The import of used vehicles below the EURO 5 standard for emission of gases will continue in North Macedonia in the next several months. The Ministry of Economy has no decisive date when the rule books containing new technical requirements and specifications for the import of vehicles from abroad will be changed nor has it determined a deadline when the import of used vehicles with below EURO 5 standards will be banned.
Toward the end of January, the Minister of Economy Kreshnik Bekteshi announced that this year the imports of used vehicles that are below the EURO 5 standard will be banned.
Apart from the subsidies for installing fuel gas devices into older vehicles, Bekteshi announced other possibilities for the introduction of subsidies for the purchase of hybrid vehicles as well as a direct financial aid for citizens that want to swap their cars under EURO 4 with new vehicles that are with EURO 5 and 6 standards.
Meta.mk in the past three years has been writing about the less restrictive measures that North Macedonia has implemented and have led to a record old age of country’s car fleet, but also they have led to majority participation of used cars in the total numbers of car imports and sales. As a result, the data for last year provided by the Customs services show that 29 052 cars were imported out of which 82.2% were used cars.
The average age of the vehicles in North Macedonia is over 19 years, and it is creating problems with the increasing participation of the transportation means in the air pollution in the cities and the traffic safety by increasing the number of traffic accidents where these type of vehicles have taken part in.
