14 percent additional tax on diesels
Ten years ago, business driving in the Netherlands was still subject to a 14 percent additional tax. You also received the tax benefit on diesels. At the end of 2013, you saw manufacturers, at the request of Dutch importers, refining their most economical diesels, mainly to get them below CO2 emissions of 85 grams per kilometer, the new even lower standard for 2014. If that succeeded, you as an importer would have gold in their hands: then the business driver could drive it with a 14 percent additional tax.
We at AutoWeek were also quite busy with it. It prompted many comparative tests of models in the compact middle class with the ’14 percent additional tax’ approach. So we had in the fall of 2013 the Volkswagen Golf 1.6 TDI Bluemotion and the Volvo V40 D2 brought together. We wrote: “In 2014, the CO2 limits will be lowered again and 85 grams will be the maximum for diesels. So the Golf is safe, Volvo will have to work again with the V40 to reduce another 3 grams of CO2 emissions. So If you still want a V40 with 14 percent additional tax, you have to be quick!”
Complaints from private drivers
The fact that we were testing so much in the ’14 percent category’ led to many emails from people who were completely fed up with the whining about the addition. They didn’t have a company car and just drove privately. We understood their complaints, but given the extent to which these cars dominated the sales charts, we couldn’t avoid it. Moreover, in the case of extra economical diesels, there were also benefits for private individuals. Until December 2013, they did not have to pay MRB, after which they had to pay the high diesel rate.
These were good but also exciting times for business motorists and the car industry, especially around the turn of the year. Would the diesel in question be delivered on time? Suppose you ordered a diesel with a CO2 emission of 88 grams and it was delivered after January 1, 2014, while it should have been delivered no later than December 31, 2013!
Renault Megane
In those days, Renault had the extremely popular Mégane dCi 110 hp and Ford the Focus 1.6 TDCI Econetic. You could also drive both as a station wagon with a 14 percent additional tax. In 2014, some brands even managed to achieve this with the even stricter limit of 85 grams of CO2 per kilometer, for example Peugeot with the 308 SW 1.6 HDI, Seat with the Leon ST 1.6 TDI Ecomotive and Skoda with the similarly motorized version of the Octavia Combi.
190 hp diesel with 14 percent additional tax!
By the way, you noticed that all those diesels were quite tweaked and the conclusion was often that they should have had more torque for the nice 20 hp and a few newton meters of torque. But then Volvo introduced the V40 D4 in the spring of 2014, a whopping 190 hp diesel that, according to factory specifications, only emitted 85 grams of CO2 per kilometer. He was only there as Business. Ultimately it would work again with the lighter D2.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl