Mercedes slams green tax as “unfair”

Niefer said that during the year ahead the Mercedes-Benz E-Class will be extended with Estate and Cabriolet models, a new SLS AMG will be launched locally and a number of other models will undergo facelifts.

The new green tax would add approximately R5000 to the purchase price of a new C-Class and more than R7200 to the price of a new E-Class.

He said it was “unfair to punish” customers with the new green tax and he hoped the income from this tax would be spent on improving roads and the general road infrastructure.

Why not better fuel?

He said he could not understand why government hasn't put more pressure on fuel companies to improve the quality of local fuel. South Africa was producing Euro 2 standard fuel while countries such as China, Brazil and India were already on Euro 4.

He said it was estimated that South African fuel companies will only get to Euro 4 standards in six years time and that it would then take another four years to get to the standard of fuel currently in use in European Union countries.

Because of the poor quality of local fuel companies such as Mercedes-Benz were not prepared to bring in their latest fuel and emission efficient engines to this country.

Consulted? Yes, but…

Asked whether manufacturers were consulted by government during the planning stages of the Emissions Tax he said: “Yes, we were… but not whether we wanted it or not, or when and how it was going to be introduced.”

He said manufacturers also had no clear picture of how emissions were going to be measured.

Whilst there had been an increase in new car sales during the first two months of 2010 the new emissions tax and this week's fuel price increase of 25,5 cents per litre could have a negative impact on future new car sales Dr Niefer said.

Feeling positive

The Mercedes-Benz group of companies in South Africa posted annualised revenues of R28 billion for 2009 and recorded overall growth in market shares across most sectors of their business.

“Despite this shrinking of the overall vehicle market, we are most encouraged in that we only shed 15% on the passenger car side,” Dr Niefer said.

Despite the drop in turnover and the overall downturn in the market, the group's premium Mercedes-Benz passenger car unit managed to achieve a near 1% growth, maintaining its position at almost 10% of the premium car segment.

Feeling optimistic

“This was helped by the quality achievements at our East London manufacturing plant, which last year proved conclusively that we can produce top quality vehicles,” explained Niefer. The company received the J.D. Power and Associates Gold Award for manufacturing in the 2009 Initial Quality Study (IQS) in the Europe and Africa Region.

The group also notched up the top three positions in the independent market survey of Synovate in the 2009 Synovate Quality Survey, which ranks passenger cars in South Africa with the least problems per hundred vehicles.

“Mercedes-Benz cars were placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively for our E-Class, C-Class and A-Class,” said Niefer.

Synovate also gave the East London plant the gold award for the top local plant manufacturing passenger vehicles.

“As competition in the industry becomes increasingly tougher much emphasis is placed on both customer service and sales, but we are quite optimistic about 2010,” Dr Niefer said.