Electric Companies Hike Prices after motorists switch to EV

gord115

According to to Autocar or Autoexpress (can't remember which) the government are already looking into "Road Pricing".

They would charge say the first 5000 miles at X pence per mile and above at Y pence per mile.

This could be calculated by black box technology or the mileage at MOT time.

Still looks a fair way off though.

Car_54

gord115 wrote: »

According to to Autocar or Autoexpress (can't remember which) the government are already looking into "Road Pricing".

They would charge say the first 5000 miles at X pence per mile and above at Y pence per mile.

This could be calculated by black box technology or the mileage at MOT time.

Still looks a fair way off though.

This is not news. The government have been “looking into” this since at least the 1990s.

Exemplar

Car_54 wrote: »

Taxing just the electricity used by cars would be difficult and expensive to implement, if even possible. It would also be likely to slow down the uptake of EVs. Taxing all electricity (more than at present) would be unpopular.
Much easier and better to increase VAT or income tax.

Difficult - yes - GOVT funds schemes to investigate
Expensive - yes - GOVT funds schemes to investigate

It's all too Orwellian man!!

sevenhills

gord115 wrote: »

According to to Autocar or Autoexpress (can't remember which) the government are already looking into "Road Pricing".

They would charge say the first 5000 miles at X pence per mile and above at Y pence per mile.

This could be calculated by black box technology or the mileage at MOT time.

That won't work because large rich families could just split the milage between their numerous cars, whilsg the poor folk have high milage on their only vehicle.
Companies that have vehicles doing 30,000 per year

Car_54

sevenhills wrote: »

That won't work because large rich families could just split the milage between their numerous cars, whilsg the poor folk have high milage on their only vehicle.
Companies that have vehicles doing 30,000 per year

I think you are assuming that y would be greater than x. Isn't it more likely that the opposite would be the case?

facade

The bottom line is that the Government meed to raise an enormous amount of revenue through taxation. Large businesses and the rich arrange their affairs to pay very little, so it is down to the poor to pay it, one way or another. Stop buying fuel, beer and cigarettes and either income tax or VAT are going to go up to raise it from what you do buy, my guess is VAT on energy will rise to the standard rate.


I did hear that they are thinking of abolishing VAT(and replacing it with a new form of purchase tax :rotfl:)

DrEskimo

Joe_Horner wrote: »

To compare fairly you need to use the untaxed price of petrol since your'e comparing with an untaxed price for electricity.

At £1.28 per litre, 21.3 pence is VAT and 57.95 pence is fuel duty. So the "real" cost of the petrol is 49 pence per litre and the (untaxed) cost per mile, based on your 14p average, is 14*49/128 = 5.3 pence per mile.

As people switch to electric vehicles the government may not replace the "lost" tax (fuel duty + VAT + VED) by directly adding it to electricity prices or upping the VED on the cars, they will replace it so the true cost will NOT reduce, it'll just be hidden elsewhere by sleight of hand.

And, when taxes get hidden they usually get increased at the same time....

Then the question is, is it hidden somewhere in the running costs of an EV? The OP point is that EV's are cheaper to run than ICE for now, but will that change as EV's grow in popularity.

My argument is that yes, the running costs of EV's will probably rise, but relative to an ICE (which will also likely see rises), EV's will still be the cost effective option.

By every measure of running a car (depreciation, insurance, VED, maintenance, servicing and 'fuel') me having an EV for the last 6-months has been substantially cheaper than me running an equivalent ICE. I don't suspect this will change.

almillar

To compare fairly you need to use the untaxed price of petrol since your'e comparing with an untaxed price for electricity.

Unless you know of somewhere I can buy untaxed petrol, or electricity, I think you mean you need to compared the TAXED prices of both.

gord115

Car_54 wrote: »

This is not news. The government have been “looking into” this since at least the 1990s.

Well they're looking into it again because of the potential lost revenue due to the uptake of EVs.

gord115

Car_54 wrote: »

I think you are assuming that y would be greater than x. Isn't it more likely that the opposite would be the case?

Yeah X would be greater than Y. Say 10p per mile for 5000 miles then 5p after.