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8th November 2007

The Government is in danger of taxing Jaguar and Land Rover out of existence according to comments by Jim O’Donnell, managing director of BMW UK reported by Headline Auto yesterday. Mr O’Donnell said that plans to tax expensive cars would seriously threaten the future of the British car industry and ignored the technology that such vehicles introduce.

He said: “Such cars are not just large, they are often technology leaders. Expensive new safety and efficiency measures tend to find their way first on the larger, luxury vehicles. ABS, catalytic converters, air bags, navigation systems and many more all started on high end models.

“We welcome the approach to a well thought out and balanced approach free from political dogma and I believe our political leaders need to give more than a nano-second’s consideration to the positive characteristics of top end cars.

“A determination to tax larger cars out of existence threatens smaller manufacturers such as Jaguar and Land Rover. Do our political leaders really want to kill off major contributors to the UK economy and major employers?”

O’Donnell said that poor management, unrealistic unions and the apathy of successive governments towards vehicle manufacturing in the UK had resulted in the demise of a once strong indigenous industry. He added: “The UK needs both Jaguar and Land Rover as strong competitors in the global marketplace.”

O’Donnell also criticised increasing local taxes such as congestion charging: “Our government has led the way on CO2 emissions in the EU but it all goes wrong in the shires. We see a burgeoning class of minor council officials who are using – or should that be abusing – their positions of power to create their own tax penalties on motorists.”

He cited that London congestion charge which is now turning into a green tax with charges for high emission vehicles. He called for Mayor Ken Livingstone to “make your mind up” and that said that the new charges would save 8,100 tons of carbon each year, the equivalent of three hours’ emissions from Heathrow Airport.

Noting other local schemes such as Nottingham’s £350 car parking tax, O’Donnell added: “The government must stamp on this regional tax spree by out of control councils now. It must restore some sort of respect for CO2 tax planning by leading from the front and putting the petty politicians back in their boxes.”

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