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Let's talk about road pricing and car taxes, especially given @sarahjolney1 tried to get a straight answer out of the Treasury recently. @allpartycycling Here's the (predictable) apocalyptic take on road pricing in the Express. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/news/car-tax-changes-could-see-families-charged-almost-%c2%a37000-more-to-use-the-roads/ar-BB1dxdfj?ocid=st
In the UK, the average car traveled 7,400 miles per annum in 2019. With an average fuel economy of circa 9 miles/litre (~40mpg) taxed at 60p/litre that means circa £500 in fuel duty per annum. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/nts09-vehicle-mileage-and-occupancy#history
VED charges average £170 (OBR) https://obr.uk/forecasts-in-depth/tax-by-tax-spend-by-spend/vehicle-excise-duty/ , and tax (12%) is paid on insurance - another £50 on the average premium of £495: https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/blog/what-is-the-average-cost-of-car-insurance
A further circa £100 tax via VAT on parts/repairs might be levied, for a total tax bill of substantially under £1,000 per annum, with the bulk of that arriving via fuel duty. So what's the problem? https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/uk/news/auto-motor/revealed-how-much-the-average-uk-driver-is-spending-on-repairs-each-year-97756.aspx
It's east to realise that £75/month of tax doesn't come close to providing the maintained, extended, policed road network across the UK - vehicle owners already enjoyed a subsidy of around £800/annum, prior to the last decade of fuel duty freezes: https://tud.qucosa.de/api/qucosa%3A30084/attachment/ATT-0/
So now the Govt is pushing electric vehicles. 1 kWh of electricity will allow a range of around 4 miles, and attract a tax charge of between ~0p and 6p, and for those that can charge at home (5% VAT rate) the tax take is *fractions* of a penny/mile. c.f. fossil fuels at ~7p/mile.
Even for those using commercial charging facilities they may pay 1.5p/mile tax equiv, fractions of the fuel duty rate on petrol/diesel. And EVs are £0 VED rated. So the *already insufficient* ~£900 tax take drops by over two thirds immediately when switching to an EV. But...
there's more- the typical extra weight of an EV will screw up the roads way faster than a fossil fueled vehicle too, possibly at 3 times the rate for a Model 3 vs a petrol Ford Focus. So the Treasury have to come up with something sooner than later given the push to EVs.
It was/is disappointing that the Minister wouldn't state the obvious when asked by @sarahjolney1, as (absent a willingness to pour even more money into subsidising private vehicle use) it's completely inevitable that some sort of road useage pricing model must be implemented.
The danger is that unless it is clearly communicated as a core part of the EV strategy, it feeds very nicely into the "fleeced motorist" narrative that has been rather effective in recent years at hiding the most egregious lies in plain sight, to the detriment of all our health.
