On Thursday, applications for co-financing the purchase of electric vehicles begin

The Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund will start accepting applications for co-financing the purchase of energy-efficient vehicles on Thursday at eight o’clock, the Fund announced on Wednesday.

The Fund states that this year, a total of 90 million kuna is available to citizens and companies, for which they will apply for the first time at more than 260 vehicle sales points across Croatia. Potential buyers will be able to choose from 86 brands and a total of 499 vehicle models – from electric motorcycles to tractors. They say that the expected largest selection is offered in the category of passenger vehicles with 30 registered brands and 255 models.

As in previous years, the purchase of vehicles will be co-financed with up to 40 percent of eligible costs, with the maximum amount of financing depending on the category and type of drive.

Electric vehicles in categories L1-L7 are co-financed up to 20,000 kuna, plug-in hybrids in category M1 up to 40,000, while for the purchase of electric passenger vehicles, up to 70,000 kuna can be obtained.

Legal entities are also co-financed for vehicles in category N1, and for plug-in hybrid vehicles, it is possible to obtain up to 40,000 kuna, while for those with electric drive or drive on compressed and liquefied natural gas (CNG, LNG) or hydrogen, up to 70,000 kuna.

Vehicles in categories N2, N3, M2, M3 with electric, plug-in hybrid drive, drive on compressed and liquefied natural gas (CNG, LNG) or hydrogen are co-financed with a maximum of 400,000 kuna. This is also the maximum amount of co-financing available to legal entities, considering that they can purchase multiple vehicles of various categories, but at a maximum of two sales points.

Interest in purchasing is growing

The Fund emphasizes that interest in energy-efficient vehicles is increasing year by year, as is the number of such vehicles on Croatian roads. They say it is therefore not surprising that distributors and sales points have readily joined the program, which have received a user account from the Fund and access to the application through which they will reserve available incentives for their customers.

Interested buyers can find the list of vehicles for which financing is available on the website vozimoeko.fzoeu.hr, which also lists sales points for individual vehicle models. To ensure a successful reservation of funds, sales staff will enter the mandatory customer data into the system and upload the required documentation, after which they will issue a reservation confirmation to the customer.

The confirmation contains the entered data, the application serial number, as well as instructions for paying the mandatory minimum advance, which also represents a novelty in the co-financing program. Namely, to demonstrate seriousness in the intention to purchase a vehicle, buyers will have to pay seven percent of the requested funds to the sales point, for which an invoice cannot be issued before June 10. After the approval of co-financing, buyers will no longer be able to change the brand or model of the vehicle, but only changes in the vehicle’s equipment will be possible. In this regard, it is necessary to pay attention to the potential increase in CO2 emissions of a particular model with a change in the equipment package for plug-in hybrids.

Reservations will be possible as long as the amount of reserved funds in the application does not reach 90 million kuna, and the availability of funds can be tracked in real-time on the website vozimoeko.fzoeu.hr. All those who are approved for co-financing will have a period of nine months to complete the purchase and submit a request for payment with complete documentation.

Considering that as a public procurement entity, the public sector cannot participate in such a model of co-financing, the Fund will announce a special Public Call for them by the end of June, worth 15 million kuna, and applications will be accepted through the existing Fund’s e-application system.

Numerous models on offer

In the past five years, potential buyers could choose from several models of fully electric vehicles, and now the offer is significantly wider. On the Fund’s website, there are 114 models of electric cars, 102 models of electric motorcycles and scooters, and 43 models of delivery vehicles available.

For electric vehicles in categories M1 and N1 (standard cars and delivery vehicles), an incentive of 70,000 kuna or up to 40 percent of the vehicle’s value can be obtained, along with an additional discount through the association Strujni krug.

For those interested in smaller city vehicles, the fully electric Renault Twingo is available, which can be purchased with incentives starting from 89,900 kuna, the larger Renault Zoe from 148,900 kuna, and the Peugeot e-208 from 164,000 kuna. In this segment, numerous models are also offered, such as the Opel Corsa, Fiat 500e, BMW i3, Dacia Spring Electric, Honda e, and Mini Cooper SE.

The SUV segment includes the Mazda MX-30, which is available with incentives for 169,000 kuna, and the offer also includes the Opel Mokka, Hyundai Kona, Citroen e-C4, and Peugeot e-2008, which can be purchased for less than 181,000 kuna with incentives and the Strujni krug discount.

Among larger SUVs, the Škoda Enyaq iV, Volkswagen ID.4, Mercedes EQA, Kia Niro, and Audi Q4 e-tron stand out. In this segment, Chinese manufacturers Dongfeng and MG also compete, offering SUVs priced below 200,000 kuna with incentives.

Tesla offers the Model 3, which can be obtained for 260,000 kuna with incentives, and only a few models like the Hyundai IONIQ 5, Nissan Ariya, and Kia EV6 compete with such a price.

In addition to passenger vehicles, there is also a significantly larger offer of delivery vehicles this year. Along with the Renault Kangoo Z.E., the larger Citroen e-Jumpy, Opel Vivaro-e, Peugeot e-Expert, and Maxus eDELIVER are now available. The electric Kangoo can be obtained with incentives for less than 140,000 kuna, while larger vans like the e-Jumpy and e-Expert start from 171,000 kuna.

Although most buyers of more exclusive vehicles will likely not wait for incentives to make a purchase, incentives can also be obtained for very powerful and expensive cars like the Porsche Taycan, Audi e-tron, and Audi RS e-tron GT.

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