A weight tax for SUVs is on the table for Budget 2026, according to Government briefings.
It is expected the tax would be modelled off a similar penalty already in place in France, which is based off a cars weight.
Director General of the Society of the Irish Motor Industry Brian Cook told Lunchtime Live that some “larger saloon cars would also be captured by this”.
“VRT (Vehicle Registration Tax) on a combustion engine car averages about €7,000 – so our system that we currently have already does capture the weight in many cases,” he said.
“I think the Department of Finance are concerned because as we move to electric cars, the VRT take will actually reduce.
“The difference in VRT between a combustion engine car and an electric car is about €3,500.
“So, they’re concerned about that drop in revenue.”
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Mr Cook said that he is unsure if this proposal will be included in this budget, but he would expect it to be introduced in the near future.
“If we look at the TSG (Tax Strategy Group) papers, they’re strategy, and a lot of them don’t actually end up in the budget,” he said.
“However, you see a pattern, and we’ve had this weight-based pitch, I think in the last three or four TSG papers.
“So, I think it’s probably on the table for this budget, probably more likely to happen maybe in ‘27 or ’28 - but it’s certainly on the table for discussion.”
According to Mr Cook, “it’s important where [the Government] put the threshold in it” in order to avoid penalising “what is a standard car”.
Main image: A row of new Ford Edge SUV vehicles at a car dealership in Columbia, Maryland on April 13, 2018.
