Ireland Declares Climate Emergency

[CitizenKane]

Assuming you can make EVs affordable and sort out the infrastructure to run them, probably >99% of the population won't give a jot what their cars are powered by or how they feel to drive. The issue for car enthusiasts of course is that we are part of the <1% and (rightly so in fairness) there will be zero political will to appease that minority if they can otherwise get the majority on board.

If I was running the country, what I would do is give some sort of derogation from measures like EV-only zones or draconian tax increases to drivers who can somehow objectively demonstrate that they are car enthusiasts, e.g. by requiring them to attend a high performance driving course or something - that way these measures would still pretty much achieve what they need to because the vast majority of drivers won't do this, whilst at the same time not completely alienating car enthusiasts. But of course, there is no way anything like this would ever happen!

[CitizenKane]

Interesting reading: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/envi...tent-1.3958656

I wonder if this will seriously be considered? Would higher ethanol in petrol have an impact on performance?

[Ketron]

I wonder if this will seriously be considered? Would higher ethanol in petrol have an impact on performance?

I was actually looking at this a few weeks back, while ethanol has a lower calorific value that petrol, it has a far higher octane number, which can be used to advance timing. I suspect in a standard engine with day to day driving it would be slightly less efficient.

[eamo]

Some older cars may not be suitable for E10. This may have a huge impact on the Classic car industry. Also if E10 is left sitting in a fuel tank long enough without driving the car it can turn into goo

[318 iS Cosmos]

Some older cars may not be suitable for E10. This may have a huge impact on the Classic car industry. Also if E10 is left sitting in a fuel tank long enough without driving the car it can turn into goo

Surely not as big as the switch from leaded to unleaded? Regarding the fuel tank, I think there are additives that can be purchased to prevent this, for cars that at lying up

[CitizenKane]

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/...-you-1.3960335

"Higher annual motor tax. Two options are presented. The second would see the current rate stay the same for the two lowest motor tax bands (for cars up to 80g/km in CO2). After this, the price would rise by between €20 and €150 depending on a car’s emissions."

It's hard to tell if this is intended to apply retrospectively or just to new cars? If the former then presumably it would only apply to post-2008 cars?


"The number of tax bands for Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) will increase from 11 to 14 and the tax rates will change. The lowest rate drops to 7 per cent for cars with emissions below 50g/km and rises to 39 per cent for cars with emissions over 200g/km."

Only a 3% increase for highest band, but still obviously not great and will presumably drive up the cost of new Irish cars also.

Is it simply unwise to be considering buying an M3 in the foreseeable future?

[318 iS Cosmos]

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/...-you-1.3960335

"Higher annual motor tax. Two options are presented. The second would see the current rate stay the same for the two lowest motor tax bands (for cars up to 80g/km in CO2). After this, the price would rise by between €20 and €150 depending on a car’s emissions."

It's hard to tell if this is intended to apply retrospectively or just to new cars? If the former then presumably it would only apply to post-2008 cars?


"The number of tax bands for Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) will increase from 11 to 14 and the tax rates will change. The lowest rate drops to 7 per cent for cars with emissions below 50g/km and rises to 39 per cent for cars with emissions over 200g/km."

Only a 3% increase for highest band, but still obviously not great and will presumably drive up the cost of new Irish cars also.

Is it simply unwise to be considering buying an M3 in the foreseeable future?

Had a quick look at this report but there doesn't appear to be any reference made to the pre-08 motor tax rate?

https://assets.gov.ie/19116/c447474f...4b7a84fbed.pdf

[CitizenKane]

From that report:

"Two options are presented below which seek to strengthen the environmental rationale compared to the current passenger car motor tax regime and also seeks to reduce or reverse the structural decline in annual receipts."

It's a nice little coincidence for them that these two objectives can be so neatly aligned isn't it.

[CitizenKane]

It's also interesting to think that despite massively higher taxation on high performance/emissions cars in Ireland than in the UK, Ireland still has higher c02 emissions per capita than the UK. Does this not suggest these tax measures just don't work, or is that too simplistic?

[dergside]

Here's a link to the full document that the newspaper pieces are based on. A little light bed time reading, perhaps?

https://assets.gov.ie/19116/c447474f...4b7a84fbed.pdf