UK Government considering new tax on EV drivers in Budget (According to BBC and Telegraph)

[Bennachie]

Death knell for e delivery vans etc. commercial death. Why are these things never thought through? the only way this will work is with GPS tracking etc. Pre budget guessing - I hope.

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[BigBob]

Death knell for e delivery vans etc. commercial death. Why are these things never thought through? the only way this will work is with GPS tracking etc. Pre budget guessing - I hope.

It very much has the feel of diesel.

Government says Diesel is great, everyone should drive a diesel car.
Loads of people switch from petrol to diesel cars.
and then....

Oh hang on it's not actually better for the environment, so we're going to totally fk you on VED, Fuel duty, Congestion and emmission charging and parking.

 

[Midlifecrisis]

Here in Georgia (US) we pay a higher fee annually to register EVs in lieu of paying no gas taxes since we don't buy gasoline. Many states do this.

EVs have a significantly lower social cost, even if road usage causes a higher rate of deterioration due to the heavier weight. EV users simply should not be paying more in taxes to drive EVs; gas users that do not switch to EVs should be paying increasingly more as EV adoption increases - both to encourage EV adoption, and as a reflection of the social cost of carbon output over time.

I did some napkin math a while ago, I'll try to convert it to UK/metric measurements for the sake of consistency with the thread:

GA gas tax is £ .07/liter. At 8.5km/L, 19.3k km a year, that's about £148, and 2271 liters of gas (petrol?) burned at about 5.28 kilos of CO2 generated per liter - 5443 kilos CO2 added to the atmosphere annually.

EV fee with annual registration is £161. GA electrical generation mix is about 115g CO2 produced per kWh. At 4 km per kWh, 19312 km (per year) is about 4800 kWh, or 552 kilos of carbon annually NOT being put into the atmosphere by me (and everyone else who does) driving an EV.

So my fee for avoiding adding 552 kilos of carbon to the atmosphere (assuming the power for my EV was generated only from GA Power) is £ 13.

A broad figure of the SCC/social cost of carbon is £ 145/ton. So driving an EV powered by the GA Power grid mix is saving all of us about £ 782 a year vs an ICE vehicle. And I am paying £13 for the luxury of saving all of us some money.

This is a great reminder that politicians and their staff are often not trained in social sciences or policy creation, public policy in general, and certainly not the fast-evolving consumer technology they are asked to regulate. EV owners simply should not be paying more taxes to drive EVs.

The tax on 1L of petrol in the UK is currently about £0.75 - made up of fuel duty and VAT. So 1L cost approx £1.35 depending where you live

 

[D00notD00d]

As if owners are going to be 'honest' about their mileage declaration.............. what a stupid idea. Typical Reeves thinking

You’re assuming a story published by the Telegraph and then repeated elsewhere has a factual basis.

It is obvious that at some point lost wet fuel taxation revenue must be recovered somehow. But major taxation changes like this do not happen without consultation.

Let’s see..

 

[Wivenhoe]

All the VAT registered companies running company cars & vans will claim it back through their VAT returns. The Government will say it is company friendly as zero cost.

The companies claim the 20% on public chargers back too.

EV’s for a business and company car drivers are massively tax efficient. That’s why a lot of EV’s are business owned.

As ever, it’s the privately owned cars that incur the penalty.

 

[snb7x]

I’m curious how annual EV mileage will be monitored. During annual MOT will obviously not capture cars <3years old.

Yes - agree &

 

[Longy_UK]

Yeah how do they monitor it on new cars...

Also my estimate will be 1 mile - then I'll pay what I've actually driven at the end of the year.

The way I read it is that this is on top of 'normal' tax that we also now have to pay. So at 10k a year we'll be paying £490 a year tax.

One of the savings getting out of my RS6 is now gone....

Oh and finally, EV's cost circa 25% more than a comparable petrol or diesel and of that increased price 20% is VAT!! The government has already done well from an EV at point of purchase!

 

[Fish Fingers]

Yeah how do they monitor it on new cars...

Also my estimate will be 1 mile - then I'll pay what I've actually driven at the end of the year.

The way I read it is that this is on top of 'normal' tax that we also now have to pay. So at 10k a year we'll be paying £490 a year tax.

One of the savings getting out of my RS6 is now gone....

Oh and finally, EV's cost circa 25% more than a comparable petrol or diesel and of that increased price 20% is VAT!! The government has already done well from an EV at point of purchase!

Plus 20% VAT on public charging.

That said, ICE drivers are likely to get clobbered next April also, if they reinstate the 5P/litre fuel escalator in the Budget, which was suspended with Ukraine war.

 

[tophamn]

What about any mileage driven outside UK? - merely reading the odometer can't take this into account.

 

[Longy_UK]

What about any mileage driven outside UK? - merely reading the odometer can't take this into account.

Good point!

Mind you this isn't going to kick in till 2028.... I'll hopefully have a gt3 by then!

 

[Dabz]

The rumour I read was that estimating will be treated the same as Payment on Account for those of us who do self assessment tax returns. Estimate too low and you’ll be charged interest on the difference. Estimate too high and they keep the extra and don’t pay you interest back.

the entire thing is crazy. I’m in the early stages of selling my business and if it goes through at the expected value I’ll seriously consider moving overseas until we get a more sensible government

 

[Midlifecrisis]

The rumour I read was that estimating will be treated the same as Payment on Account for those of us who do self assessment tax returns. Estimate too low and you’ll be charged interest on the difference. Estimate too high and they keep the extra and don’t pay you interest back.

the entire thing is crazy. I’m in the early stages of selling my business and if it goes through at the expected value I’ll seriously consider moving overseas until we get a more sensible government

Who are you hoping for? Nigel & mates?

 

[Dabz]

Who are you hoping for? Nigel & mates?

Urgh absolutely not! Just some common sense in the approach to sorting out the country’s finances rather than trying to tax our way out of it by doing things like penalising EV drivers or people trying to save in to their pension for a safer retirement.

I don’t see why the choice of what powers the wheels on your car should dictate how much you pay to use the road network.

 

[Wivenhoe]

I ensured that my car would be registered before April 1st this year so, currently, I don’t pay the ‘expensive car tax’ of £ 450 for 5 years. What’s the betting that is reversed from 1st April 2026.

 

[tigerbalm]

Same as for all the other 57 convictions when they were given a last chance.🫤

Rookie numbers .... meanwhile, here in Ireland we've someone with 1,000!

https://www.sundayworld.com/crime/c...locks-up-her-1000th-conviction/a87868939.html

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