In April, the Ministry of Climate and Energy announced plans to change the existing support scheme for vehicle purchases, proposing to double the support for plug-in hybrid cars to the level available for electric cars.

To prevent an inefficient use of funds, the association “Pilsēta cilvēkiem” has submitted objections and a proposal to the Ministry of Climate and Energy.

Objection to hybrid car subsidies

Support for the purchase of plug-in hybrid cars will not help achieve the support scheme's main aim of reducing CO₂ emissions, because they are mostly used as ordinary petrol or diesel cars.

We therefore call on the Ministry of Climate and Energy not to increase support for the purchase of hybrid cars, and instead to discontinue it altogether.

Objection to electric car subsidies

Support for the purchase of electric cars is a very inefficient way to reduce CO₂ emissions, because:

1) an electric car's energy consumption is more than 10 times higher than that of an electric bicycle, for example, and a large share of electricity is generated from fossil fuels;

2) electric cars are expensive, and against that backdrop the size of the subsidy is too small to significantly influence the decision to buy one, meaning that most buyers would have bought one even without the support;

3) from 2035 onwards, cars with internal combustion engines can no longer be bought in the European Union, so the shift to electric cars will happen of its own accord even without state support.

Research shows that with electric car subsidies, cutting CO₂ emissions by 1 tonne costs an average of 739 US dollars. There are far more efficient ways to reduce CO₂ emissions — for example, carbon capture and underground storage at 15-120 dollars, wind farms at up to 40 dollars, and afforestation at 5-50 dollars.

Moreover, emitting 1 tonne of CO₂ causes 185 dollars' worth of harm to the world's population, which means that electric car subsidies in themselves cost 4 times more than simply not reducing the CO₂ emissions would. Spending 4 euros to prevent 1 euro's worth of harm is extremely wasteful.

It should also be borne in mind that passenger cars of any kind impose very high external costs on society — in Latvia, for instance, they cost society 955 million euros a year (2008 data), which includes the costs of road traffic accidents and of air and noise pollution, among others. On top of that sum, high costs also arise from building and maintaining road infrastructure, from congestion, from low levels of daily physical activity and so on. That is why it is very important for the state to promote walking, cycling — including on electric bicycles — and public transport.

We therefore call on the Ministry of Climate and Energy to discontinue support for the purchase of electric cars and to use the funds allocated to it for more efficient methods of reducing CO₂ emissions.

Proposal on subsidies for the purchase of electric bicycles

“Pilsēta cilvēkiem” calls on the Ministry of Climate and Energy to provide support for the purchase of electric bicycles, including cargo bikes, because it:

1) is more efficient than support for the purchase of electric cars — if cutting emissions by 1 tonne of CO₂ through electric car purchase subsidies costs 739 dollars, then through electric bicycle purchase subsidies it costs only 589 dollars;

2) would, in addition to reducing CO₂ emissions, also improve public health, improve the mobility of less well-off residents (especially on routes with no convenient public transport), reduce the costs of building and maintaining road infrastructure as well as people's transport spending, prevent the economic losses caused by congestion, and so on.