Porsche, Ferrari Cars Face $59,000 Gas-Guzzlers Tax in France
A draft budget law weaving its way through France’s parliament may force car shoppers to reconsider purchases of Porsche, Ferrari or Lamborghini models that guzzle gasoline bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
The government in Europe’s second-largest auto market is planning to more than double the “malus” -- or penalty -- consumers must pay based on cars’ carbon-dioxide emissions to as much as 50,000 euros ($59,000) in 2022
The proposal would increase what already are the continent’s costliest taxes on polluting passenger vehicles
“This would be relatively bad news for supercars, luxury and exclusive vehicles, and a show stopper for foreign imported cars,” said Felipe Munoz, an analyst at auto-market researcher Jato Dynamics
Governments around the globe are taking a range of approaches to hastening the demise of the internal-combustion engine
California announced plans recently to ban them by 2035
China’s government has poured upwards of $30 billion into nurturing its electric-vehicle industry
And subsidies gave plug-in hybrids and cars running entirely on batteries a major boost this summer in Europe
If it goes through, France’s law would add to pressure put on the auto industry by the European Union’s 2030 Climate Target Plan, which calls for the bloc to reduce CO2 emissions by 55% from 1990 levels rather than the previously planned 40%
To achieve this, the Commission sees carmakers needing to gradually phase out combustion engines and roughly halve CO2 emissions from 2021 targets
While other countries in the EU also apply a special tax on passenger cars relative to their CO2 emissions, no nation charges nearly as much as France’s current maximum levy of 20,000 euros, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association
By comparison, the top rate in Belgium and Italy is 2,500 euros
Under France’s latest malus plan, the minimum threshold for a car to qualify for an emissions-based tax will be lowered over the next two years, and penalties will be raised, according to a finance ministry budget document
Cars emitting more than 225 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer will be taxed a maximum rate of 40,000 euros next year and 50,000 euros in 2022
The levy is capped at half the cost of a vehicle
Lamborghini, Ferrari and Porsche sports cars, along with luxury Bentley, Rolls-Royce and top-line Mercedes-Benz models are among those that could be hit with the upper-limit levy, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence
Models that would be subject to the full tax amount include :
- Lamborghini’s Urus and Aventador
- Ferrari’s Portofino and 812
- Porsche’s 718 Spyder and 911
- Rolls-Royce’s Ghost and Cullinan
- Bentley’s Flying Spur
- Mercedes’s AMG and G-Class cars
The higher tax rates also pose risks to high-volume sport utility vehicles that are among automakers’ most profitable models
Munoz, the Jato Dynamics analyst, said hybrid and electric cars could be high-end auto brands’ saving grace
Porsche plans for more than half of its global sales to be fully or partially battery-powered by 2025, and Daimler AG announced plans this week to launch its first electrified AMG model next year
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Nissan President and CEO Makoto Uchida says the automaker will "take advantage of the scale of the alliance" with Renault and Mitsubishi Motors in electrification technology, which he sees as a source of future revenue
He also says electrification may drive a restructuring in the auto industry and didn't deny the possibility of expanding the alliance
1. Ball milling a mixture of transition metal oxides can produce homogeneous Ni,Mn,Co-oxide precursors, even to the extent of atomic mixing, so that previously unobserved (Ni, Mn, Co)O solid solution rock salt phase precursors can be formed
2. The final crystallite size of SC-NMC is only related to the heating conditions and has no relation to the precursor particle size, as previously believed
Nissan Motor will equip all future vehicles with basic automated driving functions, aiming to release more than 20 such models by fiscal 2023
The technology will enable Nissan's more expensive models to be operated hands-free on the highway asia.nikkei.com/Business/Autom…
Low to midprice cars will be able to track vehicles in front of them
To make this happen Nissan will have to navigate complex safety issues as advanced automated driving systems will put the car itself in charge of most of the vehicle's operation
The Japanese automaker plans to use its cars' operational data to develop more advanced functions
It will therefore place priority on encouraging wide takeup of the technology
“LiNi0.6Mn0.2Co0.2O2 (SC-NMC) is used as a specific example”
“It was found that a SC-NMC precursor in the form of a previously unobserved rock-salt (Ni, Mn, Co)O solid solution phase can be made phase pure by ball milling”
“This demonstrates that precursors with atomic scale mixing can be achieved by dry methods”
“It is furthermore shown that large precursor particle sizes are not necessary to form large SC-NMC particles as is commonly believed”
Mercedes has revealed it is developing a new prototype electric car that it claims will have the longest ‘electric range’ and ‘highest efficiency’ of any battery-powered vehicle
Called the Mercedes Vision EQXX, the prototype was teased during the brand’s 2020 strategy update
No technical information or targets have been issued, but a presentation slide teased “Beijing to Shanghai on one charge ?”
SpaceX took in $1.9 billion in new funding and plans to raise more, capping off a busy period that includes its first successful human spaceflight, a launch for a satellite-based Internet service and work on a massive ship slated to carry people to Mars fortune.com/2020/08/18/elo…
The company founded by Elon Musk sold the bulk of its planned $2.07 billion offering to investors starting Aug. 4, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday
SpaceX plans to sell another $165 million in equity and preferred stock
Seventy-five investors have participated in the latest round of funding, which will value the company at $46 billion, Bloomberg News reported last week
That would rank SpaceX as one of the most valuable venture-backed U.S. companies