For D.C. residents, plunking down $50,000 on a Chevy Tahoe hybrid banks a decent tax break for being “green,” even though the massive sport utility vehicle gets no better than 22 miles per gallon.
But that benefit may be going the way of the 8-track.
The District government is debating whether to eliminate the 6 percent excise tax exemption for vehicles that don’t get at least 40 mpg, which would rule out most “clean fuel” hybrids on the market today — the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry and Nissan Altima among them.
The change, in Mayor Adrian Fenty’s proposed 2009 budget, is a reaction to the emergence of gargantuan hybrid SUVs. The language “preserves the integrity of the incentive,” said William Singer, Fenty’s budget chief.
Under existing law, a D.C. resident who purchases a “new clean fuel or electric vehicle” pays no excise tax and half the $72 vehicle registration fee. The proposed language provides the tax break only to a “new motor vehicle … with an estimated average miles per gallon for city driving at or above 40 mpg.”
The old standby hybrids, Toyota’s Prius and Honda’s Civic, make the 40 mpg grade. But not one SUV hybrid currently on the market would meet the new standard, including the Ford Escape, the Lexus RX 400h, Saturn
Vue, Mercury Mariner, Toyota Highlander and the largest of the bunch: the GMC Yukon.
Now that the market for hybrids is strong, D.C. might not “need that specific incentive to encourage adoption of that particular technology,” said David Kirsch, professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland. On the other hand, he said, there’s no reason to deride large hybrids, as “anything that moves the dial on overall fleet fuel efficiency is a good thing.”
Jim Kliesch, senior engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists’ clean vehicles program, applauded Fenty for moving away from the “hybrid” concept and instead focusing on fuel efficiency. But it might be worth reconsidering the 40 mpg line, he said, as “you’re basically removing most vehicles from the possibility of getting this.”
The Hybrid Owners of America respects Fenty’s decision to “encourage the high end of the hybrid range at the expense of less efficient ‘mild’ hybrids with lower mileage,” the organization said in a statement.
40-mpg vehicles
2008 models:
» Honda Civic hybrid
» Toyota Prius
» Volkswagen Jetta TDI
