Tax rise puts luxury Audi A8 on special offer

Shanghai, August 14 (Gasgoo.com) China's newly announced plan to raise tax on big cars will affect the sales of many imported vehicles of high-emissions. Recently, dealers of imported cars said that the Audi A8 is now put on special offer, with its selling price reduced by 70,000 yuan ($1,025) to 970,000 yuan, reported China Business news today.

In its effort to cut auto emissions, the Chinese government announced yesterday that the sales / comsumption tax on big cars will be raised as of September 1. The tax on passenger vehicles with engines bigger than 4 liters will be doubled to 40% from 20%, and those buying vehicles with engines sized from 2 liters up to 4 liters will have to pay a 25% tax, up from the current 15%.

The Audi A8 has a few models on special offer this time, and the dealers said they would not rule out the possibility that the Audi A8 will have its prices scaled higher up after its current marked-down units are sold out. The special offer is seen as a sales gimmick used to attract more customers ahead of the new tax implementation next month.

The Audi A8 is a large luxury automobile built by Audi to replace the V8 model as their flagship offering to rival the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and BMW 7 Series. Most versions of the A8 have featured quattro permanent four-wheel drive as standard, as well as a multitronic or Tiptronic automatic transmission.