A loss of revenue from VED has been an issue for years. The problem is that VED is based exclusively on CO2 emissions, because that was the hot topic at the time. Vehicles can have huge amounts of other pollutants, but as long as their CO2 output is low, the VED will be as well. Seems daft to me.

Personally, I think VED should be abolished. I'm not convinced that road charging is the way forward because I can't imagine how it could be enforced, but increasing fuel duty (despite its unpopularity) would be a good compromise.

Perhaps drivers of aging cars should be incentivised for keeping their cars going, providing they're reasonably efficient?

Edited by Bicycle_Repair_Man on 01/11/2018 at 15:26

There's also a loss of duty and VAT as drivers switch to EVs - and from this year cars just pay the flat rate £140, a lot less than CO2 rated vehicles.

By the time 2040 arrives, government revenue will be minimal using the present business model - EVs just ensure that road-pricing happens sooner or later.

Edited by RT on 01/11/2018 at 16:19

HMG has said ploughing more VED into road repair.

I thought Philip Hammond had said something about ring-fencing the VED for road use ?

So do not electric vehicles also cause wear and tear to our roads?

Hence IMHO they should pay a duty.

dvd

Interesting question, not because the answer is obviously yes, but because the wear/damage caused by a vehicle is usually assumed to be in proportion to the fourth power of the relative axle weight and to the number of axles.

My car, loaded, weighs about 2 tonnes and has 2 axles. A 44 tonne lorry with 6 axles therefore will cause about 8,700 times as much damage to the road using the working assumption of this 'fourth power' law. It has been estimated that large goods vehicles are subsidised by taxpayers to the tune of £6bn. per year in terms of the damage they cause to the road network.

TRRL has also estimated that the relative damage to structurally weaker pavements follows a 6th power law, just for interest.

EVs weigh more, other things being equal, than petrol or diesel vehicles so should actually pay more towards road maintenance. A Nissan Leaf weighs about 20% more than VW Polo, so should contribute twice as much towards road maintenance - 1.2^4=2.07