Gas Guzzlers

The Dom Post reports that the Government is investigating slapping higher penalties on gas guzzling vehicles to promote fuel efficiency.

There is of course already a penalty for using less fuel efficient vehicles. You need to buy more petrol!

I’m sceptical that having greater car registration charges for higher CC engines would act as more of an incentive. I don’t think many people look at annual licence fees when they make purchase decisions.

If you want to change purchasing decisions, then you would be better placed to whack a huge tax at the point of sale. Something like $5,000 more for a fuel inefficient vehicle would affect purchasing patterns. Lesser measures will generate a lot of revenue but not change things much.

I’m not advocating such a tax, as much as saying if you are going to intervene and want to make an impact that would be a more effective way of doing it.

I suspect the high cost of petrol plus marketing advantages are going to lead to a higher update of more fuel efficient vehicles anyway.