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Hi Pamela,

Assuming you mean electrically folded mirrors, those were standard from Comfort Plus up.

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Hi Seamus,

If you're going to use the van for any private reason at all then it will have to be taxed privately. The rate then goes by the old engine size system, regardless of the age of the van.

Read our Buying a commercial vehicle for private use feature for more details.

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The short answer Joe is that we don’t actually know.

Officially, the Government is saying that the VRT rebate for electric cars will remain, but will be effectively replaced by the new seven per cent VRT band for the lowest-emissions vehicles. As you point out, that relief is reduced when the car has a price tag of above €40,000 — it chops the VRT rebate in half. Stray above €50,000 and there’s no more rebate at all. For now, the SEAI grant of €5,000 remains in place but that will be phased out over time. How much time and how much phasing? We don’t know yet.

The zero-rate Benefit-in-Kind tax remains in place up to the end of 2023, and will quite possibly be renewed in the Budget for that year, but no announcement has yet been made. 

As far as the rebate is concerned, most of the Irish importers are now scrambling to try and adjust their prices, and indeed are in negotiation with the European and global head offices so that, come January, the current rebate-inclusive prices will remain more or less in place under the new system.

Basically, and not for the first time, the whole motor tax system has been thrown up into the air and we’re all scrambling to understand it fully before it comes crashing back down.

Keep an eye on our How Much VRT is Paid in Ireland? feature for more as it happens.

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Hi Jim,

If you're talking about a regular combustion-engined petrol or diesel car and their 12-volt battery, then yes, assuming the alternator is working properly, it will be driven by the engine and will charge up the battery so long as the electrical load from the battery is less than it can supply.

If you're referring to plug-in hybrids, and their high-voltage lithium-ion batteries, then it's not as simple as that and it differs per model and even depends on the driving mode. Most will, by default, use the battery to the fullest before starting up the engine and then may not charge the battery much except for kinetic energy recovered during braking. The idea is that you plug them in to charge up the battery regularly for maximum efficiency. However, most of them have a setting to override that and actively charge up the battery using the engine. It's usually activated by a button or option in the infotainment menu.

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Hi Kieran,

Our understanding is that the €5,000 VRT rebate will continue for electric cars with an OMSP (Open Market Selling Price) of under €40,000 and will be tapered from that to zero rebate for cars with an OMSP of over €50,000. Hence, most of the cars you mention shouldn't see much of a price change, though we don't yet have sight of how the rebate changes for cars with an OMSP of between €40,000 and €50,000.

For reference:

The Mazda MX-30 currently costs from €30,495 including SEAI grant and VRT rebate.

The Peugeot e-208 currently costs from €27,334 including SEAI grant and VRT rebate.

The Honda e currently costs from €29,995 including SEAI grant and VRT rebate.

The Nissan Leaf currently costs from €29,890 including SEAI grant and VRT rebate.

The Tesla Model 3 currently costs from €47,990 including SEAI grant and VRT rebate.

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Hi Philip,

The T5 hybrid version of the Volvo XC40 (read our review of it here) is front-wheel drive only, as you said, while the XC60 T8 hybrid (here's our review of that) has an electric motor on the rear axle, giving the car all-wheel drive at times. 

As to your second question, lane-keeping aid/assist technology is quite different to what Volvo calls Pilot Assist. The former can warn a driver if they're wandering out of lane and assist with a small steering correction if needs be, while Pilot Assist is an advanced for of active cruise control that also helps with steering inputs.

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Hi Sean,

There’s no reason that it wouldn’t be possible to import a Citroen Ami to Ireland. However, it is only being produced in left-hand drive with no plans currently in place for right-hand-drive models. It’s also worth noting that the Ami doesn’t have a very powerful electric motor and has a top speed of only 45km/h making it only useful in cities and urban areas. 

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Hi Alan,

The problem here is that you’re trying to do some of it through the company and some of it yourself, which to be honest doesn’t really work. First off, if you want to use the company (or individual’s) VAT number then the car is going to have to be registered to them, not to you. In theory you can tax a vehicle commercially without a VAT number, but in practice it’s tricky, and if you get caught using it for any social, domestic, or pleasure use then there are big fines ahoy. 

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Hi Stephen,

Currently, there isn’t one. Volvo Cars Ireland has confirmed to us that it hasn’t yet made many plans to introduce the Polestar brand or models here as yet, although given the huge success that Tesla has had in Ireland, we’d be surprised if it doesn’t happen at some stage. Most likely, it’ll be a combination of waiting to launch a couple of core Volvo electric models (the battery-powered XC40 especially) and then, once initial European and US roll-outs have taken place for Polsetar, then they’ll start to think about us.

If we had to hazard a guess, we’d say 2022 at the earliest. 

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Hi Mark,

The first generation 330e has an electric-only range, on a fully-charged battery, of 40km (about 30km in real-world use) and the new, and current, version is claimed to be able to get 65km out of a full charge. Here are links to our reviews of both, which may give you more information:

2017 BMW 330e review

2020 BMW 330e review