€100,000s off FCEVs | Irish government opens subsidy programme for hydrogen-powered heavy-duty vehicles

The Irish government has opened up applications for a new subsidy scheme that could offer hundreds of thousands of euros towards the purchase of hydrogen-powered heavy-duty vehicles such as trucks and buses.

The Zero Emissions Heavy Duty Vehicle Purchase Grant Scheme, added to the regulations in July 2023, aims to incentivise businesses in the republic to purchase heavy-duty, zero-emissions vehicles (ZEVs) across a range of powertrains, including battery-electric, hydrogen fuel cell (FCEVs) and low-emissions plug-in hybrids.

Grants will be offered as a percentage of the price difference between a ZEV (minus VAT and other discounts) and a diesel equivalent, with up to 60% of the cost differential on offer.

But that percentage will depend on the size of the business applying for the grant, with the biggest (60%) going to small companies with fewer than 50 staff or less than €10m in annual turnover.

Medium-sized businesses — those with fewer than 250 staff or less that €50m ($54m) turnover — will be eligible for 50% of the cost difference, with larger businesses eligible for 30%.

The baseline price of the diesel vehicle will be determined by the type and size of the vehicle in question, ranging from trucks and buses to waste-collection vehicles and vans of varying sizes.

In the Irish government’s worked example, a large business with more than 250 employees would be eligible for around €131,000 off the total price of a €716,000 (excluding VAT) hydrogen-powered double-decker bus — for which a diesel equivalent would be priced at around €279,000, creating a cost differential of €437,000.

But a medium-sized business would be eligible for around €218,000 off the bus in this example, while a smaller firm would get a massive €262,000 off.

But the grants for other heavy-duty FCEVs may not reach six figures. A grant covering 30% of the cost difference between a €303,000 46-tonne truck and a €131,000 diesel equivalent would come in at around €51,000.

The scheme has the potential to be more generous than the Alternatively Fuelled HDV Purchase (AFHDV) Grant Scheme it replaced, which ran until December 2022 and offered 40% of the cost differential up to €120,000 per vehicle.

There are no only hydrogen refuelling stations in the Republic of Ireland, although fuel-cell buses operated by Bus Eireann in Dublin are refuelled at a BOC Gases facility at an industrial park on the outskirts of the city.