Waring, Mazda: A decline by a few percentage points counts for us

Philip Waring, vice-president of sales of Mazda Motor Europe, says the announced elimination of the pollution tax for vehicles with an under 2.0-litre cylinder capacity, which failed to be applied shortly thereafter, has caused problems for the automotive market, with potential clients waiting for the step to be taken and putting on hold any acquisition. “In Romania we are currently facing the same problem we faced on the UK market, after the VAT reduction was announced – for ten days, from the time of the announcement until the time it took effect, we did not sell a single car. While for food products or FMCG products, a few percentage points do not count a lot, for a car, we are talking about hundreds or thousands of euros, which are very big sums. In Romania, the elimination of the pollution tax was announced a few weeks ago, but nothing happened, other than its postponement,” Philip Waring, present at the Bologna Auto Show, told ZF.