[leonEV979jones]

The government has decided that EV owners must pay a vehicle excise duty of £190 from our car’s second year onwards, while owners of older, smaller diesel cars registered before 2017 are still paying as little as £20 a year.

This is not just a personal issue, but of widespread concern. The discrepancy is glaring: older cars, with substantial CO2 emissions, end up paying less in VED than new EVs that emit no CO2 at all. This undermines the very concept of vehicle taxation that’s supposed to be based on a vehicle’s CO2 emissions and undercuts the incentive to go green.

Given the considerable benefits of electric vehicles in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, this decision seems counterproductive. According to the Office for Low Emission Vehicles, a typical electric car in the UK may emit 60% less CO2 than a petrol car over the course of its life (source: UK Government).

This is an urgent appeal. The unjust taxation disincentivises the adoption of electric vehicles and hinders the country's progress towards environmental sustainability. We call on the government to rethink its decision and foster equitable taxation that truly reflects a vehicle's impact on the environment. Please sign to make your voice heard.


The UK government says:
From 1 April 2025, drivers of electric vehicles will need to pay for VED – road tax. Announced by the Government in the 2022 Autumn Budget, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt stated: “To make our motoring tax system fairer I've decided that electric vehicles will no longer be exempt from Vehicle Excise Duty (VED)
Fairer for who?
The continued freeze of fossil fuels prices at the pump, will cause the Government financial loss of significant revenue, the VED increases on low CO2, hybrid and EV vehicles will not offset the revenue lost for by the freeze on ICE CO2 generating vehicles

Please see the petition here:
https://www.change.org/ExciseDutyonElectricVehicles

[Drivingforfun]

Not saying the new laws are right or wrong but taxes are changed with a long-term approach and a minority of short-term outliers will find they are being punished for doing the right thing

What I'm saying is in 10 years most of the cars you mention will have been scrapped and it will be irrelevant anyway

When VED was changed to be based on the car's RRP (cars over £40k pay more) there were a few cars that were very polluting but cost under £40k. The Ford Mustang is a good example, the tax on a pre-2017 Mustang was over £500 and a post-2017 car was ~£140. At the same time some clean-but-expensive cars like the Tesla Model S ended up paying more VED than a 5L V8 Mustang as they paid £0 base tax but they paid the ~£300 tax for being a "luxury" car!

[olduser]

I think, this will help to get at the facts:

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/ved-ca...ll-it-cost-you

As to fairness, my thought is tax in any form is only fair when others are paying.
Yet tax is needed to finance the state.

[Rolebama]

In 1903, when I think road tax was introduced, (by any other name), it was relevant to horsepower. Since then it has been sorted by just about everything. Bearing in mind it was introduced to build and maintain roads, now it goes into the kitty to pay for MPs duck houses and the like.

[NMNeil]

A diesel powered car/van/truck is taxed with road tax, fuel tax, VAT on spares etc.
An EV pays no tax on fuel and, as they don't need regular oil changes, spark plugs etc. they pay almost nothing in VAT for spares, so the only way to make up the difference is to increase the road tax, and as the UK is billions in the red, expect the road tax to steadily climb. After all as far as governments are concerned the motorist is a cash cow that needs to be milked on a regular basis.