Towards this end, Finance Minister Prof. Edward Scicluna announced the launch of the third round of the Government Grant on the Purchase of Environment-Friendly Vehicles, also known as the Car Scrapping Scheme, on Monday 10th June 2013.

“The aim of this grant scheme is to incentivise the purchase of newer and more environmentally friendly motor vehicles and at the same time reduce the number of old motor vehicles on the road,” said Prof. Scicluna.

The scheme was originally announced in the 2013 Budget, and was launched in collaboration with Transport Malta.

Prof. Scicluna noted that past schemes proved very successful, so much so that in one particular instance, a scheme’s allocation had to be extended due to the interest it received and the resulting number of applicants.

So far, after two rounds of the scheme, a total number of 5,602 benefitted from the scheme, whereas 5,166 old cars were deregistered.

However, Prof. Scicluna said that there is further room for improvement, given how by the end of 2012, the overall average age of Maltese vehicles stood at 13.86 years, while in 2011 it stood at 13.80 years.

Specifically, the average age of passenger cars in 2012 stood at 12.99 years (up from 12.90 in 2011), while the average age of goods-carrying vehicles in 2012 stood at 17.75 years (up from 17.47 in 2011).

“This shows that more needs to be done to keep ensuring that older and aging vehicles are phased out,” Prof. Scicluna said.

The newly-announced scheme will be broadly similar to the previous schemes, and will be published in the Government Gazette as from Tuesday 11th June, 2013. An allocation of €500,000 was made for such a scheme, as per the 2013 Budget Speech.

The scheme will allow a grant of €500 for applicants who purchase a new motor vehicle that meets certain criteria, whilst at the same time de-registering and scrapping a vehicle in the same category which is at least 10 years old.

Unlike past schemes, this scheme also allows grants on electric vehicles and has also been extended so as to include small vans which fall under the N1 category. The new motor vehicles must be M1 (passenger cars) or N1 (commercial vehicles) category vehicles as applicable.

This scheme shall remain in force for a maximum period of twelve months beginning on the 1st January, 2013, and shall be automatically terminated when 1,000 eligible applicants have benefited from this grant scheme.

This scheme is open to all those who did not benefit from the scheme’s previous iterations, and every eligible person or undertaking shall be entitled to only one grant under this scheme.

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– Monday, 10th June, 2013