Transport Ministry plans taxi trade-in scheme and EV tax cuts
Thailand’s Transport Ministry is preparing to bring 27,000 taxis into a car trade-in scheme and cut annual tax for new EV and hybrid registrations.
Deputy Transport Minister Siripong Angkasakulkiat said on Friday, after inspecting and following up on operations at the Department of Land Transport, that under the government’s policy to support electric vehicles, he had instructed the department to speed up support for shifting public transport vehicles to EVs.
He said the ministry was considering talks with the Finance Ministry to bring around 27,000 taxis currently using diesel fuel into an old-car-for-new-car scheme.
At the same time, the Department of Land Transport is preparing measures to reduce the annual vehicle tax for newly registered EVs and hybrid vehicles.
The proposed reduction would cut the annual tax by 80%, or potentially waive the fee altogether, in order to encourage more people to switch to EVs.
The ministry expects the measures to help boost demand and push new EV registrations this year to more than 300,000 vehicles, up from the current cumulative nationwide total of 435,630 registered EVs.
