Excise Licence (Road Tax) for EV's

I realised way back before I bought an EV that it was obvious taxation by way of road tax and/or taxing the energy to power it would happen but it clearly didn’t influence my decision. It would be naive to expect tax free motoring to continue.

I think most people realised it was to kickstart buying EVs in the short term and could not be sustained for ever.

I've no reason to change cars yet but it wouldn't put me off buying one if I was going to. 

What’s equally likely, given the hole the chancellor has to fill, is that OH’s £30 for her petrol Yaris will increase significantly. Plus probably the much more significant sums for my diesel car and our MH.☹️

We too have a petrol car and the diesel van as well as the EV so there's no escaping it. I guess we'll just bite the bullet and consider ourselves lucky to have 3 vehicles.👍

I wouldn’t buy one with or without road tax , I’ll stick to diesel and by the time they become unavailable I will be dead 

Whilst I am sure the current Government is looking to tax everything you can't nailed down at present I am just wondering how they would set Vehicle Tax for an electric car? All other vehicles are taxed on emissions so how would that work with an EV? I suppose they could just introduce a flat rate fee. It really would be better for them to grasp the nettle on road pricing which would be a fairer way, and probably bring in far more money?

David

I think Company Car drivers will be nervous as so many have gone for electric or hybrid to save themselves income tax. I did exactly that when I was working, and had a BMW 330e. It did 16 miles on battery only, and the the opportunities to charge it while on business were few and far between. As a result, I hardly ever did charge it, but it benefited my pay packet.

I expect they'll hit Company Cars via BIK, or Benefit in kind, and that will be based on the value of the car rather than the emissions

I agree with tinwheeler’s first post. Whilst the absence of the tax contributed to the maths it didn’t really contribute to our decision to buy an ev. We knew that at some point there would be a tipping point and government would not want to loose so much revenue. Rumour has it that VAT is about to be applied to ev cars in the same way as it is to ice cars. I hope this doesn’t come in until April next year because we are due to change our car (to another ev) early next year.

I am not sure that ev cars will be road taxed as ice cars now are. I believe work is going on to develop some sort of road pricing scheme, which will reflect how many miles you travel. There are lots of possible schemes being discussed across the media. Obviously such a scheme might well help those with low mileages, but there are issues for rural motorists who often have to travel longer distances than urban motorists.

Surely the advantage of road pricing is that it can be tailored to circumstances. For example a higher price for entering cities and using motorways so you won't need all these separate schemes. Small country roads might only require a modest charge that would probably be less that current ICE Road Tax. That is the beauty of the system is that it can be flexibly applied. You could be charged less the travel at the weekend or perhaps overnight but more during the week and even that could be broken down to peak and off peak rates. Most of us on here who are discussing this can see the pros and cons because we are thinking about it. The danger is that the "Great British Public" won't take time to think about the and work out the possible benefits between the two systems?

David