Fuel duty is never a popular topic, but with the inevitable switchover to electric vehicles (EVs), this long-loathed tax is on its way out, together with the billions of pounds of revenue it generates for the government coffers.
Estimates say the Treasury will earn £28.3bn from fuel duty this financial year and the leading UK think tank and educational charity, Policy Exchange, told Autocar magazine they estimated the move to electric vehicles may cost the government up to £170billion by 2030 in lost taxation.
With this in mind, ministers are considering how to replace this huge financial shortfall and the answer might take the form of road pricing. If MPs go ahead with this scheme, UK drivers will face paying for every mile they drive.
Plugging the gap
In early October, Prime Minister Theresa May promised fuel duty would stay frozen for the ninth year in a row, at 57.95 pence per litre of petrol or diesel purchased. While good news for motorists, it’s still galling to know 44% of what we pay at the pumps is the fuel duty, which may account for why fuel duty is so unpopular. This isn’t an issue for pure electric vehicle owners who avoid paying any fuel duty—something very appealing when fuel prices are so high.
To reduce air pollution, or receive large fines, the government is keen to reduce emissions, by getting all UK motorists—over 30 million of us—to switch to greener cars. Only last week we wrote about the impending ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars.
Not to mention factors such as Oxford City Council considering a ban on all non-zero emissions cars from the city centre, other cities considering charges for petrol and diesel vehicles, and the European Parliament ruling that manufacturers’ must reduce fleet average CO2 emissions for new cars 35% by 2030.
So, how will the government claw back the money lost from fuel duty revenue from petrol and diesel when drivers change to less-polluting hybrid and electric vehicles?
According to Policy Exchange, officials are looking into introducing road pricing to plug the gap, meaning drivers may have to pay to use major routes—even if their vehicles produce zero emissions—which may not go down too well with car owners who feel penalised at every turn.
‘Poll tax on wheels’
There hasn’t been a proposed solution by the government yet, but it’s no doubt on their agenda as the sale of fuel drops with increased EV sales. Josh Burke, Senior Research Fellow for Policy Exchange, told Autocar that a Treasury official had mentioned to him that the government was looking at alternatives to Fuel Duty—one of them being road pricing.
“If anything, the case for reform has accelerated because of the increased uptake of plug-ins,” said Burke.
AA President, Edmund King OBE who, in an interview with Autocar, said: “Road pricing gets described as a poll tax on wheels. It’s political suicide.” Instead, he and his wife, economist Deirdre King propose an alternative scheme they created together, called ‘Road Miles’.
The scheme would give motorists an ‘allowance’ of 3,000 free miles each year, with a charge for every later mile. Motorists living in rural areas and electric vehicle owners would receive more free miles, with a gradual phase-in of the scheme as fuel duty disappears. Just as road pricing would need, for King’s scheme to work, a record of miles travelled is almost certain to come from a device connected to the car’s diagnostic port (much like an insurance telematics ‘black box’) or, for older cars, checked as part of the MOT. Yet, the latter would have to involve a much tighter crackdown on odometer tampering, known as ‘clocking’. This alternative to road pricing may not appeal to all, but last year, King and his wife made the shortlist for the esteemed Wolfson Economics Prize for their Road Miles proposal.
Big Brother is watching you
It‘s a given that fuel duty will disappear and while it would be difficult to apply something similar for electric cars; we have no way of knowing if—while looking at alternatives to keep tax revenue at the current levels—the government won’t bring in a tax on electricity used to charge zero-emission cars.
The possibility of road pricing has always proven to be unpopular. So unpopular that, in 2007, despite no firm proposals being put forward for road pricing, almost two million people signed a Downing Street petition against a national road pricing plan. If the government decide on road pricing as the answer, they could face a fierce backlash from the public. There were also worries from drivers about privacy issues from tracking devices being fitted to cars, which no doubt will resurface if road pricing takes over fuel duty.
In the past, the government said they wouldn’t use the mileage device to keep watch on drivers or to prosecute those found speeding, but who can say future laws won’t change to include such monitoring of driver behaviours?
If, or when, road pricing starts, we’ll know more about more complicated details, such as how will those motorists who, for instance, take their cars on driving holidays across Europe, receive reliable and fair charges only for the mileage clocked up on UK roads? While we wait to see what the future holds for fuel duty, EV drivers, at least, can continue to enjoy no longer having it as part of their motoring costs.
Do you think road pricing is a good replacement for fuel duty? What about the Road Miles idea? Do you have any concerns about having telematics fitted to your car? What alternatives to fuel duty would you support? Tell us in the comments.
Calling road pricing ‘VAT on wheels’ is a catchy term if you’re against it – it makes it sound demonising and unpopular immediately, but isn’t it a fair way to tax motorists? Those who use the roads most, pay most. So the language used is important and comparing a variable tax to VAT is frankly rhetorical propaganda.
While the suggestion of a tax-free mileage allowance sounds sensible as well, and 3,000 miles seems reasonable, the idea of increasing the allowance for rural dwellers and EV owners seems to undermine the original benefit – those likely to use the roads more won’t be contributing the same proportion as others.
What’s not fair about taxing road miles? (This question doesn’t incorporate how it would be done fairly, just the concept that everyone pays for the amount they use the roads).
Rural Tories need to get to work Yo! 😂
Alasdair, 3k miles a year is not fair at all.. I have to do 1k miles a month just to get to work so I can live! that’s not exactly fair now is it.. I can see the gov headlines right now.. ” 3 Months of Road miles tax free!” * **
* By using the roads you agree to the terms and conditions we made without you knowing.
**9 months at full price, price changes dependant on road usage and time being used.
Geography needs to be considered, I for one live in a sizeable town, but it’s a 15mile drive into city for work, so the 3,000 mileage won’t cover me getting to work 5 days a week for 46weeks a year, and I consider myself fairly close to my work compared to some. I’ve also worked with people who live in the city, but work in outlying towns so an extra allowance for rural residents doesn’t benefit them.
3,000 miles a year works out at just over 8 miles a day, based on 365days/year which when average mileage people drive a year is nothing.
Rural public transport would require significant investment to increase use. For me and my family to visit my wife’s family who are 150+miles away costs me a £50 in petrol, on public transport I’d be well over £200 for train/bus/taxis, plus a lot of inconvenience.
A pay per mile would also lead to huge increases in goods delivery which would be pushed onto shoppers and may lead to huge variances in delivery charges depending on where in the UK you are. Currently in the Highland of Scotland, many delivery companies charge an additional £60+ for delivery, even to non-remote locations compared to elsewhere in the country.
The reason rural drivers drive more is because there is virtually no convenient public transport! What do you suggest? If you live in the country stay at home all day? So, only if you are a member of the metropolitan set are you able to go out and use the abundant public transport, otherwise, tough?
Have you seen how few petrol stations there are ‘in the sticks’?
Road miles = trackers. BAD. How about keep the tax for combustion engines as it is and introduce a used KWH on the electric vehicle and that is taxed. Same as your house meter.
Hey, I wonder what other countries do that are successful? Who has travelled to Germany? Why are we trying to reinvent the wheel? No shame in copying or slightly modifying a successful system. Also have to look at the expenditure and efficiency of Highway maintenance compared to other countries. Where do the billions get spent? Certainly not on the average road. Cones perhaps?😉
Umm VAT on electricity bills is a bit like fuel duty for EVs anyway, just not to the daylight robbery 44% levels for petrol and diesel. So they are actually only going to lose half the quoted amount of fuel duty by 2030 as a fair chunk will be clawed back as VAT on domestic electricity bills.
The correspondent who suggested that VAT on domestic electricity bills might offset lost fuel duty hasn’t done his sums !
A typical petrol engined car might do 40mpg. A gallon is around 5.5 litres so a 0 mile trip might contribute over £2.50 in tax. 40 miles in an EV would use around 10kWh which if car is charged overnight would cost about 90p and 5% vat on that would be rather less than 5p. So not quite half !
Afraid I can’t edit above comment but I think it’s fairly obvious I was assuming a 40 mile trip rather than a zero one !
Should also point out that a gallon is 4.5 litres, not 5.5
Afraid that was another typo that system wouldn’t allow me to correct ! Cash results quoted were correct.
It doesn’t need to be set at 5% thought does it? It could be higher.
But if you raise this 5% to a higher rate that would automatically raise the VAT on all domestic power and affect many people who do not even own a car!
Road pricing, or any such alternative in one form or another, is inevitable considering the huge taxation losses that will arise with the demise of fuel duty.
UK road users might be more amenable towards these costs if the government were to guarantee better upkeep of our (currently 3rd world) roads.
Maybe we should also do away with the current road tax system and couple it with road pricing?
EV takeover ???
Not gonna be happening for a long while yet
“EV takeover”? A pipdream.
I would mention all the other things happening in the industry but it’s mostly talk and no action – hence your understandable scepticism, so I’ll explain about Tesla who are actually making and selling EVs.
But first, did you hear Jaguar Land Rover are considering going full EV (by 2025 😱)? Here are some snippets: “It will be a direct competitor for Porsche’s upcoming Taycan, alongside strong-selling cars such as the Tesla Model S.” “The electric vehicle proposal has received added impetus from the extremely strong reception for the new electric I-Pace”
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/jaguar-considers-transformation-ev-only-brand
Anyway, EVs are already taking over in China and beginning to take over in the US with the Tesla Model 3 now available. The Model 3 is moving into the top 10 list of vehicles sold in the US. Not EVs, all vehicles. Not just cars… all vehicles.
It’s also the safest vehicle ever tested by the US Government, scoring 5 stars in all categories AND subcategories.
I’m pretty sure when it arrives in Europe next year (expected in Q2) Tesla’s will begin to be as visible as BMW 3-series.
Tesla also has a pretty interesting roadmap for vehicle releases, with the Model Y being announced in a few months (a CUV), a pickup truck (a vehicle class which dominates to top 10 vehicles sold in the US), their new roadster (which not many of us will be able to afford, but will set a new bar for hypercar performance) and their Tesla Semi truck, which is racking up huge pre-orders from companies and will begin to electrify the haulage industry.
So, interesting times a-coming!
You’re obviously a fan of EVs but at the moment they’re too expensive and unsuitable for making a cross continental journey. I just hate that we’re going to get caned again with tax just for driving.
While I understand some people’s skepticism I just can’t understand and have never been able to the pure hatred against paying for miles done. Those of us who use the roads the most pay more, what’s wrong with that? And if the revenue generated goes to road maintenance then even better… But corruption would probable mean that cash goes elsewhere lol.
Isn’t it something like 90 odd percent of journeys in the UK are under 10 miles? You say ev’s aren’t viable and for a small minority they aren’t, but for the majority they already are. The best ev’s can go for 300+ miles on a charge and can get a hundred or more miles back on a 30 minute charge. If you aren’t stopping for a 30 minute rest on an extended journey then you’re a danger to yourself and other road users.
A concerned lorry driver.
Which ev’s have a range of 300 miles, with full passenger load and luggage? If there was one and it didn’t cost an arm and a leg to buy, and fitting charging points weren’t so expensive, I’d get one
And which ones can pull my large caravan from manchester to the south coast without having to stop 15 times for a recharge…?
Tesla model X. You would be amazed at it’s torque. But it’s not cheap!
At least you have somewhere to sleep while you wait.
You are wrong. If you live in the countryside you have to drive, simple….
If you live in a city you don’t have to drive most of the time.
Why should people be punished because they don’t have alternatives to the car?
Even if you live in town you need a car or van, you won’t get a bus company to take 50 bricks like a car or some large garden tools like mowing machine or even a rake or spade
I am a fan of EV’s and admit there aren’t currently models available that suits all needs. Most people don’t make cross-continental journey’s though.
A lot of the issues raised on this website’s comments section are for relative fringe cases, such as towing a caravan or driving more than 500 miles without recharging.
For most people, or as a family’s second car a Renault Zoe would probably do fine. It’s available now and has a real world 180 mile range.
But until these cars have a range of 400+ miles for a business like mine these vehicles are useless
Can’t see Howard and Hilda on a small pension being able to buy one of your super expensive toys. Ok for Mr Mega Bucks.
Reducing over seas aid will not only help this situation it will solve many other problems in this country
It will reduce corruption overseas as well
If only the government had the guts to do something about it
UK overseas aid 0.7% or 70p in every £100 of tax. A total of £13Billion, fuel duty collects £170 Billion as stated in this article. So it won’t really help much at all.
Ben, If you read the article correctly,170 billion equates to 12 years.
Using the old maxim look after the pennies…. then its a start!
Don’t forget the every penny the public give to charities home or abroad they will give one too. that should stop.
Its not the amount from us its the waste of moumental ampounts of public money poured down the throats of corrupt politicians in these countries !!
Stuart, that is far too sensible for MP’s to digest… Nothing would be in it for them? 🙂
Don’t forget our treasonous government BORROWS the £14BN in “Aid” PA to then pay expensive loans to pay back money given to those with space programmes and/or who want us dead. So essentially we give money to those who use it to attack us. You couldn’t make this s*** up!
Whatever technology is used to put cars on the rds. The government will find a way of milking the motorist.
Can’t get blood out of a stone?
The government would find a way of doing it!
It’s called debt, and then financial slavery when you just can’t see a way to ever pay it back.
motorist being stiffed AGAIN? no surprise there. as always THEY are the UK cash cow, hitting those who need the help the most (low income families) as not everyone has a bus or a tube train 2 mins from their door, every few minutes. in fact we have a grand total of 2 buses per WEEK where i am from and the nearest train station is too far away to get to without a car (and WAY more expensive, especially for more than 1 person) so a car is essential, yet despite being on a ‘minimmum wage’ contract (as most jobs are around here) WE still get hit hard, just like the people in London who are hit equally or less hard, have alternatives to using a car AND earn, in some cases, over 3 times as much for the exact same job!
and once they install telematics this will be used as another cash cow. every inadvertent overspeed downhills will be recorded and slapped with a fine, insurers will jump on it for calculating premiums (no more trackdays so people will be made unemployed) so sorry but no. i dont want a telematics box and if i have to, ill keep an old car before ill go electric.
Just for your interest (because I thought it was quite informative) you might want to check out this video on YouTube about electric scooters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M_d7EIaXV4
TL;DR Hire a scooter using an app, for $1 initial rental then 15¢ per minute. Leave it where you end up. People are paid to take them home and charge them up. Basically helps connect people to public transport hubs at both ends.
If you assume that the majority of low income families do live in built-up areas (because you can’t afford to live in the rural countryside if you’re on a low income by definition – usually) then your challenge of affordable transport and the links to that (typically public) transport are absolutely valid.
This is why I thought this electric scooter thing is such a good idea. I don’t live in a city, but I am an inconvenient distance from public transport, so something like this would be amazing.
I’m not saying it’s a perfect solution – as highlighted in the video – but it’s a new concept that does help overcome one of the issues with public transport.
Providing you don’t mind being seen on an electric scooter. But beggars can’t be choosers, as the saying goes. I can hear the replies now though “how will you carry your shopping home on that, or get your furniture from IKEA?” – yes, this isn’t for those fringe use cases. But it addresses a need, right?
Electric cars use power from power stations.. So more electric cars = more demand on power stations, so more polution from them….
Philip Hicks, Isn’t that only true while we use fossil fuel? The vat on electricity only covers domestic and commercial use. This is a new use which is not used by everyone and therefore needs a tax to cover it which is equivalent to the tax on fuel and/or vehicle tax
Tax tax tax tax. Why are so many people willing to pay even more?
I believe the reduced VAT of 5% only applies to energy for domestic use in homes, I believe businesses pay the full 20% VAT on energy but if VAT registered can claim the VAT back. Governments do not seem to have taken into account that EV cars are abusing this if charged at home, maybe domestic energy should be charged VAT at 20% and a fixed amount of VAT say £150 per year refunded on energy bill for each household to cover the extra paid on basic domestic use, heavy users would then be paying the full VAT on higher usage, doubt they would do it as the rich with big homes would be the ones paying for wasting energy and producing more pollution.
In theory if EV charging at home picks up the charging should be picked up via Smart meters based on location / voltage use?
Go to the YouTube channel Autoexpert.co.au and if dig through his vlogs you’ll find an explanation about how much energy is needed to produce hydrogen, he also explains the problems with the extra power needed for EV. Just bear in mind he is an Aussie so his language can be rather ‘colourful’ but the guy does know his stuff, nevertheless.
needs a tax?
But less pollution overall because power stations are considerably more efficient at turning fossil fuels into usable energy than millions of combustion engines in cars. (Economies of scale)
You’re also not accounting for the renewable mix on the grid, which is increasing. And the fact it’s possible to power an EV from home using solar.
Good news too – the UK Government plans to shut down all coal power stations by 2025: http://gridwatch.co.uk
For a tongue in cheek explanation of EVs powered by 100% coal vs a petrol car, this video is only 60 seconds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bkh5nnMac7U
Turning gas or coal to electricity is very inefficient, no matter how hard you try 30% of the energy is lost in heat. then there is of course the inevitable release of the dreaded CO2. Well end up with more not less pollution.
I was actually looking at a co2 pollution study a few weeks ago when I was talking about this with someone. And the lowering of co2 and other pollutants from power generation over the last 30 years has been staggering, it makes developments to the internal combustion engine look ridiculously small.
Don’t worry about extra pollution from power stations when we are just changing from burning oil in cars to digging up rare earth metals to make batteries instead, all we are doing is moving the problem elsewhere.
But that’s a different problem. And none of you are accounting for the fact that the “extra” EVs on the road will displace ICE cars. So…
Not if we continue a switch to renewable energy … wind, wave and solar power!
currently renewables are only a small part of the generation mix. The gov made a big thing about coal free days, but about 40% still comes from gas and just under 50% from fossil fuels
Renewables are 29% and about half of this is wind power which needs storage (YoY increases capacity by about 20%)
Nuclear still sitting at 20% (but the current generation of plants are nearing EoL)
if all vehicles went to electric, the grid couldnt cope.
“if all vehicles went to electric, the grid couldnt cope.”
@EnviableOne the rest of what you said might be fine, but people who think this don’t know what they’re talking about. Fortunately National Grid DO know what they’re talking about. Actually read their 2050 scenarios and how they are expecting to cope with EVs. It’s not “if” but “when”, and the grid will be fine.
http://fes.nationalgrid.com <— FACTS!
You guys might be all doom and gloom about a changing future, but the people that matter have actually thought about this stuff.
So stop coming up with opinions that aren't based on fact and are wrong, and spreading FUD.
At last someone else who realises about wave power – no matter the weather the tide still comes in and out each day. Also, it could reduce the erosion on the east coast too!
My EV runs on wind, but we are building new nuclear power stations and even if we use coal it’s burnt with much higher efficiency than your car burns petrol.
Not sure that this is true. It’s difficult to compare accurately but the figures I have seen suggest that Coal produces 23 to 42 MJ of energy, with an average of 29.3 MJ/kg. Petrol in cars produces 47 to 49 MJ/kg, 31 MJ/litre
Somewhere along the line we’re forgetting/ignoring(?) the nuclear waste that’s generated and where to store it. Serious times.
Fuel duty is already a form of road pricing as the more miles youdo to more duty you are paying. I think Ireland abolished road tax years ago and increased fuel duty to reflect the actual usage
I have recently moved to Spain, but frequently drive back to the UK. How would a road pricing scheme operate for foreign drivers who wouldn’t have a device fitted to their cars? Edmund King’s proposal seems most sensible to me, as I don’t like individuals’ privacy having a potential for breach in future law making, but I’m still wondering about the numbers of foreign drivers on UK roads each year and how their share of tax would be captured.
How much do foreign drivers currently pay in UK road tax? Nothing. So…
It is already unfair that EVs for the most part pay no VED when they contribute just as much to the wear and tear of our roads. They also benefit from not paying the horrendous duty levied on fuel not forgetting the VAT element which is 20% compared to the 5% on electricity, and is applied AFTER duty has been added (tax on tax).
As others have already mentioned, the pollution caused by the extra generation capacity required to feed these ‘clean’ vehicles probably outweighs that caused by the ‘polluting’ cars they replace. This also ignores the cost of providing that extra generating capacity (estimated at £50 Bn now to the Chinese to build a probably suspect Hinkley Point), which is actually being funded by ALL of us, not just the EV users). All this in the name of the environment which as we all know is rubbish, just like the Air Passenger Tax which has nothing to do with pollution and everything to do with tax revenue.
A tax on actual road use sounds like a good idea albeit one that would require some sort of tracking device. Any tax should also take into account the weight of the vehicle as this is also a contributing factor to road wear. So, high mileage, heavy vehicles would pay the most. Low mileage light cars would pay less. Sounds fair to me. Heavy Goods vehicles already pay a premium rate so there is precedent for this approach. Might get a few Chelsea Tractors off the road not to mention the new trend for oversized pickup type vehicles that we have now followed the USA in adopting. Fair enough if you are a builder or landscape gardener, but (like SUVs) these are seen as status symbols.
EV’s are much much heavier than a normal car and hence will degrade our roads faster. The simplest solution is to put road tax back on EV’s. They may not pollute at source but they do pollute at the power station and they have a harder degrading effect on the roads. I never understood why a low polluting car pays less on road tax when pollution as nothing to do with the road.
Why should we pay for a miles tax we all ready pay for a tax on our roads yet the roads are never maintained correctly, do we then pay the govermemt a premium for never correcting damaged roads that damage our cars daily, then they are formerly suggesting a miles tax, the only way to do this means big brother wont be watching you, he will be sitting next to you where ever you go. Is this what it has come too. If they want us to pay for them getting a free ride, then we all need to for a week refuse to drive, then lets see where they will get that money to replace fuel duty.
What about a ‘road useage charge’ being incorporated into the total cost levied on the electricity used by EVs when coupled up to charging stations? That way they would be paying a different kind of ‘road tax’ which is the equivalent to the fuel duty paid when purchasing diesel or petrol fossil fuels at the pump. The more miles an EV travels, the more often they need to recharge and so the greater the extra payment levied as their ‘road useage charge’. (Say an extra 30 or 40% added on to the cost of the electricity used when charging up, for example, and paid for at the charging station as with the present fuel duty?)
It sounds like a fair idea. It would encourage public transport and shared use of say travel to work, reduce congestion etc especially in the beginning until the public get used to it then use of car would return to ” normal”.
Other countries like Norway use road charge by each car having a sensor ( major roads and cities) and the car owner pay monthly like any other utility bill for miles travelled. Pays for upgrades of roads, new roads, tunnels, bridges etc.
3,000 miles each year? Then have more than one vehicle. My wife and I have 4 vehicles(2 diesel and 2 petrol) between us but only 2 are ever taxed and insured at any one time. My Skoda Octavia, 1999 reg, still returns 65+mpg on a run and this year was the first time the MOT cost me(broken springs, thanks pot holes).
Why is it that overpayed.overpensioned and over expenses account people always come up with complicated ideas for solving problems All you have to do is charge people who use the roads an amount of money to use the roads and it doesnt matter what the propultion meathod it is we all pay the same amount for cars amounts for motorcycles and amounts for heavy vehicles, and lets call it ROAD TAX.
As were heading for clean methods of fueling ie battery or fuel cells in a reletively short time just get on with it, and while were at it for cyclists make it manditory to have a minimum of one rear view mirror ,insurance, copulsary helmet wearing and a small amounr of road tax if only to pay for the paint on cycle lanes, and do away with it being automatically everyone elses fault but theirs when they are involved in an accident (they all seem to have a death wish)
Again they will hit the poorest. Road pricing and road miles will cost a lot more than fuel duty. People know how much they are paying at the pumps. When and if they bring this in no one is going to know how much it is going to cost them until they get their bank statement. With this government it is bound to cost more. For years governments have tried to get the poorest in our society off the roads. This could be the deciding factor. Also electric cars are still not viable. Cost is a massive problem. They want to cut pollution what about the pollution that is being spilled out from the factories that make the batteries
This is just the loss of tax based upon fuel tax. EV s pay no road tax at the moment so that’s another loss. The fuel companies will make less profit so that’s another tax loss. Loss of jobs in fuel stations and refineries. How long before the realisation sinks in that the original idea was wrong. The whole idea is based on that industry will come up with a battery that will permit a 500 mile journey with no stopping.
Giving 3000 free miles won’t work, it’s open to abuse and no matter how sophisticated the technology is to monitor it, the even more clever techy bad guys will crack it in no time, they will never stop the ‘clocking’ practice. An easier way is to just maybe allow the first 3 months of the year free (or the first 3 months if you’re a new driver who doesn’t take to the road until after March). There will be initial wrinkles and potential loopholes but they can be addressed fairly easily.
NO ! I DO NOT think ANY form of taxation is acceptable “as a replacement “ for any “tax lost” , the truth is now showing go ernment and polticians as the out and out liars that they in fact are , increases in such taxes were SUPPOSED to be a method of assisting with pollution according to them , LIARS ! Not one government or politician is worth even one penny , they are ALL corrupt liars ,out to feather their own nests , with zero interest in the public or the planet ! All they can think about is punishing or fleecing the public with many and varied forms of taxation , which far too many in the upper echelons , including politicians themselves ,avoid ,with expenses fiddles etc .If politicians were paid on results , they would OWE the public money !
I agree we pay far too much tax as it is that the government wastes or gives away. Better that they do without the tax and get more efficient.
If people are reducing polution by using EVs then they should gain the benefit financially.
VED has gone up for all new vehicles so they may just keep increasing it. Seems the simplest cost effective option if they have to.
So the taxes need to come from somewhere to pay for all the services. Where do you suggest they look to raise more money?
Road mileage charging will generate a fraud larger than you can imagine. With so many gismos these days that can alter your recorded miles. It would be too easy to clip a few thousand miles off before MOT. This is the point where the charge comes in, a sudden bill for your travels. No NO they are just opening the flood gates to crime on a mega scale. Someone will find a way round it, they a;ways do.
The cost of electric will just go up for everybody wait and see
EVs are much the same as there was on stop smoking reduced revenue to the tax man
EVs still have the wear and tear factor to be brought into any road pricing, yes they will save on fuel tax but they still use the road ststem so they should also pay if road pricing comes it, lets make them feel part of the team.
Road pricing, if done, has to be done in a way that NOBODY can avoid paying. The current road tax can be avoided and people can still drive their cars about (risking being stopped or using false plates). Duty on fuel can’t easily be avoided, as everyone has to fill up their cars with petrol/diesel, unless someone has access to red diesel.
No suggestions on how it could be done going forward, but it has to be 100% enforceable, otherwise certain people will avoid paying it.
Absolutely nonsense all of it! using coal fed generators or nuclear power to charge car batteries that cause more damage to the environment to produce in the first place meanwhile we continue to drop bombs and sell arms to dictator run countries that allow their own children to live and die in squalor…
It has nothing whatsoever to do with environmental issues it’s about money and money alone plain and simple, these people don’t care about the poor or homeless and would not but a hot drink in the middle of winter for you or I why do you think they care about the planet… They don’t they are motivated by money and greed alone
The UK is coming more and more a communist state by driving the motorist off the road so only the rich can afford to use the empty road. There are many parts of the UK where the only means folks have of getting about is to use their vehicle.
The biggest fraudsters are the Government look how they persuaded folks to switch to diesel not only did they make the cost of diesel suddenly more expensive than petrol, if you own a diesel you are treated as a pariah and demonised.
There is no lower form of life than a politician. They just want to make your life miserable if they are really looking to save money they should look at themselves first. 1. make the vast majority of MP’s use public transport in London. 2. sell of the large fleet of large expensive cars except for the vehicles used by the Royal Family, PM and others needed to convey high profile visitors and make the rest use mini’s etc. 3. No overnight expenses for any MP who lives within commuting distance about 2 hrs by train 4. stop all the subsidy food and drink in their bars and restaurant in the Houses of Westminster all of which the general public are paying for.
Why don’t we impose a charge on all the foreign vehicles that enter and travel in the UK. If we take our Car to Europe we have to pay tolls etc.
Can’t electricity for cars be taxed? (we pay 5% tax on domestic fuel currently)?
Rural residents would need a substantially larger mileage allowance as there is virtually not public transport in the countryside – eg you may be able to walk a mile or so to the nearest bus stop which would take you the 10 miles to the nearby town – but you would then have to spend the whole day there until the bus back at 5 pm – then walk back along country roads in the pitch dark in winter!
Rural drivers cannot be treated like metropolitan drivers.
Would the mileage allocation be on the person or on the car?
This will surely damage the tourist industry in this country? It will be cheaper to go abroad on a gas guzzling areoplane than to drive to the West Country or Scotland for a holiday. And then when you arrive, if you do stay in the UK, are you meant to stay in your hotel or whatever all the time?
Whichever way you look at it road pricing is very unfair and very unpopular. I really don’t see a Conservative government introducing it. It will need to be a dictatorship, a la the current Labour party.
First and foremost how are we going to produce enough electricity to recharge all thes batteries
Evs
If the government wants everyone to drive an electric vehicle why are they not using them instead of the JAGUARS – BMW’s and RANGE ROVERS they will charge the motorist what they like no matter what we drive bring back the horse and carriage then the pricks will charge us for horse s**t lol
Why the government has decided that electric vehicles are exempt from paying road tax is beyond me thay still use the roads like petrol/diesel cars and cause wear and tear on the roads that have to be repaired and payed for from road tax,so mr government start charging electric vehicles for using our roads,as they cause as much damage to roads as any vehicle.
And that way you will still get your 50billion a year.
ANPR based charging for frequently used roads would make sense – no need for blackboxes on every car, there are already trafffic monotiring and ANPR cameras in place on many roads. No issues of people being charged abroad, on on trackdays etc. Use a particualr stretch of road, pay for that use. it’s simple enough to break the cities into bite size chunks, and main trunk roads.
No road pricing scheme is a good idea ,we are already in a road pricing scheme, as the more miles you drive the more fuel /tax you pay , there will always be a need for petrol/ diesel vehicles,but there won’t always be a need for corrupt governments
Give me an EV that can do 600 miles on one charge like my diesel does, that doesn’t cost me more than £10,000 and I’ll switch tomorrow.
As ever the motorist is getting ripped off, and this will be yet another example of it. It’s great that the government wants everyone to buy an EV car, but the cheapest one I can find is the Renault Zoe at £13,995, and that is with the government discount. Added to that is the monthly lease of the battery, which can be anywhere for £50 to £110 (per month), depending on the length of the lease and annual mileage. It takes 3-4 hours to charge and has a range of 130 miles. 14 grand for a car that will go 130 miles! That’s bad enough, but not everyone has 14 grand to spend on a Zoe, or wants to. As for taxing electricity at 20%, that just screws those who want/have to run ICE cars. We’re already paying tax on the fuel and VED duty, none or little of which goes back into the roads, and now we could end up paying extra tax on our electricity for EV cars we don’t even own. In some ways I like the idea of paying by the mile, but it needs well thought out, as well as removing the fuel tax and VED.
Also did you know that Value Added Tax (VAT) is a European tax. VAT should be scrapped as we ditch the insidious EU. Our government needs to put the citizens it is supposed to SERVE first. It is not ignorance all of this corruption & poor decision making but instead a deliberate ii sustained attack on us.
A couple of issues – what about lorries?
Secondly I have a very low emissions Mercedes yet I pay 00’s more in road tax than someone who has a Ford KA which I believe is one of the worst polluters!!
EV drivers still pollute, just not at the point of driving, unless they use renewables, so a carbon tax calculation could be applied statistically per mile. In fact without renewable or nuclear power the inefficiency of producing power and sending it down the grid is probably quite bad.
What about motorcycles- Hgvs – farm vehicles- etc. No mention of these. How much pressure can this grid take. Typical government never think of the whole picture.
It seems to elude the minds of thes e so called professionals that although ‘on the road’ EV are greener, somewhere something is making the power. Even with so called green wind power how much damage is done to the environment building the turbines and how much damage caused by BATTERY manufacture. All these points taken are they really THAT much cleaner???
The government wants people to buy EV, PHEV and Hybrid cars. It worries about not reducing emissions but reduces or wipes out the government allowance on them from Nov 12. Then it raises VED on such vehicles.
It also cracks down on cleaner dis also as well. In Norway they have made EV attractive with rebates. In Korea they have plug in stations on motorways.
UK fiddles.
Luckily I have bought my PHEV before the cuts.
People will stop buying any new cars if my friends are to be believed.
All cars must pay tax on the miles they travel on our roads , the money must be used for upkeep and upgrading .
Who els should pay.? But I agree we pay far too much to other countries. Start to think about maintaining your own home
Before giving our money away to others.. that’s why we are leaving th eu, isn’t it..?
Its time cyclists and all road users were charged for using the roads and made to have Insurance, plus cyclists should have a licence to ride on A roads. Most of them don’t know their Highway Code, or simply don’t apply it.
What load of rubbish as there will be more people on the dole as they Will not be able to get to work due to it becoming too expensive.
What planet are these people on?? Why not hydrogen power? This would involve the same taxation mechanisms without creating a trebling of the demand for electrical power for electric cars with all the extra infrastructure, peak power demand at the end of each day’s commute and a power station outside every large town. What about the households with no off road parking??