Minister floating scrappage scheme?

lalababa

Read some news that the Minister after having a chat with " sector steakholders" might be considering some kind of scheme to scrap older ice in favour of Evs.

The mind really does boggle. The whole point of evs is to cut down on carbon emissions. And the minister is getting his ear bent from car dealers. It must be a wind up?

randomname2005

The goal isn't to cut down emissions, just cut down Irish emissions. Less diesel/petrol cars on the road means lower carbon credits. Doesn't matter what happens on the other side of the world.

Edit, was also in the news back in 2024

https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/elections-2024/fine-gael-plan-for-new-car-scrappage-scheme-to-boost-ev-uptake-puts-party-at-odds-with-coalition-partners/a478570786.html

But brought up again recently.

https://www.thejournal.ie/ev-scrappage-scheme-6729669-Jun2025/

prawnsambo

One of those steakholders

machiavellianme

Ah yes, the eternal push to replace perfectly functional older ICE with scrappy EVs. I doubt many can afford to buy from their pockets so it'll be good news for the bankers and dealers. Whatever happened to drive the most efficient car you can afford until it stops working?

Akrasia

There are a lot of ice cars that are driving around but are not 'perfectly functional'

I encounter several disgusting smoke belchers on the road every day

mikeecho

If a product is good, you don't need to push hard to sell it, it'll sell itself.

prawnsambo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123536209#Comment_123536209

Resistance to change is a thing. As evidenced already in this thread.

Bishop of hope

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123536192#Comment_123536192

Aye, and that's before you take their cars into consideration! Power stations too of course need to get a mention, how are they mostly powered?

Interesting topic though, given the economic situation with rents and house prices and rising consumer prices. Hard pressed workers are finding it hard without having to consider the consequences of not going electric.

Akrasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123536265#Comment_123536265

The worst polluting coal power stations have been scrapped already (or are about to be scrapped (moneypoint)

Do you like inhaling black soot?

mrslancaster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123536192#Comment_123536192

How do they pass an NCT if they are not functional, genuine question. Are all those cars you see every day driving around with no nct?

Bishop of hope

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123536278#Comment_123536278

I currently drive a hybrid myself, a recent purchase, 2nd hand. I do a fair bit of driving and load carrying equipment wise and couldn't find an electric vehicle I could afford to manage what I do. But I'm not judgemental on what others drive in honesty. I'd say most drive what they can afford. I've been inhaling "Soot" all my life I suppose, so I claim immunity on that one.

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123536209#Comment_123536209

Bull…

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123536265#Comment_123536265

Largely by gas and renewables. Which are a hell of a lot cleaner than burning petrol or diesel.

Also ICE cars emit exhaust fumes at street level in cities where people are walking , sitting, eating , drinking which is far more harmful.

Look around at the old ston building a they are all dirty from exhaust fumes

NIMAN

Oh great, another EV bashing thread.

Sam Russell

Why do lobby groups get publicity for nonsense ideas?

If people could live close to work, then their commute would be much reduced. If the PT was more efficient, with P&R for commuters, then CO2 would be reduced. If there were lower rents, then more could afford EVs. If the EVs were cheaper, then more would sell.

So instead of a scrappage scheme (which benefits car dealers, car producers, and banks), build more homes in places where people want to live, at prices people can afford to buy or rent. That would not only reduce CO2, but would make life so much better for everyone.

Imagine the CO2 impact of building all those heavy EVs, and scrapping all those functioning cars. Who comes up with these crackpot ideas?

Bishop of hope

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123536337#Comment_123536337

Look , fair enough. I'm not arguing against EVs, but most can't afford them and the infrastructure for them isn't yet at where it needs to be either. It's mostly not the fault of consumers that there isn't more of them on the road. As they get older and more available in the 2nd hand market I would expect them to become more popular.

Red Silurian

They had a scrappage scheme in 2009 and 2010 of €1500 to take a 10+ year old car off the road and replace it with a lower emissions car that spewed out less than 140g/km, effectively a diesel or a hybrid. It worked to get many many more diesels on the road, which at the time was considered a good thing.

This government, however, have been dragging their heels on anything EV related in the past so I don't see it happening

machiavellianme

Do they get from A to B?

If so, they're perfectly functional. They meet the task for which they are designed.

Idbatterim

Yeah, maybe build a metro in Dublin and invest in fot for purpose public transport, instead... oh and ban all new diesel sales...

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123536496#Comment_123536496

There is a partial ban already in place, currently the limit manufacturers can sell an emitting car is 100g/km. This will drop to 50 in 2030 and 0 in 2035

Open to correction but I believe this is an average figure, so they could sell a 200g/km car and an zero emissions EV and be alright

A Dublin metro is never going to happen, it should happen, no doubt, but like the M20, the Cork tram system and the Galway ring road, it's more politically palatable to talk about doing something than actually doing something

Buddy Bubs

Im personally more interested in the BIK exemption but just thinking now a scrappage figure will need to be pretty high, something like 1000 or 2000 prob won't cut it nowadays.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123536556#Comment_123536556

€1500 was the grant for diesels back in 2009. Almost everybody I knew in the mid 2010s drove a diesel. A bigger grant would obviously push more EVs on to our roads, not sure if it would be needed or not though

lalababa

Would a scrappage scheme really push many people into a new ev..that weren't going to get one anyway? As most evs seem expensive anyway. It would depend on the value of the scheme I suppose. Perhaps 5000 would see a bit of movement from people not generally considering changing to a new ev. Then you might have ofcourse perfectly functional ices going to scrap even 1.0L petrols etc.

bazz26

There is already a SEAI grant on many new EVs. Many of them have lower prices now than they were a few years back too. There are other factors why many people are not buying into them and money off the price of a new one won't fix that.

BrianD3

A quick google gives figure of 22000 cars sold under the 1995-1997 scrappage scheme and around 18000 under the 2010 to 2011 scheme, these stats don't cover the full duration of each scheme but are close enough. The 2010-2011 figures would undoubtedly have been worse had the likes of Renault not been giving large scrappage discounts on top of the state one.

A scrappage scheme to incentivise EVs will do fcuk all to help us meet our greenhouse gas targets and will result in servicable vehicles being disposed of.

MrMusician18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123536288#Comment_123536288

It is a wonder. Every day I see cars that have tail ends that are black with soot, frequently accompanied by clearly broken suspensions

purplefields

I did the scrappage scheme in '97

I probably won't do any other one, unless it's really, really good - and they haven't just increased the prices SEAI style.

Reason is cost. Car prices have gone up hugely, but so has the cost of everything else as well. I'll likely hang onto my 15 year old 250k small petrol

Idbatterim

If they are interested in lowering vehicle emissions, why not insist, all new regular taxis, you know, the vehicles actually doing large mileage, are electric? They want to aim this scrappage scheme at people doing a hundred km a week... lol!

bazz26

Taxi drivers already get significant grants towards buying new EVs. However forcing all of them all into debt to buy a brand new EV will just force many out of the industry or avoid it. The big stick approach won't work.

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123537859#Comment_123537859

I’m not saying forcing taxis into EV’s is a good idea, but for a taxi driver to upgrade their old car into a newish hybrid that has 5+ years worth of eligibility for PSV use it would surely cost about €10k or so. Not far off what it would cost to buy a brand new EV after all the grants. And I imagine most taxi drivers have a few thousand in savings anyway so they wouldn’t necessarily need to get into debt for the new car

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123537070#Comment_123537070

EVs aren't expensive, most of them are the same price or cheaper than their ICE equivalents

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123537271#Comment_123537271

About 17k new EVs were sold last year, you would need a very substantial grant to push that higher in fairness… There's other issues need sorting as well like how do people charge if they don't have a driveway?

There's a lot they need to do and I'm not sure I have the answers