The Secretary of State for Mobility, Cristina Pinto Dias, explained that the initial financial allocation of the notice, launched by the Government, is “500 thousand euros, an amount that can be increased taking into account effective demand and availability of the Transport Fund”.

The public notice of application to support the Decarbonization and Digitalization of the taxi sector for 2024 is launched by the Institute of Mobility and Transport (IMT), through the Fund for the Public Transport Service.

As part of decarbonization, the support will benefit the acquisition of 100% electric vehicles and their charging equipment and may be complemented with support for the scrapping of old vehicles.

According to Cristina Pinto Dias, this is a “clear focus” by the Government on decarbonization, for the acquisition of 100% electric vehicles, and is also working on the digitalization component.

“Until 6pm on October 31st, applications will all be welcome. This year we will launch this notice a month earlier, in relation to the previous Government, in the hope of giving the market more time to react, as a result of a very significant uptake in 2023. And we will start this initial allocation with double the amount that was issued last year”.

The Secretary of State recalled that mobility is responsible “for around 25% of greenhouse gases at the European level”, and is also “one of the largest consumers of energy from oil sources, with all the consequences that this has”.

With increasing the supply of public transport as a Government goal, Cristina Pinto Dias identified that she intends to give “clear priority to decarbonized fleets to fulfil this purpose”.

“Naturally, the public taxi passenger transport service assumes a very relevant position in this chain. The Government also recognizes that it has a central role in the mobility of regions with low population density. And I remember that 60% of our municipalities are in low-density territories,” she explained.

In this way, he said, the taxi “ends up being a preferred natural choice [in these regions], either because it is universal transport, because it is available because it is flexible and […] because of the comfort and safety that people in these regions need when of mobility they need”.

Cristina Pinto Dias also indicated that the fleet in Portugal, at the moment, has 12,000 licensed taxis, 145 of which are 100% electric vehicles, meaning the fleet is “1.2% decarbonized”.

The Secretary of State for Mobility also recalled that until the end of 2025, according to current law, licensed taxis over 10 years old will not be allowed to operate.