The program's innovations include providing additional support for multi-child families to buy seven-seater electric cars or externally chargeable hybrids. The planned support for this type of new vehicle will be EUR 9,000, while for a seven-seater used electric car – EUR 4,500.
As part of the program, KEM plans to increase support from €1,000 to €2,000 for scrapping old vehicles powered by petrol, diesel, or gas. This condition will apply to all residents who intend to purchase an electric or hybrid car by transferring their old internal combustion engine car to a processing company.
The existing program requires a resident to purchase an electric car or hybrid car of his or her choice within six months from the date of scrapping the old vehicle (after issuing the vehicle liquidation certificate of the processing company). In order to facilitate the purchase of electric cars and hybrid cars, it is planned to set 12 months instead of six months.
The support program, an instrument for auctioning emission allowances, has been available to the public since March 2022. More than 1,550 electric and hybrid cars have been purchased in two years with the funding of this program of EUR 6.3 million. This is about 22% of the total number of electric cars in Latvia.
