it registered over here.

Yoda

Well the price of my car was competitive, even with full VRT, which is why I bought it in England. Though of course I would like to pay half of the VRT.

antoinolachtnai

Have you checked the actual finance bill? I don't think it will be published until tomorrow, but I could be wrong.

Biodiesel isn't really available in the State that I know of. You can buy PPO (pure plant oil), but that's not biodiesel. If you want to convert it into biodiesel, you need to esterise it (which you could do at home if you really wanted to). If you want to run that Skoda on unesterised PPO, you'll need to fit a special kit. Basically what the kit does, as I understand it, is to heat the oil before it reaches the engine, to reduce the viscosity.

Cuauhtemoc

From the finance bill...

‘hybrid electric vehicle’ means a vehicle that derives its motive

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power from a combination of an electric motor and an internal
combustion engine and is capable of being driven on electric
propulsion alone for a material part of its normal driving cycle;

‘flexible fuel vehicle’ means a vehicle that derives its motive
power from an internal combustion engine that is capable of

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using a blend of ethanol and petrol, where such blend contains
a minimum of 85 per cent ethanol.

(2) Where a person first registers a category A vehicle or a
category B vehicle during the period from 1 January 2006 to 31
December 2007 and the Commissioners are satisfied that the
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vehicle is—

(a) a series production hybrid electric vehicle, or
(b) a series production flexible fuel vehicle,
the Commissioners may remit or repay to that person 50 per
cent of the vehicle registration tax payable or paid in accordance

Unless i'm mistaken this rules out biodiesel???

Typically useless. Can you even buy ethanol here?

C.

antoinolachtnai

You can definitely buy ethanol. There's a factory somewhere, even. They even sell it in chemists, denatured. But it's true, there's not much of a distribution network for it.

This is a political sop for the south-east, I think. The idea is that the sugar beet crop could be used for ethanol production.

You could always make your own ethanol and adapt your own vehicle for ethanol.

http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/ethanol_motherearth/me2.html

Don't take my word for it though. Check with your mechanic and the revenue commissioners before you do this.