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Hi David,

We don’t know yet as the car hasn’t been launched on the Irish market, but we can hazard a guess at around €32-33,000, net of VRT rebates and the SEAI grant.

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Hi Andrew,

That’s a tricky one as you’ve not told us the precise cars in question. The thing is, an electric car with a price of €30,000 has probably already had the VRT rebated on it, so you won’t make as big a saving — you’ll only save the VAT, which will represent a discount of around €5,000, bringing the price down to around €25,000. 

With the hybrid, assuming it has CO₂ emissions of under 100g/km, and therefore is in the 15 per cent VRT band, you could make a huge saving. It’s a rough guess, but we reckon you’d save €4,000 worth of VAT and €3,000 worth of VRT, bringing the price down to €17,000. 

Now, these are just rough calculations, and the final, proper figures may differ, but on the face of it the hybrid model offers a better up-front saving, but then you have to work in the potential for much cheaper running costs with an electric car when it comes to fuel and servicing. 

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Hi Keiron,

The short version is we simply don’t know. Until the UK government and parliament gets its act together and either exits with a deal, or crashes out with no deal, then everything is both on and off the table. In general, it’s assumed that the UK will continue to shadow most EU regulations in the immediate period after Brexit, which might suggest that VAT and customs duty won’t apply, and it’s unlikely that VAT would be charged in any case on a second hand car that’s more than six months old. That said, the Irish Government may take a view that, if there is no deal, it may have to protect the Irish market from the ‘dumping’ of cheap imports and may apply taxes or restrictions accordingly. The short version, I’m afraid, is that we still simply don’t know, and — given the current turmoil in UK politics — probably won’t for some time. 

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Hi Katie,

OK, it’s only a rough calculation, but assuming that it’s a Civic VTEC Turbo 1.5 Sport, we reckon that’ll cost you around €2,600 in VRT. 

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Hi Con,

You can, and the good news is that you’ll get a €5,000 rebate on the cost of the VRT. The bad news is that you’ll still have to pay VAT if the car is less than six months old. The worse news is that you might struggle to find a Model 3 to import at all — there’s a big waiting list for them and second hand examples are thin on the ground.

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Hi there,

We can usually only guess at what Revenue will charge in terms of VRT (and it’s dependent on equipment levels, of course, as well), but we’d take a guess at a VRT cost of around €6,900 on that one.

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Hi Muhammad,

It’s a rough guess (you can never quite tell which way Revenue is going to go with some cars), but I’d say you’ll pay between €900 and €1,000 VRT on that.

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Hi John,

Yes, you should be able to apply for a repayment of VRT and VAT on a new car, or the residual VRT on a used car, if you are the named driver of someone who qualifies under the Disabled Drivers and Disabled Passengers Scheme. I’d start by looking at the Citizens’ Information page on this, and then contacting your local motor tax office when you’re ready to. You may also qualify for free annual motor tax. As for the allowance on a €40,000 car, that will depend on the particular model as the VRT is calculated on emissions, not price. 

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Hi Kevin,

That is a good question. And by good, I mean we haven’t a chance of being able to answer it. There are literally no Alpine A110s for sale in Ireland right now (and more’s the pity) so it’s a total guess as to what Revenue will say it’s worth. I would imagine that, for a year-old version, they’ll take the UK price, add VRT, and then knock off around 15-20 per cent for depreciation (although the Alpine’s desirability may mean that they try and claim that there is no depreciation…). That would suggest a total value of around  the €55,000 mark, but again, as I say, that’s a total guess.

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Hi Michael,

It depends on the vehicle, and what Revenue reckons the Open Market Selling Price in Ireland is. There’s a €5,000 VRT rebate on any electric car when you import it so unless the car is so expensive that it incurs VRT of more than €5,000 you won’t pay a penny.