Egypt will begin accepting submissions for requests to replace aging vehicles with newer models starting next week, with Cairo, Giza, Qalyubia, Alexandria, Suez, Port Said, and Red Sea areas part of the first phase.

The multi-year initiative is part of a nationwide state strategy to replace outdated and more pollutive vehicles with those using natural gas.

Submissions can be sent on the newly launched website, gogreenmasr.com.

Ahmed Abdel Razek, spokesperson for the vehicle replacement initiative, said the initiative’s website allows car owners to change the financing bank if the first bank rejected the request, adding that there are 31 banks participating in the initiative. 

Amgad Mounir, Head of the Vehicle Replacement Fund at the Ministry of Finance and Executive Director of the initiative, has stated that the government has adopted new measures to expand the base of beneficiaries, and facilitating their ownership of environmentally friendly vehicles.

The initiative is aiming to replace 250,000 obsolete vehicles, with 70,000 to be replace within the 1st year, including 55,000 private cars and taxis and 15,000 microbuses, while 90,000 vehicles will be replaced in the 2nd and 3rd years, each.

Since July 1, requests from the Port Said free zone area began to be received by the initiative said Mounir, with a symbolic fee collected from car owners, with cars manufactured between 1976 and 2001, to be exempted from customs.

The symbolic fee is estimated at about EGP 2,000 for models manufactured between 1976 and 1990, and EGP 5,000 for models manufactured between 1991 and 2001.

Head of the Egyptian Customs Authority (ECA), El-Shahat Ghaturi, mentioned that the new measure has brought many advantages to the owners of Port Said free zone-registered cars.

The website allows for applicants to change the payment system from instalments to a lump-sum payment, as well as modify their payment plan from seven to 10 years or vice versa, added Razek.

Tarek Awad, another spokesperson for the initiative, said that the delivery of 2022 model cars will start in July, through the car companies participating in the initiative. He noted that a slight increase in the prices of new cars will be added to the total value of instalments, including the price of the car and the value of insurance policies.