Romania Doubles Incentives For Plug-In Electric Vehicles
In a bid to help reduce the country’s growing air pollution problems, the government of Romania has reportedly doubled the incentives on offer for buyers of plug-in electric vehicles.
Following the changes — creating the “Rabla Plus” program out of the earlier “Rabla” program — the government in the country is now offering up to €11,000 towards the purchase of new plug-in electric vehicles (EVs).
The earlier Rabla program provided EV buyers with as much as €5,000 in incentives, which was itself building on an earlier incentives program offering EV buyers up to €3,700 in incentives.
The new Rabla Plus incentives program is slated to run until 2019. The new program will also provide buyers of non-plug-in hybrids with up to €1,450 in incentives.
Green Car Reports provides more: “Despite the incentives, the most recent European Alternative Fuel Observatory report notes that only about 160 plug-in electric cars were registered in Romania last year.”
“Local media Economica.net projects that up to 100,000 Romanians will take advantage of the higher rebates… However, the Romanian government is facing a similar challenge in promoting electric cars to one in the US. The lack of charging infrastructure has put a damper on buyers’ enthusiasm — and it’s far worse in the smaller country.
“A program to boost the number of charging stations was launched in 2011 with very little success. 5 years later, a mere 10 stations were up and running. Last year, the government launched a new program to support the installation of charging stations in certain public institutions. Its goal is to grow their network to at least 20,000 charging points by 2020.”
In related news, the government of Romania has also now expanded the country’s “cash-for-clunkers” program to incentivize the purchase of electric vehicles following the turning in of old, heavily polluting vehicles.
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