Safe cars should cost less
Israeli buyers can get a tax benefit of several thousand shekels for a new car equipped with all the latest safety systems. According to the tax administration, the list of safety systems has been updated. As of January 2022, the pedestrian or cyclist proximity warning system benefit will no longer be available. Instead, one bonus point will be given for having an emergency braking system to prevent accidents involving pedestrians or cyclists.
A benefit for the presence of a system to prevent forgetting children in the car has been increased from 0.5 points to 1 point. One point each will be given for the automatic reverse braking and the adaptive cruise control system. The maximum 2 points will be still assigned for the vehicle’s active lane departure warning and emergency braking systems.
But there is also sad news. Due to a global shortage of chips, manufacturers are beginning to reduce the number of safety systems in their cars. Thus, Skoda stopped installing blind spot monitoring systems. Skoda’s official importer in Israel, Champion Motors, has notified customers who order Skoda cars that they can either get their car at a discount of 2,000 shekels or cancel the order if they don’t want to receive the car without this safety system. Previously, similar measures were taken by Volvo (Sweden).
