The short version: the ICE2EV scrappage scheme — €5,000 toward a new electric car for scrapping an old petrol or diesel — opened on 1 July 2026 and closed the same morning. Its €10 million pilot fund was fully subscribed in roughly 75 minutes. It is not accepting applications and no reopening has been confirmed. What remains is the €3,500 SEAI grant, VRT relief and the €300 home charger grant: about €6,600 of State support at best.
One clock is still ticking, and it is the one that matters most. VRT relief on electric cars ends on 31 December 2026. A second, sooner deadline: the SEAI grant's price cap drops from €60,000 to €50,000 on 31 July 2026. Let's break down what is actually claimable.
What happened to the €5,000 scrappage scheme
ICE2EV (Internal Combustion Engine to Electric Vehicle) was a €10 million SEAI-administered pilot funded by the Climate Action Fund, announced in June 2026. It offered €5,000 toward a new battery-electric car for anyone scrapping a petrol or diesel registered in 2013 or earlier, stacking with the €3,500 SEAI grant for €8,500 off at the point of sale.
It opened for applications on the morning of 1 July 2026 on a first-come, first-served basis, capped at roughly 2,000 cars. Demand was immediate: the fund was fully subscribed within about 75 minutes and SEAI closed the scheme the same day. The Department of Transport and SEAI are reviewing the pilot — uptake, emissions impact and value for money — before deciding whether to run a further wave. There is no confirmed reopening date.
If a second wave is announced, the original eligibility rules are the likely starting point, though nothing is confirmed:
| Requirement | Detail (as it applied in the 2026 pilot) |
|---|---|
| Age of car scrapped | Registered 2013 or earlier (13+ years old) |
| Fuel type scrapped | Petrol or diesel |
| Ownership | Owned for at least 12 months |
| Tax & insurance | Taxed and insured at the time of applying |
| NCT | Not expired more than 6 months before applying |
| New car | A new BEV — not used, not a hybrid |
The €3,500 SEAI grant — still here, still the main event
The SEAI purchase grant is unchanged at €3,500 for a private buyer on a new BEV, and it is unaffected by the scrappage closure. It is deducted by the dealer from your invoice, so you pay €3,500 less rather than claiming anything back.
- It applies to new cars with a full price between €14,000 and €60,000.
- That €60,000 cap drops to €50,000 on 31 July 2026 — a BEV priced above €50,000 bought in August gets no purchase grant at all.
- Used and imported EVs get €0. This grant is new-car only.
VRT relief — worth less than the headline suggests
This is the figure most articles get wrong, including an earlier version of this one. You will see "VRT relief of up to €5,000" quoted everywhere, including by Revenue. That €5,000 is a statutory ceiling, and no car actually reaches it, because relief can never exceed the VRT you would otherwise pay.
A battery-electric car sits in the lowest CO₂ band, so its VRT is 7% of the Open Market Selling Price. On a €40,000 BEV that is €2,800 — so the relief is €2,800, not €5,000. This is not our interpretation; it is Revenue's own worked example on its electric vehicles page.
- Up to €40,000 OMSP: relief equals the full VRT due, so VRT effectively falls to €0. The most this can ever be is €2,800.
- €40,000–€50,000 OMSP: the relief tapers down.
- Above €50,000 OMSP: no relief at all. A €55,000 EV gets nothing.
- It ends on 31 December 2026.
You do not apply for VRT relief — Revenue applies it automatically at registration, so it is already inside the Irish price you are quoted. It is not a further discount to subtract. Its end date is still the real deadline for value: a €40,000 EV bought in early 2027 could cost around €2,800 more than the identical car bought before New Year's Eve 2026.
And one more: the €300 home charger grant
The SEAI home charger grant of €300 helps cover installing a charge point at your home. It is small next to the headline numbers, but unlike the purchase grant it applies whether your EV is new or used — so it is the one support a used-EV buyer can still claim.
A worked example: what a real buyer gets
Say you are buying a new BEV with a list price of €32,000. Here is the honest arithmetic:
| Item | Amount | How it reaches you |
|---|---|---|
| New BEV list price | €32,000 | — |
| SEAI purchase grant | −€3,500 | Deducted by the dealer from your invoice |
| VRT relief (7% of €32,000) | €2,240 | Already inside the €32,000 price |
| Home charger grant | €300 | Claimed from SEAI after installation |
| Total State support | €6,040 | Of which €3,500 is cash off the price |
So you pay about €28,500 out the door on a €32,000 car, plus €300 back on your charger. The absolute maximum any buyer can reach is about €6,600, and it happens at an OMSP of exactly €40,000, where full relief and the 7% ceiling meet. Above €50,000 the relief vanishes and total support falls to €3,800. Want the figure for a specific car? Run it through our EV grants calculator.
Then the running costs get better
- Motor tax: €120 a year. A BEV sits in the lowest band — among the cheapest motor tax in the country.
- Charging from around €0.10/kWh on a night or EV tariff. A full overnight charge costs a few euro, not the price of a forecourt fill.
- No NCT until year four, same as any new car, and far fewer moving parts to service — no oil changes, no timing belts, no exhaust.
The deadlines that still matter
- 31 July 2026 — the SEAI grant's price cap drops from €60,000 to €50,000. Above that ceiling, no purchase grant.
- 31 December 2026 — VRT relief ends. Worth up to about €2,800 on a €40,000 BEV; from 1 January 2027 new BEVs pay full VRT.
- 1 July 2026 — ICE2EV scrappage opened and closed. This deadline has passed; the scheme was fully subscribed on its opening morning.
How much is a new EV anyway?
Cheaper than most people assume, and the grants bite hardest at the affordable end. As listed in mid-2026, new BEVs started from around €16,990 after the SEAI grant (the Dacia Spring), with the BYD Dolphin Surf from around €17,985 and the Hyundai Inster from around €18,995. Step up to a roomier hatch like the MG4 and you were looking at from around €26,995. Manufacturer pricing moves, so confirm the current list price with the dealer.
You can browse electric cars on Autoza right now — filter by county, range, and budget, and ask Mark, our buyer AI, anything: which EV suits a 40km commute, what a model really costs after grants, or which listings near you qualify.
The bottom line
The scrappage window came and went in 75 minutes, and that is worth knowing before you walk into a showroom expecting €5,000 that is not there. What is genuinely available is still meaningful: €3,500 off at the dealer, VRT relief worth up to about €2,800 already built into the price, €300 toward a charger, and €120 motor tax. The relief is the one with a real deadline — it ends on 31 December 2026.
Start here: browse electric cars · calculate your exact grants · read the full SEAI grant explainer.
By The Autoza Team. Updated 25 July 2026 to record the closure of the ICE2EV scrappage scheme and to correct the VRT relief figures against Revenue's published rules and worked examples. Always confirm current eligibility and amounts with the SEAI and your dealer before you buy.
