By Andrea Hargraves 
Portugal is one of the countries that subsidizes the purchase of electric cars. Despite the pandemic, support has been maintained this year, and according to Environment and Climate Action Minister Mattos Fernandez, the support will continue until the end of the legislature.
According to the governor, in the next state budget, 4 million euros will be preserved to support the purchase of electric cars.
Purchase of electric vehicles with support until the end of the PLC
In an interview with Negócios e Antena 1, Matos Fernandez assured that he would continue to support the purchase of electric cars until the end of the legislature.
This incentive system has yielded very good results. We increased it at the beginning of the government, then increased it to 4 million, and this is what was foreseen in the state budget (OE) and this will likely be reflected in the next OE. During this legislation this value will remain.
In addition to the topic of incentives to buy electric cars, Matos Fernandez was also asked about the end of combustion-engine vehicles in Europe. According to Nigosius, unlike in Spain, João Pedro Mattos Fernandez refuses to set a date to end vehicles with an internal combustion engine.
When asked about the fact that Portugal had not signed the letter sent by some member states requesting a timetable from the transitional committee, he considered that this was an irrelevant initiative, rather that he said it was "a wrong thing to impose a date."
Matos Fernandez also recalls that when he became a minister, only 1% of the cars sold in Portugal were electric. In the first quarter of this year, the sales of electric cars in our country exceeded 15%. "In 2035, people will look at a diesel car just as my daughter looks today at black and white TV," the government official said.