Car Regos Go Eco in The Netherlands and Portugal

If you are off to buy a new car in either the Netherlands (or Portugal) this month you might be in for a surprise. You could be forking over €540 more than last month, or you might be paying €6000 less. The two countries have decided to employ the carrot and the stick approach to drive demand for vehicles which spew out less CO2 emissions. Seven classes of car have been devised in the Netherlands, with hybrids being the most favoured. In Portugal, where they’ve gone with a simpler four category system, such vehicles receive a 40% reduction in car registration taxes. The follows on from our story earlier this year of France applying eco-tags to new vehicles, that indicate the CO2 emissions per kilometre for each car. Via ::DTI's Auto Industry News.