Electric vehicle subsidies not guaranteed next year
The Association of Car Importers Malta (ACIM) has not been given any guarantees that the grants scheme for the purchase of new electric vehicles will continue into 2025, its secretary general has told Times of Malta.
For quite some time, car importers and their salespersons have been warning potential buyers that the current subsidies on electric vehicles may not be given beyond the end of this year.
Deborah Schembri, ACIM secretary general, said that government entities, including Transport Malta, would only give them an assurance of subsidies for owners of EVs registered until the end of 2024.
This is regardless of whether the EU-allocated funding would have been utilised in full or not.
“Given the government’s commitment, November and December purchases for cars that manage to be registered by the end of the year should be covered,” she said.
Finance Minister Clyde Caruana confirmed that EU funds allocated for the purchase of new electric vehicles “have already been fully taken up and the government has had to finance the scheme, through the rest of the year, by utilising national funds.”
However, Caruana stopped short of providing clarity on whether the government would continue offering incentives from its own budget into next year, saying only that the 2025 budget is “still in the works”.
A kitty worth almost €50 million of EU funds, made available through the Recovery and Resilience Plan and issued in tranches of €15 million annually, was consumed over a period of three years between 2022 and 2024.
Schembri said ACIM has asked the government to retain incentives for EV purchases that are “as close as possible to the current incentive structure”.
“EU funds for the purchase of new EVs ‘fully taken up’
Nathan said they were “very happy his name has been cleared”, adding that the original verdict blaming his late father was “disgusting”.
However, the family was unhappy with the sentence handed down to the driver.
Camilleri, who grew up in Malta but now lives in Australia with his fiancée, three-year-old daughter and two young sons, said: “We don’t think it was a fair call. Six months probation? In Australia there would have been jail time. She got off with a slap on the wrist.”
Slamming the way the case had been handled, Camilleri said there was “so much evidence that wasn’t brought forward”, pointing to unused video footage he said showed his father was not responsible for the accident.
Camilleri, who is a keen motorcyclist himself, said that when he told his 600-strong motorcycle community in Australia about the case they been “gobsmacked” at the version of events heard in November, just like their fellow riders in Malta.
He stressed his father “used to drive on that road every day” and there was “no way” he could have accelerated up to almost 200km/h on that stretch of road.
“With respect to those involved, those calculations were wrong on all counts,” said Camilleri, calling the accusations of excessive speeding “out of character” for his father.
“My father always taught me that speed is a killer; his intention when he went out on the motorbike was always just to return home safely,” he said, adding he didn’t believe “for one second he was doing those speeds”.
‘So many good qualitieS’
Camilleri said it was difficult to describe his father because “he was a person with so many good qualities”.
Calling him “easy going” and without judgement, he said, “you could chat with him about anything”, stressing he learned a lot from his late father.
“He taught us so much, he used to be very handy; he could do tiling, electrical work – he was a real ‘all-round’ person, a ‘turnkey’ bloke,” he said, adding “if he didn’t know how to do something, he’d learn how to”.
Describing his father as “getting along with everyone,” Camilleri said his friends enjoyed spending time with him too and “wondered why they couldn’t have fathers like him”.
He recounted how he and his father used to go partying together in Paceville. “I don’t know anyone else that can party with their father.”
‘my SiSter Still tearS up’
Camilleri said the fatal accident occurred one month after his father visited him and his
nd
26-year-old sister Nicole in Australia.
“Me and my sister were together the night we got the call, and we didn’t know what to do,” he said, describing his sister as still not being able to discuss her father and “tearing up” at the mention of his name.
Describing him as still in his prime when he was “ripped away” from the family, Camilleri said his father’s death had affected them all and he was only recently coming to terms with it.
His father’s death had been particularly difficult for his youngest sister who was 10 years old at the time, he said. Times of Malta is not publishing her name due to her age.
And while his late father got the chance to meet his two grandsons, his death occurred before the birth of his granddaughter.
“My boys keep asking when they can see him again, and my daughter sees photos of him and asks, ‘who’s that?’ It’s heartbreaking.”
Describing “mental health issues” following his father’s death, Camilleri said the way the case had been handled had changed how he thinks about his homeland.
Expressing his “stress and frustration” at the country’s justice system, he said that while he “loved” Malta and had always planned to move back with his family, the court case had made him reconsider.
“My biggest fear is what if something happens to my kids in Malta,” he said.
The family’s lawyer José Herrera said the family was planning to claim damages, which were usually worked out according to a person’s projected earnings until retirement, minus a “consumption” figure of around one-fifth.
However, he said that in this case he did not think the 20 per cent should be taken out due to the case having dragged on so long.
Herrera said that while the case had been won, the police had “carelessly” failed to submit camera footage of the accident as evidence in the case.
“The police had the best evidence but didn’t use it,” he said. “I was amazed how that document was omitted but it was perfectly clear even on the evidence presented that the deceased was not at fault.”