MK Moshe Gafni speaks in the Knesset against the increase in the price of electric vehicles (Knesset Channel)
After the Israeli delegation to the climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh last month presented impressive goals for the transition to green energy in the country, we land back to reality.
As far as the Israeli government is concerned, and on this issue there is no difference between right and left, between Likud and Lish Atid, safety is nice, until they start costing money.
In the afternoon it was decided to cancel the discussion planned for tomorrow in the finance committee, and it was the last chance to stop the increase in taxes on electric vehicles on January 1st.
The chairman of the committee, MK Moshe Gafni (Torah Judaism), explained in the afternoon in a speech in the plenary that "it makes no sense to make electric vehicles more expensive now and pollute the earth even more. Then others come and say that the purchase of such cars is encouraged in Israel, but the tax authority opposes and wants the prices to rise with all kinds of idle excuses. I had to cancel the debate tomorrow in order to discuss urgent budget transfers, but we will continue to follow this issue in the committee. I hope that, unlike Finance Minister Lieberman who is raising prices, the next Finance Minister will support the discounting of electric vehicles, which every reasonable person understands that What needs to happen."
While around the world electric vehicles are being subsidized to encourage drivers to abandon gasoline vehicles, next week in Israel the purchase tax on such a vehicle will be doubled from 10% to 20%, and the maximum tax discount that electric cars can receive will decrease from NIS 75 to 60,000.
This year, about 26,000 electric cars were sold in Israel, led by the Geely Geometric C. How many will be sold in 2023 after the price increase? (Photo: Ronan Topelberg)
In the preliminary talks leading up to the debate, the Tax Authority and the Ministry of Finance made it clear that there is nothing to talk about: raising taxes is a closed matter, and the state will not give up an additional income of 600-700 million shekels that the move is supposed to bring into its coffers in 2023.
The US government, for example, will grant a tax benefit of up to $7,500 for the purchase of a new electric vehicle in the coming year and up to $4,000 for the purchase of a used electric vehicle.
Germany will grant 4,000 euros to anyone who purchases an electric car in the coming year, an amount that will decrease to 3,000 euros in 2024 5. And it is not a tax benefit, but a direct amount that will be transferred to the bank account of the buyers.
But what does the world understand. In Israel next week, popular electric cars that currently cost NIS 140-165 thousand, such as BYD Auto 3, Geely Geometric C, Hyundai Kona, Pig and e2008 and Fiat 500e for about 10-15 thousand shekels. Not because of the chip crisis, not because of the increase in the price of raw materials because of the war in Europe, just so that the state will earn more at our expense.
It would be great if the taxes were raised only for trams that cost more than NIS 200,000.
The Germans also do not subsidize electric cars that cost more than 40,000 euros, and the American government only subsidizes the purchase of a used electric car if it cost less than 40,000 dollars.
In Israel they are all damaged, even cheap streetcars that compete with the best-selling gasoline and hybrid vehicles.
A Lip Motor T03 that costs NIS 100,000 is a Tesla Model S Blade that costs NIS 800,000.
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The cheapest electric car in Israel, Lip Motor TO3.
In a week it will be less expensive (Photo: Walla! system, Udi Etzion)
The plan to increase taxation on electric vehicles was approved by the Knesset three years ago.
Miri Savion, the Deputy Director of the Tax Authority, said at the time at the hearing of the Finance Committee that "all kinds of things happened in the car market, the gap in prices was greatly reduced between these vehicles and gasoline vehicles, so there was no need for such large tax benefits, and also for the discounts that are now given, these vehicles can be cheaper. We have not canceled the benefits, there is a gradual structure that fits the situation."
At that time, the world also estimated that by 2025 the production cost of an electric vehicle and gasoline vehicles will be equal.
However, in the last two years, the trend has reversed: an electric vehicle needs more chips, the price of which has skyrocketed, lithium, copper and other metals whose prices have become very expensive since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Today, no one estimates that the equilibrium point will arrive in 2025, but closer to the end of the decade.
The situation has changed.
Has the tax increase stopped?
No.
But in Israel the Treasury and the Tax Authority are theirs.
For them, a 130% increase in the sale of electric vehicles this year in Israel, even after the series of price increases throughout the year, is a curse rather than a blessing: an electric vehicle does not need gasoline, 60% of which is taxed, and needs far fewer spare parts, which the state also profits from.
So what if an electric vehicle does not emit pollution from the exhaust near our children, and if even in a country like ours where 25% of its electricity is still produced from coal, the pollution from its electricity production makes its emission level more than 20% lower than even hybrid vehicles already.
In the coming years, when electricity production from coal will stop according to the plans by 2025, and when the proportion of electricity produced from renewable energies increases from 10% today to 30% in 2030 as committed by the Ministry of Energy, this gap will increase and the trams that are being purchased now and will be on the roads for more than a decade, will only become More and more green.
The bottom line: in the midst of a wave of price increases in the economy, the state puts its hand deeper into the drivers' pockets.
Not the rich, not the spoiled.
The renters who buy a car to get to work, take the children to kindergarten, for trips and family visits.
Public transportation is not a complete substitute for the private car, certainly for families, and even more so on weekends.
So we will buy cars, pollute and pay.
How long?
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