Big rumours on the media about pay by the mile being brought in for cars at the doom Budget…surely not

I thought it was a long term thing for electric cars.........not sure though.
Would be better than the flat rates of car tax.
Will petrol be free?

Don't think there's enough tracking to do it just yet, but surely on its way?
Hardly fair on people with zero public transport links though.

If it’s just electric cars fair enough, ordinary cars pay by the mile every time they fill up….that lovely fuel duty that has VAT added so we’re taxed twice…unless the VAT is on the full cost of petrol ..do we pay VAT only on the cost of the fuel or the cost of the fuel plus fuel duty…

If it applies across the piece then the people who do the most miles pay the most money. On the face of it it sounds fair enough. Until we arrive at Lorries carrying goods around the place. As they do a phenomenal amount of miles, they will incur larger costs. Who do we think will cover those costs.
This means there will have to be exceptions and/or exemptions.
It's not the first time this idea has been muted and each time it has raised it's head it has been rejected.
This government has been self billed as the one to improve our lot but is turning out to appear to be hell bent on taking a lot.
Then there is the rate they will charge and will it be tapered or be the same for every mile no matter how many.
There will be no winners that's my bet.
As usual they are hell bent on securing as much of other people's money as they can and, as usual, the problems will occur when they run out of it.

These alterations to taxes which are going to happen are not designed to make people better off, they are desiged to raise more revenue for the treasury.
Starmer used the words "it's going to be painful"
I wouldn't be too sure that the result would be better, unless you mean better for the revenue.
Like pensioners have found out, this government is looking for easy targets.

The concept of having to pay by the mile will be like going back in time as you’ll end up using your car a lot less…might as welll go back to Victorian times and buy a pony trap, but knowing this lot there’ll be a tax on hay, horse shoes and reins.

I think this budget will define the government. I hope its not easy targets but it is politics.

This is about electric cars only.

If you buy petrol or diesel you pay loads of tax on it, thereby getting taxed per mile. But conversely on electric for cars there is no tax, so when there are many more electric cars on the road, the government will have to find another way of raising cash. And this is it.

It's inevitably going to happen.

They’ve had a good run, they can pay up like the rest of us.

Only 5% VAT on your electric bill as well so they also win while "fuelling up"

at the moment not many private buyers are joining the electric car revolution governments want. its quite easy to introduce pay per mile by putting an extra levy on all petrol and diesel purchased at the pumps. An incentive to buy electric and a far easier way of getting the revenue in than checking the mileage of vehicles. bus and wagon companies could be made exempt from this by getting a rebate back to solve their problems. if this happens i,m all for it as i have been for years by charging those who use the roads more and the gas guzzlers more still. thats from somebody who once drove them.

It’s pay pile now though. The more petrol you buy, the more tax you pay.

Yep, and it's been under discussion for a couple of years. At the minute there are 1.2 million fully electric cars on the roads in the UK. That's bound to rise over time, so getting them to pay more to use the same roads as the rest of us is a complete no brainer, whether it's in the next budget or not.

Can I add that electric cars (don’t we just love em) are very heavy and therefore cause more damage to the roads. I’m sure I’ve read that many old multi-storey carparks couldn’t cope with a full load of electric vehicles - the excess weight would knack them.

Correct.
Thr real trouble with them is they bugger up the market for cars with them being a new concept…no cheap runabouts so all cars coming onto the market are more expensive, look at the prices for 10 year old cars on the forecourts, outrageous.
The lower end of the market will disappear and the roads left open for the delightful chattering classes in their Milkfloat GTX’s.

they could not give a flying one about what the public want or the downside of ev ownership as long as they rid us of something we have had since our teenage days. same as the rest of their green policies that do not work in practise but makes them feel all warm inside by introducing them to the mugs.

Interesting vlog about electric cars and pay by the mile,
https://youtu.be/biJ_JgV9Xcw?si=pPXwsISaR81Z7RLC

howard cox talks a lot of sense and the only way the government will get their wish is pricing the majority of us off the roads. like fags only worse. how many have packed in due to their costs rather than any health benefits i wonder. anybody with space and money to spare i,d say buy as many low milege petrol and diesel cars you can before 2030 as you,ll have a nice little earner coming your way.

Interesting point he makes that modern engines diesel and petrol are very efficient and emissions are minimal.

you only need to compare engines when road tax is based on how clean they actually are compared to older engines we pay top whack to run. when your minds are closed and have an agenda like the government has i doubt they,d change even if scientists proved that overall modern fossil fuel engines are cleaner than electric are. like following the science they,d find there pet ones to endorse what they want us to do with the old brown envelope approach.