Denmark to add 180% tax on electric vehicles | Hacker News Reader

Denmark to add 180% tax on electric vehicles

bloomberg.com

7 pointsjafingi9 comments

Denmark already has 180% tax on normal cars, and EV's have been tax-free in the past. But the government is ditching the green goals, and will phase in the 180% tax on EV's.

Ironically, a BMW i3 (pure electric) will be more expensive than the BMW i3 Rex (same as i3 but with a tiny fuel engine). This is because the i3 Rex will theoretically go 166 KM/L, and therefore you can subtract a lot from the tax (you can do that on vehicles going more than 16KM/L).

"The government is defending the measures by saying they will help businesses save money and create more jobs."

That is some twisted logic, please tell me how taking money away from its citizens creates jobs, maybe they mean govt. jobs.

Simple economics: If the taxes pulled from the purchase of cars is used to facility other sectors that generates growth and that growth is greater than the contraction due to the lower demand of EVs then the net effect is positive to the economy.

For instance: In the U.S. taxing luxury, high-wealth goods and returning the money as food stamps is the number one best stimulus the U.S. can choose [0].

[0] http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/29/news/economy/stimulus_analys...

That's just plain stupid. I get it, you don't want EVs to be "tax-free", but at least make it smaller than on gas-powered cars to encourage people to buy cleaner cars. When EVs are 50% of the market, then you can make it equal, if you think you're losing money or whatever. But such high taxes already seem extreme for any car anyway.

They also eliminated the tax on NOx, even after the VW scandal. Ugh. I was wrong. This isn't stupid. Just malicious/corrupt.

can't Denmark citizens just buy & register their car in another EU country? Happens all the time in the EU

Sure, but once they bring it into Denmark they'll have to re-register it and pay the tax. As far as I know that is that same across the EU.

In all European countries the license plate has to match the country where one is resident.

In some countries the taxes are high and car makers try to compensate by lowering their prices. To still make it affordable to buy cars. Like for Denmark and Netherlands. For residents from other countries it might therefore be worth it to buy a car there and then export to their own country.

How does that not defy the single market system within EU? If they can get taxes on cars why can't they do it for other goods as well effectively introducing tariffs which aren't supposed to exist withing EU.

Technically you can import any car you want without paying taxes (basically). But if you want to legally drive it you need to register it and get local license plates, and that is what you are taxed for. If you, for example, buy a car exclusively for racing and never take it out on the road then I think you're fine.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com