Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development (VARAM) offers to promote the purchase of electric cars by allocating 2250 euros or 4500 euros to a natural person for the purchase of electric cars. In total, it is planned to allocate 10 million euros for this purpose.
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MEPRD points out that transport is the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions and accounts for almost a third or 29% of Latvia’s total emissions. in the same way Road Safety Directorate information shows that in total electric vehicles make up only 0.2% or 1349 of the vehicles registered in Latvia, while less than 70% are diesel vehicles and 27% are vehicles equipped with petrol engines.
The Ministry added that in the future the decarbonisation of the transport sector will be largely related to its electrification, therefore a solution has been developed in Latvia to promote the use of electric cars, providing financial support to individuals wishing to purchase an electric car.
The MEPRD pointed out that support for new electric cars in the European Union averages € 6,000, ranging from € 2,000 in Finland to € 10,000 in Romania. Support is also provided for externally chargeable hybrid cars.
The Ministry is proposing to hold an open tender “Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Transport Sector – Support for the Purchase of Zero-Emission and Low-Emission Vehicles”. Within this framework, the project applicant or project implementer will be a merchant, but the beneficiary will be a natural person who will be able to purchase no more than one car within the project to ensure the mobility of household members. All project applicants will enter into project implementation agreements with the Environmental Investment Fund.
After signing the project agreement, the resident will have the right to purchase the chosen electric car or externally chargeable hybrid car from the merchant. In the case of the purchase of a new electric car, the state support will be 4,500 euros, but in the case of a used electric car or externally chargeable hybrid car – 2,250 euros.
“For example, a citizen visits car showroom X and wants to buy a new electric car” Y “worth € 30,000 with value added tax (VAT). Using the provided state support, the citizen will be able to buy this electric car “Y” for 25,500 euros with VAT, “explained MEPRD.
The selling price of electric cars in the basic set will not exceed 60,000 euros. MEPRD explained that this price was set to exclude premium electric vehicles, such as the Porsche Taycan, Jaguar I-PACE, Audi e-tron and Mercedes Benz EQC 400 4MATIC, from the scope of the aid. , according to the Ministry, is most likely chosen by the most solvent section of the public, who could in principle purchase this type of vehicle without state support.
The Ministry also acknowledged that more than 40 electric car models from at least 15 car brands can be purchased in Latvia, thus the choice of vehicle according to the technical parameters and price is wide enough.
The funding available within the tender is planned to amount to 10 million euros from the Emission Allowance Auction Instrument. Within the framework of the tender, natural persons could purchase approximately 3,300 low-emission and zero-emission vehicles in two years.
It has already been reported that the deputies of the Saeima faction of the Greens and Farmers Union (ZZS) have submitted a request to the Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš (JV), inviting explain the government’s strategy to reduce the greenhouse gas effect not only in transport, but also in other sectors and the economy as a whole, the portal “Delfi” learned in the association.
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