European governments subsidise company cars to the tune of €32 billion a year, according to T&E

Subsidies for company cars cost European taxpayers €32 billion a year, at a time when 96% of new company car registrations are petrol or diesel vehicles, according to a report published on Monday 5 October by the NGO Transport & Environment (T&E).

The NGO arrived at this conclusion by calculating the total savings made by businesses as a result of VAT deductions and write-offs granted to them when buying a car (benefits which are not provided for in the case of the purchase of a car by a private individual).

It also points out that six out of every ten cars sold in Europe are company cars.

Since company cars travel more than twice as many kilometres as private cars, the ten largest car rental companies alone account for 8% of CO₂ emissions from cars in the EU, the report estimates.

In view of these figures, T&E is calling on European governments to end VAT deductions and depreciation for fossil fuel vehicles and to move corporate fleets towards “zero emissions vehicles”.

According to the organisation’s analysis, companies would save on average 4,300 euros per vehicle by switching to electric cars.

See the report: https://bit.ly/3iygH1J (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)