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BMW Australia CEO, Marc Werner, has called for affirmative action from the Australian government with regards to accelerating the local introduction of low emissions vehicles and their related infrastructure.
At an event last week, Mr Werner told assembled motoring media “No more discussions! I call on Mr Malcolm Turnbull and the federal government to finally action a robust policy to support the introduction of low emission vehicles to the Australian market.”
Australia trails numerous other global markets on low emissions policy, with some governments offering purchase incentives, registration, or road tax reductions for electric and plug-in hybrid owners to encourage the adoption of low emission vehicles.
Locally BMW has already begun to introduce a range of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles though the BMW i sub brand as well as with i Performance plug-in variants of existing models including the 3 Series and X5.
Mr Werner cited New Zealand’s 2016 policy changes that waive Road User Charges for EV buyers until a set national fleet percentage of EVs is met while simultaneously rolling out a broader public charging networ, as an example of how the Australian government could model its own policy.
“We can look at New Zealand at the moment as a role model as far as electric mobility is concerned,” Mr Werner said.
“I would love it to be the other way around to be honest, and I think we can do much better and we should do much better.”
Mr Werner also targeted Australia’s Luxury Car Tax, which has also been criticised at various times by Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Toyota, and Porsche, calling for an end to the blanket tax, which applies at a rate of 33 percent for the portion of a vehicle’s price above $64,132 (or a slightly higher $75,526 threshold for vehicles that use less than 7.0L/100km)
“Since the cessation of local production there’s technically or theoretically no reason to continue with the tax the way it is formalised at the moment, and we would love to see a new innovative form, or a more a creative, or more intelligent way of incentivising low emission vehicles.” Mr Werner said.
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