How long before we're priced off the road

[richw]

Our cars will be attacked in two ways. ICE will be taxed and fuel availability will be expensive and rare.

The second thing will be a general attack on privately owned transport. It will be 'hired' (PCP, especially electric cars with those leased batteries) or simply public transport. The major roads will be for the elites, which is why they are 'smart', and we will be on a cattle-class train or bus.

[steve-45]

Any government who makes an all out on the private motorist will have to be very brave and not care about being re-elected.

Also, without private cars being taxed where will they raise the BILLIONS that will be lost through motoring related taxes? I'm sure we can all remember how much the general public screamed when ever income taxes rates were raised in the budgets!

[LeRich]

Originally Posted by torque2me

The govt. has previously used my money to subsidise a shift in vehicle type which they believed was better (i.e. scrappage scheme). I wish the PM/Minister(s)/Civil Servants had gone to a "bog standard comprehensive" and had learnt about the health issues for Nox besides Co2. Then we might not have this skewed and discriminatory present VED system.

Don't lose too much sleep over the direct cost of Scrappage to the tax payer - the VAT from the sale of the car usually covers the govt. contribution. It's the loss in revenue that hits harder.

Both arguments for Scrappage and CO2-based taxation are very flawed, proven in the case of the latter as taxation is no longer based on exclusively on CO2 emissions for new cars and diesel cars having fallen out of favour. CO2 is bad for the environment but NOx is known to be deadly to humans and is rightly now targeted.

The dark side of electric cars is conveniently ignored as they are wear a halo much like diesel did 20 years ago. The winds will change as the Treasury loses income and our infrastructure struggles to cope with the power demands of millions of EVs draining the Grid. That's without considering the environment devastation caused by sourcing the lithium and other precious materials needed.

I'm happy driving in my 16 yo petrol 75 knowing that its overall environmental impact is pretty low, and will continue to do so while viable.

[Steamdrivenandy]

One wonders what the continuing use of a 16 year old car costs in environmental terms, where the ecological etc degradation has already occurred a decade and a half ago, compared to the additional impact on the planet of building a brand new EV now to replace the older car?

[LeRich]

Originally Posted by Steamdrivenandy

One wonders what the continuing use of a 16 year old car costs in environmental terms, where the ecological etc degradation has already occurred a decade and a half ago, compared to the additional impact on the planet of building a brand new EV now to replace the older car?

It will use more fuel and consume more parts, but considered over the lifetime of a vehicle including its production, I believe the answer is 'relatively little'.