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This report focuses on policy measures, specifically the collection of budget-neutral feebates aimed at influencing the behaviour of buyers of new cars as a means of enhancing energy efficiency and reducing CO2 emissions. Among the new cars currently available on the market, the difference between those with the lowest and highest levels of CO2 emissions often exceeds 50 percent. The graph below shows this CO2 spread for the 10 car models in Switzerland with the highest sales figures (data basis: Dec. 2005; excluding combis, all-wheel-drive and sports cars). Projected over a travel distance of 160,000 kilometres, this spread corresponds to 10 tonnes of CO2. This means that consumers can already achieve relevant environmental effects without having to make concessions in terms of vehicle size. The most energy-efficient machines are more powerful than larger engines 10 ten years ago. Smaller cars not only mean lower fuel costs, they are also cheaper to buy and maintain, have a higher resale value and benefit to an increasing extent from tax rebates. Switzerland currently has the lowest fuel prices in Europe (this does not apply to diesel) and is one of the leading countries in the world in terms of purchasing power. Unlike many other countries, car taxes are very low: import duty on cars is only approximately 3 percent, and the applicable VAT rate is only 7.6 percent. As a consequence, the new vehicles approved in Switzerland are larger and more powerful than in any other country in Europe (Sweden is no. 2 in this respect). The CO2 reduction potential identified above without having to make concessions in terms of vehicle size thus applies especially to Switzerland here, vehicles with the biggest engines are often the most frequently sold models.
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