From the last three years, Hong Kong has been unexpectedly maintaining the world’s top slot for manufacturing the best electric cars. Tesla vehicles hold the neon signs and skyscrapers and have covered the urban roads along with the central business district.
In a speech on the annual budget for 2017 by the financial secretary, Paul Chan: Paul announced that soon the government will raise a hoary waiver for electric cars on non-vehicle registration tax. This affair of Tesla with the government is all likely to meet the end because it is closing down the scheme which drove back the car’s popularity to its initial level. The maximum amount of tax paid or deduction includes HK$ 97,500, which is the usual tax payment by any company.
In order to trim down traffic and decrease the air pollution, Hong Kong government is planning to put a heavy tax on new private car purchases. The heavy tax counts more bucks than the actual or sticker price of the vehicle. For almost 20 years, the tax was relinquished entirely on electric vehicles, which is also an important part of reducing air pollution.
The recent report says that this waiver has not affected the tax revenues of the government share of the production of electric cars were low till Tesla made its entry in the race. The luxury cars are coupled with a tax incentive to avail dynamic cars like Mercedes at half cost to various customers. This results in higher registration number of the electric cars in the Hong Kong from last years. It has measured a 100-fold increment between 2013 and 2016.
As per the new scheme by the Tesla Corporation, the Tesla Model S 60 is all set to launch in the market at the sticker price of HK$ 570,000 which will cost in a sum of HK$ 925,500. This gives a solid reason to most of the Hong Kongers to choose Tesla if they yearn to have an effective car with a brand name and cut petrol system.
Tesla spokesperson said in a statement to Quartz that the company is disappointed with the new measurements by the government scheme: “Over the past few years, the impressive growth in all kinds of electric vehicles on Hong Kong’s roads has helped create a cleaner, more sustainable city without increasing congestion as almost all our new owners are replacing a particularly high-polluting fossil fuel vehicle. [The action] threatens to move Hong Kong backward. We will continue to support our owner community and will work with all our current order holders to ensure the delivery of their vehicles with full FRT exemption”.
A study told that the exhausted pollution caused a number of deaths in the city. Many have been hospitalized because of the pollution. The local EV advocacy group in charge person, Mark Webb-Johnson advocated that, “Electric vehicles today make up then less than 1% of the private car fleet, and the number of commercial vehicles are significantly lower than that, “In this infancy of electric vehicles in Hong Kong, it is far too soon to withdraw the support.”
