Scrapping our old car for an electric

In my opioion shelling 20k-25k for a car to do less than 200km per week is madness. Unless the old car is banjaxed keep that going.

Servicing charges on your older car may also be a consideration. Also the ease with which you can charge at home.

MG4 Urban worth a look? 23k at present for 43kWh battery - would be another 5k off with scrappage deal

It's not always about the figures. If it was, nobody would ever buy a new car. If you want a new car, get the new car. The twenty year old car will eventually need replacing so might be as good a time as any.

Would you need to charge electric car to a low % from full if doing very little local mileage? Is this not an issue anymore now with all EVs that you cannot charge to full and leave it sit for e week or more?

no.

If the ID.Polo isn’t likely to be delivered until November, is there a possibility the scheme will have ended if there is big interest ?
Maybe proof of order and subsequent paperwork submitted/approved will secure the grant ?

@OP- it wouldn’t be my first choice. It will heavily depreciate compared to rivals; as you get used to an EV, you’ll want to drive it more and more over ICE.
With grant if you could stretch to 30k or even 25k you could get far better cars, with much better range and quality and resale value

I reckon you’ll be keeping this longterm? Then my advice would be buy once buy well.

Daca spring not offered in Ireland since this years mid life revamp.

Jumping 20 years in tech is well worth it especially as you enter retirement. Id a parent with a 20 year old Yaris that recently changed and even small things like power steering and reversing beeps make life so much easier.

So I don't see an issue going new as the 5k grant makes a new EV very affordable.

The main question is if you can afford to treat yourself and not impact other areas. You've worked long and hard enough to get to this point. If you can afford it go for it.

Buying a new car at least once is a life event.

As said above, if you what you really want is to buy a new car, then go for it! There's a world of difference between driving an EV and an old combustion car.

If you're taking a more hard-headed approach and are more interested in trying to get the best value for money than the thrill of a new car, it may be worth looking at a 3 or 4 year old EV with a longer warranty, such as a Kia (7 years), MG (7 years) or Hyundai (5 years entire car/8 years battery & drive train). By that age, like any car they'll have lost about 50% of their value in depreciation, which is a lot more of a reduction than the €5k from this scheme - but they'll still have virtually the same level of warranty cover as brand-new cars from many other manufacturers, maybe even more. Just plucking figures out of the air here, but if your plan is to keep this car for a long time as well, then would getting a used one e.g. for €21k matter more to you than being the first owner of a brand-new one for €32k under the scrappage scheme?

Pretty much all of the EVs have an 8 year battery capacity warranty to 160k. Tesla also warrants the drive units and inverters etc. until 160/192 depending on the RWD/AWD on Model 3/Y and until 240k for the Model S. So the second hand EVs are a very safe choice as long as they are within the warranty limit.