The VTAX research project looked at the legal architecture of vehicle taxes in the European context. The overall objective was to analyse vehicle taxes in the European Union in terms of sustainability, to understand their rationale and structure, and to provide some reform proposals to make them more sustainable.
The study of the European legal framework and policy initiatives was essential to understand the current context, the role of the EU and the challenges it faces in the transition to more sustainable mobility. Europe is responding with different actions. On the one hand, new forms of mobility, such as micromobility, are gaining ground in cities. However, the lack of a regulation that assimilates these solutions to vehicles currently precludes any impact on vehicle taxes. On the other hand, one of the key points of the European strategy for sustainable mobility is electrification. This is already having an impact on Member States' fiscal and financial systems. Electric vehicles (EV) are the most technologically advanced solution. However, they are still not affordable for everyone. For this reason, the tax system is committed to trying to create incentives for the purchase of these vehicles by consumers. Electrification affects not only incentives, but also taxation. As EVs do not produce any emissions, the criteria for taxing vehicles in the future may no longer be based on emissions. Instead, the current research proposes the criterion of use expressed in kilometres travelled, a criterion that has been known to the EU since the 1990s and that can now be implemented thanks to the development of digital tools that provide this data. At the same time, EVs also represent a major challenge. There are many environmental issues related to the production and disposal of batteries. The European legislator is starting to address the issue of the sustainability of EV batteries through a regulatory approach. However, it is not taken into account when designing national incentives to promote EV purchases, except in France, which recently reformed its "bonus écologique" to take into account CO2 emissions during battery production when calculating the amount of the subsidy.
Although mobility is a key component of Europe's environmental transition strategy towards climate neutrality, the unanimity rule in the Council on tax matters prevents the EU from playing a leading role in the field of vehicle taxation. As a result, vehicle taxes are regulated at national level and the analysis of the European experience shows that there is a high degree of inhomogeneity between national approaches. The analysis of vehicle taxes from a sustainability point of view, carried out first on the Spanish and Italian systems and then on other European countries, has been useful to understand national trends and to identify some good practices that could be implemented in other Member States. This has led to some proposals for the reform of vehicle taxation to encourage the electrification of the vehicle fleet in Spain and Italy.
This is an overview of the project results achieved:
- The realisation of an international mobility from Italy to a Spanish University to develop a research project that achieved three objectives:
1. To identify new challenges for road transport taxation towards sustainability, with 2 reports (deliverables) 1 chapter in a forthcoming book;
2. To propose an improvement of vehicle taxation through a comparative analysis in different EU countries, with 2 reports (deliverables) and 1 chapter in a forthcoming book;
3. To define the role of the EU in the mobility transition strategy with 1 report as deliverable, 1 chapter in book (
https://repositorioinstitucional.ceu.es/handle/10637/14650(opens in new window)) and 1 article published in a top-ranking scientific journal (
https://repositorioinstitucional.ceu.es/handle/10637/14647(opens in new window)).
- A well-developed transfer of knowledge and training plan, with 29 activities that not only increased the knowledge of the research topic with a multidisciplinary approach, but also improved their soft skills, in particular project coordination, organisation and management, and relationships;
- targeted and impactful dissemination and communication activities, with 18 activities, during which the fellow was able to disseminate and discuss specific aspects of the research with different audiences (children, students, policy makers, businesses, international organisations, academics) and build new relationships for future collaborations.
All training and outreach activities developed during the fellowship contributed to advancing the state of the art by analysing and discussing previously unexplored profiles, such as the role of taxation in the development of electrification, the impact of electrification on vehicle taxation, and how to design financial incentives that support the production of more sustainable electric cars.
