This will kill EV adoption, just to put it into perspective this is the equivalent of an average ICE car (38.6MPG) having 25.5p added per litre of fuel, in a single budget.
The even more ridiculous thing is plug in hybrids are 1.5p per mile, so people with 80+ miles of range in their Golfs etc. will pay half price, even though they are needlessly dragging around an internal combustion engine for 99% of their journeys.
Yes Plug in hybrids are paying only half but that’s on all their mileage (there’s no way the Gov would know which of those miles were in electric) .
So my 10yr old phev that does 10 miles EV in winter is then going to be charged for the 200 miles that I then drive on ice (having already paid fuel duty for those miles).
That’s clearly unfair, but I don’t think the point was “lucky plug-in hybrid drivers” so much as “the whole policy is flawed, look at how they had to shoehorn in hybrids”
True. Having slept on it I’ve decided im at peace with it, even in my terrible scenario there’s a chance we’ll do 50% on electric so 50% of what a proper EV pays is OK.
Newer phevs that can do 40-50 miles range and rarely do more clearly win but good luck to them.
I mentioned somewhere else where I’m still irate at is they’re saying electric 2 motorbikes will pay the same 3p as an EV car. That’s nonsensical, my 100kg moped has no meaningful damage to the road at all yet it’s going to represent a 600% increase in my per mile cost
It’s a nonsensical answer to the question “how can we ensure EV drivers are paying their fair share towards road damage?”
It’s a pretty good answer to the question “how can we squeeze as much taxes out of road users as we can, without pissing off people so much that they won’t vote for us” because motorcyclists make up a pretty small proportion of EV users, and it’s equitable, even if it’s clearly grossly unfair.
Oddly enough Reeves phrased the announcement as if it were the former, when it’s clearly the latter.