JUSTICE!

[Andrew]

For once in his career, Jeremy Hunt has done something right.

Imposed Road Tax on Electric cars.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63660321

Too right and about bloody time.  Any Engineer who has done road design will tell you that the enemy of road surfaces other than water is axle weights.  

Electric cars are heavy due to their batteries and are damaging the road surfaces so its only fair that they pay up.

[dj123]

its not really about making them pay for the road damage. Its the revenue they're after - with millions of them now on the road, even if they were the lower end of the scale at £100 its a lot of money to lose out on yearly & at the pumps with all the vat/tax they shove onto fuel too. 

 

[Sharkfan]

I think that realistically it was always going to happen eventually but the financial crisis has forced his hand. Lots of EV/Hybrid SUV's are now pushing 3 tonnes in weight so a lot more damage to the roads.

[duncan-uk]

Sadly i think we're all doomed. Environmentally we are pissing on our chips.

[BobA]

On 17/11/2022 at 15:31, dj123 said:

& at the pumps with all the vat/tax they shove onto fuel too.

And this is going to be the big issue of course. Once there are more electric cars than IC ones (to say nothing of vans, trucks and buses) the duty and vat losses to the treasury will be far too great to ignore but there's no obvious way to tax an electric vehicle's fuel so then what? Road use charging perhaps? It's already well talked about.

Edited November 19, 2022 by BobA

[dj123]

1 hour ago, BobA said:

And this is going to be the big issue of course. Once there are more electric cars than IC ones (to say nothing of vans, trucks and buses) the duty and vat losses to the treasury will be far too great to ignore but there's no obvious way to tax an electric vehicle's fuel so then what? Road use charging perhaps? It's already well talked about.

no, it wouldn't work - too complex to figure out and to run. 

EV's are part of a short to mid term solution. IMO, synthetic fuels are the way forward. synthetic fuels can use existing infrastructure & vehicles (a much reduced carbon footprint). And you can create them from carbon capturing machines meaning they are truly a carbon zero fuel (in terms of carbon captured>carbon emitted in emissions from vehicle). So long as the fuel is captured/created with renewable energy the overall carbon footprint is low. 

Hydrogen is a possibility as it can use similar infrastructure to what we have, but like EV's will require everyone to get a new vehicle. 

[Syncrofred]

Ev’s aren’t as green as they are painted. A better battery than lithium is needed.  Putin doesn’t give toss for Ukraine, he wants the lithium deposits.

[Stressed]

We've had 12 years of the tories saying they'll sort out the economy, austerity basically giving public sector worker a real time pay cut for each of those 12 year. Police, fire ambulance, NHS and teacher have been absolutely slaughtered and are now being told no real time pay rise. I've never known some many yes votes for strike action!

The tories still haven't sorted out the economy!

I retired from the fire service in 2017, with the enforced £150 rise in pension contribution (I was paying 15%) and austerity I was taking home less in 2017 than 2008 and I was a rank higher FFS

Electric cars might be carbon neutral when driving but the environmental impact when making them and mining for the materials is horrendous 

58mpg for 450 motor way miles in my car, with 300 miles left in the tank. That would have been 3 charges in the equivalent IX3

Edited November 19, 2022 by Stressed