The Managing Director of Mercedes-Benz Passenger Cars, Mr Horst von Sanden said “With the recent increase in the LCT threshold from $57,466 to $59,133 those vehicles impacted reflect the reduced LCT with a reduction of $500. Whilst any reduction of the impost of LCT is a very welcome development, we are disappointed that the threshold for Fuel Efficient vehicles has stayed at $75,375. The stated intention of the Government is to reduce greenhouse emissions, yet the impact of the recent threshold changes has been to disadvantage those vehicles that are 7.0L/100km or less and deliver a price reduction to vehicles that are not fuel efficient. There seems a real gap in logic and public policy occurring here.
An unintended consequence of this is that those of our vehicles (and other manufacturers and importers) over 7.0L/100km get a $500 price reduction whilst there is zero price reduction on any vehicles which are under 7.0L/100km!
We have 87 models and variants in our passenger vehicle range with 36 of them being either under the $59,133 LCT threshold or qualifying for the 7.0L/100km Fuel Efficient LCT threshold of $75,375.
The simple fact is that every single one of these 36 variants is in fact 7.0L/100km or less. In terms of our year to date sales two out of every three vehicles we have sold (65%) are 7.0L/100km or less. The new thresholds do nothing in fact to encourage low emission vehicle sales; they actively work against such an outcome” said von Sanden.
