The Minister for Transport and the Environment, Eamon Ryan, has announced the re-opening of a grant scheme which will allow taxi and hackney drivers to claim up to €25,000 towards the cost of a new electric vehicle.
Taxi drivers will be able to apply for grants for up to €10,000 towards the purchase of a new vehicle with an additional €2,500 available for a wheelchair accessibility conversion.
Those grants, however, double when the driver scraps an older, high mileage or high polluting petrol or diesel vehicle and makes the switch to an electric model. In such cases, drivers will be eligible for a €20,000 grant for the purchase of a new EV as well as €5,000 for an accessibility conversion. €15 million in total has been allocated for the scheme.
To be fully eligible, the applicant must be an existing taxi or hackney driver; their vehicle must be registered as a small public service vehicle (SPSV) for the previous three years and the vehicle must be within three years of its maximum permissible age or have a mileage of 300,000km or greater (as documented on an NCT certificate).
In addition to these grants, taxi and hackney drivers making the switch to an electric vehicle can avail of VRT relief of up to €5,000, a domestic charger grant of up to €600 and annual toll refunds of up to €1,000, as well as, obviously, significant savings when it comes to fuel expenses and maintenance costs.
According to the government, almost 600 drivers successfully applied for the same scheme last year with more than €11 million paid out as well as €4 million in provisional grant offers.
Commenting on the grant's reopening, Minister Ryan said:
"The electrification of the taxi fleet has been earmarked by the Department of Transport as an important component in the transition to cleaner fuels, contributing to the achievement of our national targets under the Climate Action Plan 2021 for the reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions in the transport sector."
"More and more professional taxi drivers are voting with their wallets and making the move to EVs as an efficient, sustainable and remarkably cost-effective alternative to expensive petrol and diesel."
The news has been welcomed by the taxi industry, with Fiona Brady, the head of operations and public affairs at Free Now, the taxi-hailing app saying:
"We are delighted that the Government has announced the reintroduction of its electric vehicle taxi scheme today. We saw how successful the scheme was last year in helping so many of our own driver-partners to transition to EVs. The Free Now electric fleet grew to 30 per cent of our entire nationwide taxi offering last year with support from the government scheme."
"This decision from Government," she said, "is also positive news for people across the country given the growing demand for sustainable transport options - recent data from our passengers showed that three-quarters think Ireland needs more sustainable, electric transport options in line with other European countries. And with 48 per cent more passengers choosing electric taxis in 2021 versus 2020 on the Free Now app, we anticipate continued growth in EV preference moving forward, particularly as supply of EV taxis expands."
In addition to this latest round of grants, the government says it is investing in improved recharging infrastructure for electric taxis and hackneys with some already in place, such as at Dublin and Cork airports and railway stations including Dublin Heuston, Cork Kent and Limerick Colbert. More, it says, are due to be added in the course of 2022.