Volkswagen Throws Emissions Lifeline To Fleet Managers

MILTON KEYNES, UNITED KINGDOM – June 15, 2009: Volkswagen is renowned for offering fleets cars with superb levels of build quality, refinement and safety. It can also offer business customers a wide range of cars to help reduce the day-to-day costs of running a fleet, whilst reducing their impact on the environment thanks to its efficient TSI petrol, TDI diesel and BlueMotion models.

To help fleet managers and drivers pick their way through the maze of environmental information available, Volkswagen Fleet Services has produced a new guide, essentially a price list of all its models which have a carbon dioxide emissions figure of 160 g/km and below.

And there are plenty of cars to choose from – in fact all of Volkswagen’s model ranges apart from the luxury Touareg and Phaeton have at least one model in the sub-160 g/km range. Overall, nearly two-thirds (62.5 per cent) of Volkswagen’s line-up fall into the 160 g/km or below bracket. This compares with just over half for Ford (51.78 per cent) and Vauxhall (51.29 per cent).

The 160 g/km threshold is based on legislation limits from the latest Budget which favours those cars with low CO2 emissions and which took effect from 1 April for the purposes of corporation tax and 6 April for income tax.

Cars first registered from 1 April 2009, with CO2 emissions of 111 g/km to 160 g/km (inclusive) attract a 20 per cent write-down allowance (WDA), while those with emissions above 160 g/km attract a WDA of ten per cent. For cars with CO2 emissions of 110 g/km or less, a 100 per cent first-year allowance applies, with the allowance available until March 2013.

Tracey Rossetti, Communications Manager at Volkswagen Fleet Services says: ‘Volkswagen has always aimed to provide the fleet market not only with great cars but also great tools to help fleet professionals do their job. With the recent changes in taxation, business car managers will have to focus on emissions and whole-life costs rather than list price, so it made perfect sense to produce a guide which helped them do just that.’