German statisticians released data on their export of used diesel cars in recent days, and Croatia has taken second place, after the Ukrainians, according to a report from Jutarnji list’s Autoklub. Despite warnings from environmentalists and eco-warriors, which many experts claim to be false, it appears that Croats love diesel engines regardless.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 16th of November, 2018, with the growth of diesel imports from Germany in 2018, from 89.6 percent in relation to the same period last year, Croatia continues to hold onto the second most respectable position on the entire chart, while first place continues to be reserved by the Ukrainians, a country for which an incredible increase of 136.8 has been recorded.
The fact that these aren’t just some fantasy figures is supported by the data of the Promocija plus agency, and according to them, in the first nine months of this year, a never before seen number of used cars entered Croatia, a massive 57,067 of them, which is equal to 16,732, or 41.5 percent more than were recorded during the same period last year. A large contribution to such a jump, which can be read clearly from the provided figures, was given mainly by diesel engine vehicles.
These are mostly, of course, imported from Germany, and there are as many as 15,434 more diesel engine cars on Croatia’s roads than were recorded last year. Their share in the total number of imported used cars this year has jumped from 88.2 percent to 88.7 percent, a clear indicator that Croats love diesel engines.
This is likely to unnerve eco-warriors and those who make conscious steps to put the environment first, generally by aiming to reduce their carbon footprint. Is the propagated idea that Croatia is becoming a “dumping ground for old diesel engines from Europe” a remotely truthful one? According to some experts, no, it isn’t, and believe it or not, there are some rather strong arguments to support that fact.
For starters, we need to look at good old excise duty. As is already very well known, in recent years, exise duty is ”counted” against a vehicle’s CO2 emissions and value, and excise tax tables are arranged as such so that they do not fall ”into the hands” of favour of older cars which typically produce higher and unwanted emissions of harmful gases.
According to the obtained information, these imported diesel engine cars don’t pose a negative effect on the average age of the domestic Croatian car fleet as would be the case with the import of a large number of brand new cars, and the same applies to the emission of harmful gases. These imports are still newer and cause considerably less pollution than the existing ones do, and therefore ecologists and environmentalists need not be afraid. The increase in diesel car imports is not a problem because Croatia has no particular air quality problems, whereas Germany, for example, definitely does.
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