In order to be able to achieve the European Union’s emission reduction targets for new passenger cars and to make real progress regarding the actual emissions of the road transport sector, European countries have to im-prove and sharpen their policy instruments at hand. There is plenty of room to align the fiscal incentive scheme with climate and environmental policy goals by using the available vehicle and related taxes much more efficiently. Looking at the 28 European member countries plus Norway and Switzerland, many cases of well-designed and effective vehicle taxation are available. This paper compares the different tax systems and derives several policy recommendations. For eight countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and United Kingdom), a more detailed comparison along four example vehicles was conducted and a ranking was compiled. The first chapter takes a look at the progress made so far. Some countries have reduced average emission values substantially, but the growing gap between these type-approval and real-world values is alarming and has some serious implications for climate policy, CO2-based vehicle taxation and tax revenues, consumers and manufacturers. The second chapter gives a broad overview over vehicle taxation in all countries under consideration, focusing on their CO2-based components, and looks at each tax in more depth in the subsections. Chapter 3 gives a systematic comparison of the different tax systems by calculating and comparing actual tax amounts for a selection of eight countries. Some noteworthy examples of good and bad practice are highlighted in chapter 4. The last chapter derives several policy recommendations regarding the use and design of vehicle taxes. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting