British motorists have been demanding further changes to make roads more equal by introducing a form of car tax for electric vehicle owners. Some of them claimed that electric vehicles “still pollute” as fuel is used to “generate the energy for a charger to charge a battery”.
The government unveiled some changes to car tax on April 1.
This included the Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) increase with drivers suffering from higher annual costs.
Company car tax, known as Benefit-in-Kind (BIK) has also changed, rising from one percent to two percent for fully electric vehicles and most petrol and diesel vehicles.
Despite the new changes, several British motorists think that more could be done.
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“Electric cars have had a free ride claiming to do their bit for pollution.”
They added: “In fact, electric cars do pollute because the fuel used to generate the energy for a charger to charge a battery will pollute, and thousands of tonnes of gas, coal or oil will be burnt in the power stations.
“Then there is the cost of pollution in the construction of these car batteries, [which is] very high because of the materials they use.”
The reader continued: “Why should they get away with no duty because they do as much damage as any vehicle to cause wear and tear on the roads that have to be paid for before they can use them.”
Estimates show that the government will lose out annually on £28billion in fuel duty as well as £7billion in Vehicle Excise Duty (VED).
This is expected to come from the 2030 ban on the sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles which will have a huge knock-on effect on fuel duty revenue.
Running a car is among the skyrocketing costs this April, with VED – more commonly known as car or road tax – now more expensive for most drivers, MEN reported.
The duty rose in line with the Retail Price Index measure of inflation, but the increase varies between vehicles, depending on their emission levels.
The duty rise is expected to have no impact on its budget, but the government hopes the change will “encourage the uptake of lower emission vehicles”.
People with more environmentally friendly vehicles face smaller rises.
The car tax stands at zero for cars that emit no carbon dioxide (CO2), while the most polluting cars “pay over £2,000 at first registration and a flat rate thereafter”.
