Diesel pickup avoids penalty tax - the state loses a quarter of a billion

For the past three years, the Isuzu D-Max has been the best-selling pickup in Sweden. One explanation for the success is that the manufacturer offers a retrofitted gas tank that allows it to partially run on vehicle gas. The conversion currently costs SEK 9,900.

Through this maneuver, the tax is reduced from around SEK 24,000 to SEK 4,000 per year during the first three years - a total saving of SEK 60,000. At the same time, the owner can choose to fill up with diesel only.

According to the current rules, a vehicle can be counted as a gas car even if it is only partly powered by gas. This avoids so-called malus taxation. The Isuzu D-Max basically has a diesel engine that can be powered up to 50 percent by vehicle gas. But if the gas tank is not filled, it is 100 percent powered by diesel.

Tobias Gustavsson Binder, researcher at the IVL Swedish Environmental Institute, has produced statistics showing that 4,102 gas-converted diesel-powered pickups have been registered in Sweden since 2021. Almost all of them are Isuzu D-Max. He believes that the manufacturer has found a way around the rules.

- It is a system error that should have been fixed when you realized what kind of cars these are, he says.

If these pickups had instead been registered as diesel vehicles, the state would have received approximately another quarter of a billion in tax revenue.

- It's money that should actually benefit the conversion that instead subsidizes new diesel-powered pickups, says Tobias Gustavsson Binder.

In addition, almost 40 percent of the gas-converted vehicles have been registered in municipalities where there are currently no filling stations for biogas (CNG), according to IVL's mapping. Nor are any new purely gas-powered passenger cars sold in Sweden.

- This malus exception has gone from favoring cars that run on biogas to favoring diesel-powered pickups, says Tobias Gustavsson Binder.

In the policy investigation that was handed over to the government this spring, it is proposed that the malus exemption for gas vehicles should be abolished from 1 January 2028. But it is currently unclear what will happen to the proposal. The IVL researcher is keen for the change to take place as soon as possible.

Isuzu Sweden's brand director Per Håkansson does not agree with the description that they are exploiting a loophole.

- We have solved a demand problem. Then it is very sad that there has been talk of this being a loophole. We have done this to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and we are doing that, he says.

But if you choose not to run on gas, then don't you emit less?

- No, that's how it is.

So it will be the driver's choice?

- Yes, in the same way as it is the driver's choice to charge his plug-in hybrid or not. It's the same problem, says Per Håkansson.

That an investigation suggests that the malus exception for gas cars should be scrapped is something he regrets.

- We will of course comply with the applicable legislation. But what happens is that you remove an alternative that actually lowers carbon dioxide emissions, says Per Håkansson.

Instead, he thinks that the owner should be able to report which fuels it has refueled and thus receive a lower tax.

- It is a shame that the great mass should be affected for something that is not universal.