Pay by mile to replace fuel duty?

peter_the_piper

https://www.driving.co.uk/news/roads/urgent-pay-per-mile-road-pricing-government/   Some MP's are calling for this due to the increase in Electric vehicles. Depending on how many miles you do would you be happy for this, assuming they lower the petrol price by the 60p(approx) duty. I pay approximately £62.00 in duty for my 5000miles per year(assuming I've worked it out proplerly )so I'd be happy with 5p to 5.25p per mile.

Grumpy_chap

peter_the_piper said:

due to the increase in Electric vehicles.
Depending on how many miles you do would you be happy for this, assuming they lower the petrol price by the 60p(approx) duty.

What difference does petrol price make if you have an EV?

jimjames

Grumpy_chap said:

peter_the_piper said:

due to the increase in Electric vehicles.
Depending on how many miles you do would you be happy for this, assuming they lower the petrol price by the 60p(approx) duty.

What difference does petrol price make if you have an EV?

I'm assuming it means that the duty from petrol will be moved onto mileage based charges so all cars are charged the same basis. Otherwise petrol cars would be charged for fuel duty as well as mileage based although that might also be another push towards EV. Having done 900 miles last year that would be a good option compared to £300 VED!

born_again

The question is just how are they going to work the PPM?

Owner entering mileage each year? Going to lead to " clock the mileage boom" Can't rely on MOT as new cars do not need one for 3 years.
ANPR. Well that going to cost millions to add all the camera's required. As well as a computer system to collect the charge. And we all know how Government IT always runs on budget & on time... 🤣

The whole PPM is fraught with so many issues & that is before they even start thinking about starting to get it prepared. Odds on it would not be ready for 2030 at the rate the wheels of Government work.

A better, quicker & cheaper idea. Is to re do  the whole VED charges. As the system is already there.
So to start with all historic rates go. ALL cars no matter what age pay based on their emissions.

Starting point for zero emissions (EV) is £100 and then step up by bands as now.

Grey_Critic

EVs are still in the honeymoon phase but reality will catch them up.

VED is a tax no matter how you dress it up just like the TV licence. No sensible government will give up any tax without being able to replace the lost income.

The road pricing idea has been going for many years and will I suspect continue as just that for some time. An Idea. Taxing vehicles on emissions was a change and many found they were paying less - but others finished up paying more. I doubt overall there has been a drop in income.

It is inevitable that EVs will be taxed in some form but nobody will want to rock the boat with an ill thought out plan which might upset the roll out.

One or is it two problems. The charging infrastructure and generating capacity are behind schedule. Both will impact on any plans. The duty charged on fuel is easy to collect so I think it unlikely we will see any serious attempt at road pricing (I could be wrong)

With fuel duty the income is guaranteed against current pence per mile technology and winding back speedos would quickly become the national sport if they simply rely on it being recorded on a voluntary basis..

peter_the_piper

born_again said:

The question is just how are they going to work the PPM?

Owner entering mileage each year? Going to lead to " clock the mileage boom" Can't rely on MOT as new cars do not need one for 3 years.
ANPR. Well that going to cost millions to add all the camera's required. As well as a computer system to collect the charge. And we all know how Government IT always runs on budget & on time... 🤣

The whole PPM is fraught with so many issues & that is before they even start thinking about starting to get it prepared. Odds on it would not be ready for 2030 at the rate the wheels of Government work.

A better, quicker & cheaper idea. Is to re do  the whole VED charges. As the system is already there.
So to start with all historic rates go. ALL cars no matter what age pay based on their emissions.

Starting point for zero emissions (EV) is £100 and then step up by bands as now.

I assumed it would be some form of black box, similar to the ones that learners have. I believe they check the speed, mileage and the way they drive so the software is mostly there. However I would not mind a ved increase of £250 which would cover the fuel duty and as I have a picanto it would be a zero increase.

theoretica

Replacing fuel duty with pay per mile would lower the incentive to change away from fuel.  If pay per mile is introduced I would not assume fuel duty would be removed.

Alanp

One way they could do it is to fit a tag type device, I used to have one for crossing the Humber bridge, a small plastic device about the size of a credit card fixed to the top of the windscreen, you drove through a special lane that read the information on it , it was linked to the van I used to drive and was solely for that vehicle ( it couldn’t be swapped over without re- registering the details) , fortunately payment went directly to the company I worked for so I didn’t have to pay, this could be the way they do it, of course, the infrastructure would have to be in place to enable this system, but I can’t see it being too much of an issue…

Car_54

There’s no good reason why the deficiency needs to be made up by motorists, rather than any other class of taxpayers.
However, if it must be, and there are no longer emissions to worry about, why does it need to be mileage-related? A flat rate would be vastly cheaper to collect.

Grumpy_chap

peter_the_piper said:

I would not mind a ved increase of £250 which would cover the fuel duty and as I have a picanto it would be a zero increase.

I am not sure I understand that comment / link.  

If there is a flat £250 increase in all cars VED, then even a car that is currently zero would pay £250.

DrEskimo

Car_54 said:

There’s no good reason why the deficiency needs to be made up by motorists, rather than any other class of taxpayers.
However, if it must be, and there are no longer emissions to worry about, why does it need to be mileage-related? A flat rate would be vastly cheaper to collect.

Agreed. That's how current new cars have VED charged following the first year. Just a flat rate, with an additional charge for those over £40k.

It was only last year that EVs over £40k stopped paying the 'luxury car tax'. Not unlike congestion charge. EVs currently get a 100% discount but that is due to end soon.