EV pay per mile - disabled drivers

ThorOdinson

The usual reason these things are leaked is to measure public opinion. If they were unpopular, they just pretend they were never going to do them anyway, it was just an idea that was rejected etc. 

So write to your MP.

Goudy

The government have been "leaking" this for years, long before EV's were readily available on the market.

From what I have read they think they are actually late to the party with introducing a scheme.

They knew the mandated move away from fossil fuelled cars would create a hole in their finances due the duty on fuel.

They realise they haven't been upfront about this problem, it was actually ignored, mainly because of the somewhat negative perception the vast majority had (some still have) regarding adoption of EV's and the need to get industry onboard with car production and sales but also with infrastructure for charging.

The concept was sold under the premise of it being a cheaper, cleaner option with little thought to the financal drawbacks of the country's tax revenue.

The thought now is that they should have started a (low cost) PPM scheme at the beginning and continually ramped it up as adoption became more widespread.
This might have slowed adoption, but they could have unlocked fuel duty at the same time and balanced things out better.

Everything now is telling the government EV's should have started on par with fossil fuel vehicles with regards to taxation, not below them.

New Zealand introduced a Road User Charge (RUC) for diesels (there is no tax on diesel) then expanded it to EV's which has caused the sales of new EV's over there to plummet.
Again the general consensus seems to suggest everyone would have been more happy to have known before hand so they could have made an informed choice.
Ok, most reasonable people would have guessed but that's not the same as knowing for certain what this scheme would cost.

There will obviously never be a good time to introduce something like this but the further we go down the EV road, the more resistance a PPM scheme will have and the bigger the black hole the government is staring at.

They can no longer keep selling the idea of them begin a cheaper to run option then suddenly try to make all the losses on fuel duty back.

The government now have a choice.
Do they rip the plaster that has been created to help EV sales and their adoption off now.
Or do they continue to wait then have to squeeze blood from every EV owner later to make up the ever increasing short fall.

My guess is a bit of both.
They will continue to try and make EV's appear cheaper to run than fossil fuelled vehicles, but still ramp up revenue for them year on year.
Then once they have kicked the can down the road as far as they possibly can, squeeze the living daylights out of owners and blame someone else for it.

facade

laidbackgjr said:

The problem with MOT mileages etc, is that if I take my car overseas and do mileage there, I would still be taxed on that mileage in the UK, so not sure simple mileage records really work. I think it will have to be some form of tracking app installed in the vehicle and reporting mileage only in the UK.

How is that a problem for HMG?

Very much a you problem, and the onus will be on you to prove that you did the mileage outside of the UK, presumably with a mountain of form filling (and required signatures & documentation from border controls that you didn't get) so high that most people won't bother for the odd thousand mile holiday, and all those £30s add up.

Car_54

laidbackgjr said:

The problem with MOT mileages etc, is that if I take my car overseas and do mileage there, I would still be taxed on that mileage in the UK, so not sure simple mileage records really work. I think it will have to be some form of tracking app installed in the vehicle and reporting mileage only in the UK.

Why should "overseas" mileage be exempted?

Bigphil1474

I think he means that the cost to the UK road network of those miles is zero, so why should there be any tax associated with that oversees mileage. 

Personally, I can't see it happening. Takes far too much organising, and I can't see any government department being able to implement any workable solution. If they need more tax from EV's just increase EV VED. I think it's missing the point though. Most EV users are using electricity overnight, so helping the electricity generating companies out, and are reducing air pollution and reducing climate changing emissions. That's worth losing the revenue form fossil fuels to me.