Car scrappage scheme ended as target is reached

The car scrappage scheme has been withdrawn just six months into its one-year term after the 2,000 vehicle-target was reached, The Sunday Times has learnt.

A spokesman for the Finance Ministry said the government was now in the process of evaluating whether the popular scheme should be extended.

The scheme, which was only open to private individuals, paid a rebate of 15.25 per cent of a new car’s wholesale cost up to a maximum of €2,000 in return for a scrapped vehicle that was at least 10 years old.

Car importers paid €600 of the €2,000 rebate which was being offered for old vehicles in the initiative partially intended to boost car sales and reduce CO2 emissions.

New car importers are lobbying the ministry to extend the scheme because of its success, The Sunday Times is informed.

The scheme was meant to encourage the purchase of small vehicles but the parameters did not restrict the choice to city cars. Bigger and compact executive cars such as the Ford Focus and the BMW 1 Series, as well as the Ford C-Max and the Citroen Picasso family cars, fell within the parameters.

Importers of new cars witnessed a slump in sales since changes in the registration tax regime which made more customers opt for imported second-hand vehicles.

Successive Budgets have introduced different initiatives to help importers improve sales, including the reform of the car registration tax, which made new cars cheaper and second-hand cars more expensive to register, depending on their age and overall length.