Government grant for purchase of plug-in hybrid vehicles fully taken up, Transport Malta confirms

Transport Malta on Friday confirmed that the Government grant of €11,000 for the purchase of plug-in hybrid vehicles has been fully taken-up.

In recent days, BusinessNow.mt had sent questions to the state transport agency to understand whether the Government’s budget allocation for this financial incentive to purchase a plug-in hybrid vehicle had been exhausted. While awaiting replies, Transport Malta on Friday publicly announced that the grant has indeed been fully taken up.

“For this reason, the scheme will be available only for cars ordered by 31st May 2022,” Transport Malta said in its statement.

The €11,000 grant will be paid to all plug-in hybrid vehicles ordered until 31st of May 2022, “even if for any reason the vehicle is registered later this year or in 2023”.

“Individuals purchasing a vehicle may benefit from a range of other incentives including the €11,000 grant for fully electric vehicles, “which is the most generous in the EU and which is crucial for the decarbonisation of the land transport sector in Malta”. This grant increases to €12,000 if an older vehicle is scrapped.

This year’s grant, which increased from €8,000 in 2021 to €11,000 in 2022 and was announced last October via the Government’s budget for this year.

With charging infrastructure identified as the greatest stumbling block to EV adoption by both owners and importers, Government is aiming to increase the number of charging pillars (confirmed to be around 1,200 over the next three years during the Budget speech) and incentivise home charging by offering advantageous electricity rates at off-peak times, according to a draft strategy for the sector.

Last month, BusinessNow.mt received access to a state-commissioned report produced by PwC, which found that Malta is forecast to fall short of its ambitious goal to fully phase out petrol and diesel fuelled vehicles by 2050.

With regards to the impact Government grants have on achieving such goals, the full take-up has clearly been popular with drivers interested in at least partly going electric, however a major complaint has been in the way the grant works.

A prospective buyer must pay the full sum to a car dealer, which applies for the grant, and the Government then reimburses the buyer the €11,000 sum.