In the Autumn Budget, a range of changes to vehicle excise duty (VED) were announced that impact many motorists. But a new survey by Confused.com shows that 90% of us don’t really know how these measures will affect us when the changes happen. And with rises to cost of an annual VED being potentially as much as £500 for some larger new diesel vehicles, some motorists could be in for a nasty surprise in the coming months when they renew their road tax for the new year.
New vehicle excise duty rules
The most important changes announced in the last budget was around vehicle excise duty and the new rules mean that they will increase for owners of new diesel cars from April 1st. The change could see some vehicles paying more than £500 in tax in the first year of ownership.
A recent survey showed that 87% of drivers were unclear about the changes or were unaware that the new diesel duty system was coming in. The new rules not only apply to diesel cars bought from April onwards but will mean all 17-plate diesel vehicles will be one tax band higher. The aim of ministers is to put people off buying new diesel vehicles as much as possible.
Diesel increases
Many diesel vehicles will be around £20 a year more expensive, but the bigger models will see a significant hike in cost for the first year on the road. Even the most efficient diesel model, the Peugeot 208 1.6-litre BlueHDI Active 75 which produces as little as 78g/km will be affected. This is despite it being the cleanest non-hybrid or electric vehicle on the market.
Some of the premium diesel vehicles such as the Mercedes Benz GLE 350d AMG 4Matic and the Range Rover 4.4 SDV8 could see their first year’s car tax rise from around £1,500 to around £2,000 when the new rules come in.
It is not just the big luxury vehicles that are being hit. Affordable family cars such as the Hyundai i800 PMV and the SsangYong Rexton SUV will also fall into the increased bracket with car tax costs rising by £500 a year.
Find the current vehicle tax rates table here
April 2017 changes
Apart from penalising diesel drivers, the aim of the new VED rules was to simplify the system and make it easier to see how much you would be paying. It followed the increase in VED for the first year, introduced in April 2017.
The new system is as follows for existing car owners:
• £140 a year for petrol or diesel vehicles
• £130 a year for alternative fuel vehicles such as hybrids or LPG
• £0 a year for zero CO2 emissions
This means that electric cars worth less than £40,000 will have no car tax. All vehicles worth £40,000 or more will have an added surcharge of £310 on top of the standard rate for five years. After this period the charge will drop back to standard rates.
The government also said that from 2020, a third change to car tax will take place with the bands being adjusted to match the latest fuel economy tests. This measures emissions outputs from the new style tests that have been implemented since September last year.
Survey results
According to the survey from Confused.com not only do 90% of drivers they spoke to not understand the new changes, but some also had no idea that the first year’s tax would cost more than other years. For those who were aware, it does seem to have had an impact on their buying choices.
Three in five said they wouldn’t be buying a new diesel for their next vehicle and around one third said this was directly due to the increase in tax. 46% of the survey group felt uncertain about purchasing a diesel vehicle as they were unclear how it would be worked out financially for them.
Experts also believe that this isn’t the end of surcharges or increases in costs for diesel drivers. As the government works towards their aim of banning new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040, more steps will be taken to discourage drivers – or make it too expensive to buy them new, or perhaps even second hand.
What do you think of these changes to VED? Are the Government tackling one problem at the expense of not hitting the other main causes of NOx, such as public transport, trucks, ships and central heating systems? Let us know in the comments below.
WHEN THE CAR PLAN”S PUT”S THOUSAND”S OF PEOPLE
OUT OF WORK WHAT THEN TAX TAX TAX TAX ON TAX
Ah; remember that Tories are the Government of the working man and of less taxation. It must be true; it’s on the media (85% owned by Multi-Billionaire Tory donors of course…)
What does this mean for older deisle cars are these affected or is it just new cars. I pay £20 a year at moment for my 2011 Ford
Only new
No change Adam from what I can see. You can check on the DVLA website.
A timely little wheeze for the government to raise taxes (from the motorists again) to plug holes in their finances, until of course that money gets wasted too, then the government of the day will have to think up another way to screw us all over again
Perhaps the Government should lead by example by ditching their own big deisle cars and giving it a rest on the rest of us.
My deisle Peugeot is serviced every year with its MOT and runs very cleanly compared to a lot of petrol cars.
Electric cars are not viable for those of us who live in high rise or six in a block so, this is a tax on these people.
Who in their right mind would vote that way again?
As someone who drives 250+ miles per day these electric cars mean s big loss of income
No mate they would put tax up on car electricity just like they have done with vaping now millions have stopped smoking.
Its not clear what happens to existing rates from the above article. I am using a 0 tax IQ, according to what I read above that goes to £140, yet the table below show a different result.
Peter says it relates to new cars going forward I assume, and all old rates stay the same.
Clearer article please.
As far as I am aware and this goes for every preceding road fund change, the new rates cannot be retrospective and therefore you will continue to pay the same rate as you have already been paying. The new rates will only apply to new cars purchased after the 1st April 2018.
Typical knee-jerk government reaction! Penalise diesels (that achieved significantly more miles to the litre) whilst not considering the CO2 implications of going back to petrol engines. We are now seeing a rise in CO2 emissions that reversed the trend when more people bought diesel engined vehicles. Overcrowded city roads and bad traffic management are the culprits, not the fact that public transport in most towns and cities offers no alternative to private vehicles.
Unfortunately. CO2 is a danger to future generations. Nitrogen oxides and particulates are a danger to current generations.
So remove the older polluting cars, reduce the amount of hgvs and cleaner buses
Seems their target, increase unemployment as well.
Removing the amount of HGVs on the road? Then the price of everything u buy would triple & the shops would run out of stock but I do agree on cleaner buses because some are terrible Polluters what I’ve seen of them, Don’t know how some pass the MOT
Prices would triple? No they wouldn’t. Not if you took most freight off the road and put it onto rail. That would reduce congestion on motorways, reduce pollution and save fortunes on road repairs caused by excessive HGV traffic
If you reduce hgvs and increase rail usage how do you get the goods to and from the rail stations ?
I hear all new shops will have to have railway platforms adjacent to them lol
We are converting railways to run on electricity yet we are already reliant upon importing electricity from Europe without the predicted demand upturn due to electric road vehicles and as we close existing generating stations without back up or replacements coming on line.
Yep, we would be reliant to the EU for electric power, now connect the dots whilst thinking on Brexit.
The railways do not have the available capacity to haul the equivalent of what is currently carried by road.
Modern, large engined, diesels now have DEF (Diesel Emmision Fluid) added to their exhaust. This breaks down the nitrous oxide to nitrogen, oxygen and water. Diesel particulates are burnt off in diesel catalytic converters. They store the particulates and then, during a regenerative process, burn them off. So modern diesels are quite clean by comparison to diesels of 10 years ago.
Still, when has the truth ever got in the way of screwing over the motorist !!
What about the millions of distribution vehicles to get the goods to their final destinations. I think that would cause more congestion – not less.
How would you get products to and from railheads and on to there final destinations. Hgv or vans. Not enough railheads and still many miles to and from them.
A bit naive, Think about what you say a little bit longer next time. How many railway line do you see going into the town centers or even the out of town retail parks ?
You can’t reduce HGV’s chum – P. No HGV’s means empty shops, no medicine in your hospitals etc etc. They are a pain but they are the blood in the arteries of the UK. No HGV’s = social collapse within 5 days.
Bloody hell some one talking sense about hgvs most people think we drive them just to annoy the car drivers.
Have you heard of rail freight Mark? No? Look it up on Google. It’s far more efficient and eco-friendly than HGV road freight
Three points: 1. Rail would not be able to carry the amount of cargo carried by road.
2. If they could, HGV vehicles would be required to shift the goods, or the rail deports would clog up. 3. most, if not all freight is hauled by diesel electric trains, which would impact on passenger trains in the form of delays and wear and tear on the tracks. The steel now used for replacement rails is inferior chinese steel, good for 5 – 10 years, unlike the old british steel rails that last 6 – 7 times longer. Repairs to the track would case severe delays t both passanger and freight trains.
But how much will all the new railways cost?
The most polution created by a vehicle is in the initial production of it and then scrapping it at end of life, so scrapping older cars just creates even more polution by having to produce new cars to replace the older ones! Greenest thing you can do is to keep a car running as long as physically possible.
Electric cars are the worst damaging for the envrionment due to the production of the batteries and also what is requred to dispose of these at end of life.
spot on
Reduce the amount of Hgvs they deliver you petrol and diesel and everything else you buy.
CO2 is a danger to nobody.
But cutting down the trees is.
Really?
I assume that you don’t read a lot then.
He probably reads much more than you, which is why he is able to make his statement.
An excess can kill you.
Other than that, no, it’s ‘a danger to nobpdy’!
Oxygen is a bigger poison. Without CO2 you’ll stop breathing
think you’ll find animals need Oxygen, plant life needs CO2 and produces Oxygen for us to breath…
Actually, it’s debatable whether you die from the toxicity of CO2 or just asphyxiation.
As for AGW, your definitely believing too much of what the Government wants you to think, like the various versions of killer diesels.
CO2 isn’t toxic, it’s the asphyxiation from lack of oxygen that kills you, but at extremely high levels.
CO2 is helping the Earth warm up, the ice at the poles melt, reducing fish stocks, bringing us wider more extreme weather….yeah, you are right CO2 is nothing to worry about.
It really isn’t doing any of the things you say. We have less extreme weather now than in previous centuries. The ice at the poles melts every year, whih is when they do the propaganda shoots. Ice at both poles has been increasing.
Massive over fishing has reduced fish stocks, anyone that actually abides by the quota and puts the excess fish back? a lot of the returned fish dont survive the haul up and the the constriction caused by the net and weight of the catch and damage to the swim bladder.
And the government has absolutely no control over it. The generation of electricity is far from carbon-neutral in this country and yet London offices are lit up like ruddy Christmas trees Summer & Winter, day and night and all weekend too. Same with empty supermarkets where they cite “security” as the reason. Better, surely to have lights that come on when an intruder has entered the building? No, it’s just one rule for one and one rule for the other. The government is not interested in future generations or in neutralising carbon – it’s interested in raising tax revenue and that’s all.
Exactly
We know that the conversion of fuel through heat leads to pollution, but the generation of electricity also leads to the same, one day it will be calculated that an electric car produces so much over its lifetime. Work from home as to travel to an office to sit at a computer seems madness.
Give us a break will you..The amount of pollution other larger countries are producing compared to little old Britain…I don’t see any walkers /runners or cyclists dropping down on the side of the road when they are breathing heavily with their excersise!
No Craig, it’s every GOVERNMENT that ever has been, is currently and future GOVERNMENT that is the danger to every generation before, currently and in the future.
No Craig you h@ve fallen for government lies , modern diesels are equipped so that when mai tained properly they emit FAR less pollutants than petrol giving far better mileage and are more economic for people to maintain and run . I diesels are so bad , why not hit the REAL culprits , like HGV’s and public transport , the UK,s BIGGEST polluters , the reason they don’t too many politicians in the pockets of these people !
CO2 is not a danger to the planet, the whole farrago is nonsense. Just as the monstrous claims of fictitious deaths due to NoX and PM 2.5 also have no evidence to back them up.
The UK need desperately to repeal the iniquitous Climate Change Act, which is the basis for all these attacks on the car. Electric cars are not emission free when their life cyle is audited.
Yes I didn’t realise locally No buses from Swansea to Port Talbot after 8pm on the W/end?.and doesn’t start until after 10am…If you don’t provide Public Transport how do you expect to cut down on Private use of vehicles on the road..Cash strapped Government trying all shapes to raise money again( Come on motorists let’s show them we’ve got the power to bring this Country to a standstill)..In America they are Powerful lobbyists!
If you have the money that the big oil companies have and can buy governments like they do (its called lobbying and paying for there elections) then you might aswell keep stum. They are not listining.
But just cars. The biggest polluters are lorries, buses and vans.
WIsh we had a strong voice. Like these biggest polluters
And diesel trains.
I agree with vaughan completely regarding the biggest poluters should pay more vehicle tax or whatever you want to call it. Delivery lorries, vans, trains, buses not to mention the cruise liners which are the biggest poluters of all should pay more. If the government taxed commercial vehicles relative to the amount of emisions coming out of their engines per annum the rest of us could probably pay a sensible amount of vehicle tax per year. I do an annual mileage with my tow car of 6000 miles per year so the tax relative per mile is extortionate. Have a look at the government website for taxation of commercial vehicles and I think it will be a surprise as to how much they have to pay or in fact how little they pay.
The truck I drive is Euro 6 compliant probably a lot cleaner than your car plus if the cost of tax for lorries as you call them increases so does your groceries etc.
In london i’m pretty sure most pollution comes from planes burning kerosene… my hair gets very greasy in one day, in rome, which has a much worse traffic, it takes a week before my hair gets so greasy.
Have they ever done a study of how much pollution sleeping policemen ( road bumps ) cause and how many deaths by that pollution ?
Firstly they encouraged us all to buy diesel cars then when we do they tax us yet again. Car drivers are the main tax payers already but once again, they target them. This is just another way of squeezing even more our of the already heavily taxed car payer. It was called road tax once, but they changed the name and now the roads are in a pitiful condition all round the country! Maybe we should rebel!
I couldn’t agree more, Hilary. They don’t pay road tax in France and yet they don’t appear to have moon-style craters in their roads everywhere. What is road tax for, if not for the repair and upkeep of the roads? It’s all about raising revenue because they’re incompetent and we are an easy target.
I agree with Hilary and Caroline. Drivers always paying the price for our shoddy government. Our roads are disgusting with all the potholes. Its always the car drivers who are hit. What happens when new government cars are required..will they ignore their own rules and still but flash cars but some will find a discount so as not to pay exhorbitent VED but still drive around in high powered diesel cars. Double standards yet again…a case of I’m alright Jack!!
Strange that. No road tax, less tax on fuel, much lower duty on booze … yet more money to spend on Health, roads, etc – did we get screwed!
That all may be true but personal income tax is 45% in France and it has been higher!
But salaries are higher and old age pension is nearly double
Not entirely true, 45% for those earning over €153,783, if you are earning up to 72k the rate in France is generally less than here. Council tax equivalent is also a lot less than here and I get my bin emptied every week. Maybe it’s because they don’t have a Royal Family and a house of Lords to pay for…..
They use the road tax money to pay for cameras so they can charge you even more
Please stop calling it ROAD TAX! It isn’t!
It was always road tax until they put the spin on it & called it VED…
It is a road tax, as has always been, the government can call it what they like it will not change what it really is
It’s a tax for being on the road so therefor it’s a ROAD TAX regardless of what the government want to call it. If they push the motorist much further they may find they have killed the “Golden Goose”. All motors on the road should be paying for the upkeep of the roads. It’s not C02 emissions that damage the roads, causing all the pot holes etc but motors of all types including battery powered cars. Do owners of battery powered cars really believe that they will still have free ROAD TAX after the government has got rid of all diesel and petrol cars
All the concessions to non-polluting cars (so called) are just that – concessions. After all cars fuelled by diesel or petrol have been scrapped and the need for revenue is felt, these concessions will be withdrawn on some excuse. Especially in London where the Congestion Charge is so big a factor.
Not entirely true. Since January 2006, a tax is paid on registration documents. Also most motorways charge a toll and there is also a tax on that. http://www.cfe-eutax.org/taxation/road-tax/france There is a tax on fuel which funds road costs. Vehicle tax in the UK also includes a contribution towards heath costs of dealing with road accidents.
Nope but they do have toll roads which are an absolutely BRILLIANT idea. I drove around 1700 miles around France, mainly on toll roads using a SANEF tag in my windscreen. Not one tailback-roadworks-pothole or anything else, until of course I came out of the channel tunnel in good old pothole-roadworks-traffic jam blighty…
There’s no such thing as road tax any more. It’s VED or Vehicle Excise Duty. Road tax was given to the highways authorities to maintain the roads, VED is not.
I have always understood that Road Fund Tax was applied at the time the Red Flag Act was withdrawn. The new tax was passed by Parliament to pay exclusively for the provision and maintenance of public Roads. However in about 1915, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill, borrowed from the fund because of the extreme pressures of WW1. A recent Government decided to end this unconstitutional matter by phasing out the Road Fund Tax, and replacing it with another name.
So by the gov’s wording no more new diesel or petrol cars by 2040 (only 22years time) so what happens to all those people who have caravans and what happens to all the factories that make caravans they will go to the wall, electric vehicles do not have the power or the durability to pull caravans thousands of workers put out of work not only in the manufacturing but in the maintainance, sales etc bet they never thought about that.
Sorry, but how do they build HGV EVs then?
Do they build them ?
A 13 kw/h tesla battery costs £ 6.000
A tesla car has 100 kw/h of batteries and the car itself must be fairly light.
Can you imagine what sort of battery would take to pull 50 tons all the way from scotland to dover and possibly across europe ?
Please use the correct terms. You mean kWh.
The real unit would be Joules which is total energy, but for convenience we use W which is a joule per second so a Wh is 3600 joules and a kWh is 3.6 MJ.
Petrol, gas and kerosine, etc are rated for energy content in MJ/kg or sometimes by volume as MJ/litre.
Seriously, ass-hole!
tesla have built a HGV
electric
So have most truck builders, some using overhead pantograph systems like trains which could be installed on motorways and a small conventional engine for the last few miles off motorway to distribution hubs. Look it up on you tube Scania and many others are exploring several avenues and have been for years.
Who’s going to pay the price for a battery for a HGV EV to tow a caravan a bit unrealistic would’nt you think
The answer is ‘Horses’ haha!
We’re all being taxed off the roads so it might be prudent to buy a horse & cart!
I Think they did Ken. It’s just they’re all career politicians now so don’t give a toss as they’ll just about all be drawing their golden plated pensions by 2040.
Rebel? We’re British, we don’t rebel.
No, because we are doormats! Time we woke up.
Yep, been s*** on for so long we just roll over.
They keep putting taxes up for drivers because they know that we can’t and/or wont give up our cars, so no matter how much they increase the taxes, we’ll all cry and moan about it, and then pay it anyway…
To be fair, we have very little choice but to put up with it, the public transport system is virtually none existent outside of large cities.
The miserable minority of us that do vote have bounced between Conservative and Labour for decades! When will we learn? If we ALL got off our backsides and voted in the “Greens” they would ban the car! With no worthy “public transport infrastructure” and the country on its knees they’d soon give back the car, with Concessions!!
It was Gordon Brown who encouraged us to buy diesel after 20 yrs of driving petrol cars, after his encouragement I bought my first diesel car then in your face “they are bad for the environment” what do we vote them in government for? To take us for mugs? Now they are going to the extreme to ensure we do not buy diesel or petrol, give to 10 years and they will give a reason why electric cars are bad for health and the environment…kmt
Actually they are worse, at end of life. Imaging the toxins batteries have when thousands and thousands of car batteries are scrapped.
Imagine the toxins as billions of cars burn trillions of barrels of oil into our atmosphere every single day! Imagine the oil spills and leaking wells, imagine the child with asthma walking down the street to school, passing a procession of idling trucks pumping out fumes, going nowhere…
The recycle-ability of batteries will increase as our understanding and application of lithium increases exponentially along the Moore’s Law curve, but capturing pollution hasn’t really changed the result of our smoggy streets and cities has it?
I’d hazard a guess that our trajectory with electric will be by orders of magnitude cleaner than fossil-fuels could ever be. How much fossil fuel is burned refining fossil fuel? moving fossil fuel around? selling the fossil fuel? We could zap that energy across pylons that have existed for decades, or we could fill this dumpy truck up with liquid energy and haul it across the world… When it really comes to how dirty and polluting an I.C.E. car is, do you really factor the long pipe in?
With today’s technology the accepted philosophy is:
If you use your car little, keep running a petrol car.
If you use your car often, a hybrid or EV will be cleaner.
Yes if you only drive for 30 minutes on a Sunday, your Tesla Model X will be a complete waste, but if you do the daily commute and some, your Tesla will be quids-in for ecological impact. That’s now, the batteries will get smaller, cleaner, longer-lasting, higher-capacity, and will even become fundamentally clean one day so long as we continue to pursue and improve upon the technology.
Will this attack on disael cars ever end it’s not right and it’s not right for the government to treat it’s citizens like this because of a small number activities shouted out at the dangers of the disael vehicles, don’t they realise that they are being used by there own government to get money and do they really thing that they would see any of this money go to their so called good causes or changes ???
I DONT THINK SO .
Where are the true conpainers ? the people that fight for the rights and fairness of the average living person . What will happen to this country when jobs are lost due to this hard handed approach to disael and petrol vechicles
How will the average citizen buy a car in the future and be able to run it.
So people let’s think how can we the public stop this very unfair attack and injustice on our nation of drivers and motor industry?
Attack on NEW diesel cars.
Exactly, so someone trades in their old diesel to buy a less polluting one and is penalised financially, so they will just keep the old more polluting diesel, nota plan at all just another tax, when the drive to reduce co2 happened at least it was to get more polluting cars off the road
Well … quite! Aren’t they actually better on the CO2 front than older models? Makes no sense to me!
Has this government even considered the financial strain on pensioners
Why do the British people keep putting up with these co2 taxes when the US,China,Russia and others keep pumping it out with no regard for us we are being conned when will the British people wake up
China seems to be leading the way in “green” technology to be fair.
Is this the same China that was putting a coal powered power station into service at the rate of 1 per week
It’s the same as the “Globle Warming” …………rubbish. The British people won’t wake up until it is too late, then they will realise they have been conned.
I despise this government so much
As opposed to the previous that added 2 p to the litre of fuel every budget?
… and it still wasn’t as expensive as this is going to be. I agree that it’s not good to continually put it up, but why, then does an allegedly “we put working people first” government actually penalise the soft underbelly again and again? Sorry, I don’t sympathise with your viewpoint – I happen to think they’re all ruddy useless and not able to tackle the issue of incredibly rich tax-evaders (who snaffle it offshore) so they lump onto us time and again.
Yep – incompetence, confusion, career politicians, a drive to force Brexit through without reconsidering, when they know they got the sums wrong and lied to us – even though that’s likely to bring us to our knees financially … just wait to see what that does to our taxes. The clue is in the name GOVERNment. So why, instead of bowing to the tabloid press, prejudice and “populist” opinion don’t they get on with governing? Because it’s all about pursuing personal agendas and ridiculous dogmas. I’d sack everyone in parliament – not just the idiots in power, but the opposition too. Not one of the trashy crew in the building is fit to govern us – and as for linking us with the nasty self-interested harpy in Northern Ireland – that is the final insult.
Brexit is off topic and in any case, you do realise that exactly the same argument used for NOT leaving the EU now are the ones used for NOT going into it in the first place – and visa versa? The world and the UK will adapt. Move on. Its all irrelevant anyway.
Whoops, just missed the supernova that dedtroyed the earth! Please either keep to the point of the discussion or don’t post. This has nothing to do with BREXIT
Poorly written article – very confusing and contradicts what is on DVLA website. I admire your intention: raising awareness of tax changes, but you need to take more care to avoid propagating fake news.
? Fake news? Just been on the dvla website and this is there plus on the.gov.uk site as well. Mind you you have to dig for it.
I drive an 05 Saab 9-5 which according to the V5 (section 10) produces 244 gms/km.
Does this mean I will have to pay £1700 / year VED from April? The car only cost £1750 to buy!!!!!!!
Not much inducement to go for non-internal combustion vehicles!
It’s clear this is being used as an opportunity to raise tax from the people least likely to kick back, using the diesel gate that audit started, if this was anyway a real attempt to limit pollution, the it would be addressing the amount of heavy goods vehicles, vans, trains etc that pollute a lot more than the latest diesel cars.
Excellent if it means an increased role for better public transport in rural areas. For urban areas like Brighton why use the car or even own one when oldies can use frequent buses for free?
Because, if you no longer live IN Brighton, but want to visit your friends/go shopping/go out in the evening for a meal you won’t get very far in the rest of Sussex on public transport – and no, they’re not looking at putting any on. I live in Hastings and come over once a week to visit friends in Hove early evening. I leave around 8pm and get home at around 9:15pm. There are NO direct trains to Hastings after around 6pm (from Brighton, not from Hove – you still have to change if you’re going to Hove) so what encouragement is there? I would have to change at least once, sometimes twice to get home and get home after 10pm. No, not going to give up using my car whilst it is so inconvenient and frankly, so expensive. I’m actually from London and in London you can do without a car and just rent one when you want to go somewhere for a weekend/holiday. But London has 24-hour transport. Having said that, still no good if you want to go into London and leave for the suburbs later in the evening.
Many local bus services finish around 1800 hrs so an evening trip out to a show, meal or visit friends is impossible by public transport whether or not you have a bus pass
I don’t mind admitting that I was honestly not aware of the changes proposed …
So now thanks to this article I’m raging!
Im thinking on he reason for road tax as someone said … where does this tax actually go?
The government must have a secret account where it all goes and probably used to fund the Parliamentary group and the renovations to Westminster, Big Ben and the cars they all drive.
One day they may just spend some of it where it’s needed “on the roads” it’s quite embarrasing to think yet again that this government thinks they rule the world in Pollution control and the larger nations do their little bit … as if the UK makes a difference.
Time for those do Gooders in parliament put their minds to some of the reasons they run this island and stop the Pollution by letting vehicles navigate roads without having to swerve on every occasion to miss these dangerous hazards called potholes … or will they commenced to put up signs on roads warning of “Potholes” ahead and in doing so reduce their bills of road users suing them for the state if our roads!
Oops have I given the anot her way of getting themselves out of paying out on legal cases?
I’m sure there will be some other reason they will tax us the motorists… it’s time the motor industry and organisation stated to rebel and question the government over what is actually happening … they receive enough money from the road user it’s time to be held responsible for some of their reasoning and put thems elves in front of a Parliamentary court and ask some if these questions. … it’s a damn joke and humiliating the way they treat the vehicle owners of this country …. I think I’ve said enough …
Come on,
The Goverment are hell bent on wiping out diesel cars but trains, buses and haulage companies will never change from diesel.
As a report on petrolprices just last month stated that petrol cars give out more CO2 than Diesel cars and they have to be filled up more often as not as good miles per gallon so they are using more fuel than diesel cars for the same journey.
If I’m not mistaken as well ( please correct me if I am though ) the fuel companies make DIESEL out of what is left from making PETROL. If this is indeed correct what and where are the Goverment going to dump the waste ??
Greenpeace state there is no such thing as a clean diesel car. Have they checked the figures For CO2 for diesel cars against petrol cars. In the majority of the cases the Diesel car levels are lower than that of the petrol car. Every thing points to the fact that petrol cars give out more harmful CO2 emissions than Diesel engines do but the Goverment will never admit this.
Just like everything else, when the Goverment need to raise extra money it’s the drivers that get hit every time. We are an easy target as about 90% of working people need a vehicle to get to work or for work so the Goverment hammer is all the time.
They should be looking at changing the laws for people who have horses and use them to pull dangerous carriages behind them on the road ( the travelling community ) they think the own the roads and cause mahem. They don’t have to have insurance or road tax for their Vehicle ( horse and carriage ) so if they hit anyone’s car because the horse freaks out then tough luck on the person/ people who gets their cars damaged.
The police don’t do anything as they want a easy life and the councils give these people camp sites with toilets and don’t charge them anything for the privilege so again it’s the tax payers that covers the costs.
If the Goverment can change the rules of the road for motor vehicles then they can change the rules for the horse and carriage as well after all we are Living in the 21st century and not the Victorian days. They should have to pay the same as the rest of us and if they don’t and get caught then they get arrested and charged. If their horses are not micro chipped then they get them taken off the owners and put down. Then these people might think twice before doing it again.
Diesel is used because of reliability issues, the petrol trucks left over from WW2 were soon converted to diesel by transport companies as they use LESS fuel. What goes in must come out. Diesel’s use less fuel. Electric, not an option.
What the government should be doing is getting rid of all diesel buses, and have all electric ones in our city’s, l visited London city not long ago and the air there was terrible, l was only there for one day! I wouldn’t want to walk around there everyday! Electric buses, or tax themselves heavily!
Surly if a vehical is using the road network government should be taxing the vehical whatever make fuel it uses to make things fairer for all road users or is that to easy
Any news on this for drivers of hybrid cars please?
It’s time to abolish VED entirely and address the real pollution issues by doubling diesel fuel taxes and levying a £1.00 per mile environmental damage charge on battery powered vehicles, hybrid or pure EV.
Petrol or better still, gas power is as clean as it gets for the foreseeable future. CO2, far from being a pollutant is essential for continued life on the planet.
Heh? Please can you explain your logic! Petrol vehicles are just as polluting with CO2, CO and NO(2) as high. Gas powered gas, by which I assume you mean natural gas methane produce just as much CO2 and CO
VED should still be applicable to all cars as even the electric ones add to the roadwear. Perhaps it should be a flat rate, then an increased charge levied on fuel so that high milers will naturally be paying more
I don’t think any vehicle should have zero road tax- all road users should contribute towards the road infrastructure.
What infrastructure? It’s like driving on the moon where I live and you have to virtually dodge the potholes on the M6.
ONCE AGAIN — IT ISN’T ROAD TAX !! It therefore does not go to repairing roads!
Vehicle tax or as it USED to be known Road Fund Licence.
It isn’t road tax, it’s called VED, the money doesn’t go on road infrastucture.
Beside, we already pay a lot of taxes on fuel, the more you drive the more you use the infrastructure the more you pay for it.
True, even with the old road tax, most of it was used on defence, if it had been used on the roads, we would have some of the finest roads in the world. As VED cash will not be used on the roads at all, it’s time a road repair tax was added to the fuel costs, therefore the more you use the roads, and add to the wear and tear of the roads, the more you contribute to the upkeep.
How can they ban diesel AND petrol vehicles? What is there left? It is not viable for everyone to own an electric car – and what about vintage vehicles that enthusiasts keep going as a labour of love? None of this makes any sense. The government has no hold on climate control. For example, what about the generation of electricity. That is far from carbon-neutral in this country and yet, every supermarket, when closed is lit up as a “security” measure. Surely it’d be better if the lights came on when someone entered? London offices are lit up like Christmas trees day and night Summer and Winter and all through the weekends. Why? Why is it always the motorist that has to pay the price? As it is, this government has confused the whole issue … to its advantage, of course. First of all, they actively encourage us all to buy diesel cars and then suddenly, any diesel car owner is the villain of the piece. Time to stop this farce. Stop using motorists as the whipping-boy and get your house in order.
Very confusing article. I have a 2003 4×4 & pay around £310 per year. Will this stay the same or go down to £140?
No reference to aircraft, funny how they are never mentioned. And they are putting their noxious gases high up in the atmosphere. Can someone please explain.
It’s has stoped me buying a new hybrid car as at the moment I paying £0 and any car would be more
I used to visit China and India for business. If you saw the air and land pollution in these countries then what the UK is doing is rather pointless. Hundreds of thousands of people in Asia die early from air pollution alone.
UK vehicle taxes are a revenue generator, no more than that. Any political party in office would do the same so no point in blaming current incumbents.
Has anyone tried to buy a new or newish car these days? There are very few demonstrators available due to the car manufacturers limiting production and hence keeping the prices up. You can however buy any second hand diesels for good prices as there are plenty about but future higher taxes could be a disincentive.
Many people are unsure what car to buy next as the petrol/electric discussion is creating uncertainty. However, there is no doubt that electric is the way things are going, if not to cock a snoot at the oil rich Middle East sheiks who can hold the world to ransom should they choose.
On yer bikes, everyone!
CARS whether diesel or petrol are just cash cows for any government of the day . We were encouraged to buy diesel cars some time ago as they were more fuel efficient and less polluting for which we paid purchase taxes on for the privilege of buying the car . Now the government of the day want to get rid of these cars . Are we getting the purchase taxes back which now clearly shows it was demanded fraudulently or , if the government are so keen to rid the roads of diesel cars , why can they not just buy them back from the owners at prices BEFORE THE SCARE MONGERING STARTED , and then scrap them or sensibly recycle them. Next stage is to ban the manufacture of all Diesel engines . But mine is a knee jerk reaction , did I not hear that modern diesels are more efficient and less polluting than petrol engines . Must have been a dream.
Buy electric they say , again was it only last week the National Grid stated the demand for electricity has increased dramatically and if there is a surge in buying electric cars then they could not cope. Also the limited range of electric cars makes them impractical for anyone except local shoppers .
Yes we should rebel. When the French put up road tax in France some years ago there were demonstrations on the street by farmers , haulage companies and the public. The French government decided to give in and never again introduced road tax hence the reason there is no road tax in France.
Finally this fictitious 2040 to stop the import of all petrol and diesel cars , are the manufacturers aware of this or will they just s end the parts to the UK for assembly to claim it is not an import . Also what would happen to the enormous number of cars stil in the UK then , will petrol or diesel not be available can you imagine the chaos . We really must get up off our backsides and do something now or are we all sheep awaiting to be slautered.
we are asking why lorries are not being included. surely they are the biggest fume makers if as we see coming up to our traffic lights and pulling away, why is it just private cars they are ganging up on?
Lorries consume huge amounts of fuel – and so pay huge amounts of duty within the price of that fuel. Actually for the sheer quantity of goods they move in one hit, they are very fuel efficient. Certainly some of them need a good service though !
Just a silly thought . France does not have road tax , insurance is reasonable and their version of the MOT is every two years but strict.
Here’s the plan , our government will hate it , BUY YOUR NEXT NEW CAR IN FRANCE , REGISTER IT , NO ROAD TAX , INSURE IT even have it in RHD if you wish and bring it over here . They will plug this loophole but what chaos it could cause , you may have to take the car back to France once or twice a year , no real hardship , and you will have to register it there , but there are plenty of accommodation address .
With the roads getting used by all types of vehicle, then it only seems fair that all pay towards the upkeep. The main concern is that the zero-rated will be exempt but built in such a way that they will suffer damage from damaged roads. As a petro-sel user, my vehicles are used less than the average motorist. I would like to see the VED scrapped and duty on the charging or fuelling instead. I read the installing of fast charging points in London, as an Auto-Electrician I wonder when the first fires or worse will happen. In F1 and the Electric racing cars often we hear of the batteries getting very hot and drivers getting burns. Time will see, but we are not out of the woods yet. Stop thinking about collecting money from the motorist and shell out for repairs to the roads. We should have the best roads in Europe. When we see these road shows on TV seems the poorest of the EU have better roads than us. Shame that my vehicles are being hit after so much care of them.
We should expect more untaxed, uninsured and misuse of a motor vehicle from others not willing to pay.
2 years ago we were encouraged to buy diesel cars now we are being coned into higher runningcosts the government certainly knew what there doing
Bit more than 2 years ago, Gordon Brown was chancelor and promoted diesel cars.
With all the top rate I pay, would you lesser vehicle owners get out of my way. I DO own the road by now. 🙂
The government is missing a trick here why not charge £100 for all private cars. More revenue overall and much simpler and cheaper to operate. Its ridiculous some are charges £30 and now £140.
My road tax is currently £0 per year – petrol car with 95g/km CO2, registered on 31st March 2013.
Am I correct in saying it will still be £0 per year, but if I were to replace it with another car that is identical in every way except brand new, I would have to pay £100 per year?
What you should also point out is that for new cars the £40,000 refers to the Retail value (inc extras) on day of Registration and NOT what you paid for it!
So how come the 2018/2019 tax on my ’17 plate Audi Q3 was £150?
I clearly remember the Labour government announing that everyone should be driving diesel cars, and offering huge VED incentives to get people on board. At the time I sat on the Government Automotive Unit and we had a three-monthly meeting hosted by Bentley – in there boardroom. The reaction at lunchtime when we were informed about this was palpable! We were all astonished as to whom had advised the government to do this.
We have a severe problem with the level of Asthma sufferers in this country, which is the main bye-product of diesel particulant emmissions. The current government has been slow to reverse the Labour government’s blunder… which was enforced immediately at the time!
My 40mpg diesel Ford C-Max is no good then? Well if it’s scrapped and I buy something else, just bear in mind that a car uses as much energy to create it as it would use in its lifetime; so why cut that life short? Oh and by the way, who has decreed we should have trains that are part diesel and part electric instead of all-electric? Jerkoids in Government at it again.
Don’t think people would mind so much had we not been told diesel was better for the environment and been encouraged to buy them. Also can hardly see all the diesel buses and trucks disappearing, and large diesel engines have disproportionately larger Nox emissions
I think it is disgusting to charge so much for a hybrid car. The VED for these was £0 but now it will cost £130, how does that encourage people to become more environmentally efficient in their choice of vehicle. If a charge has to be made then don’t make it so unappealing to purchase a hybrid compared with a 100% petrol version instead. I have a hybrid and the CO2 emissions are around 89g/kg.
Obviously, once the diesel cash cow has disappeared, the government will have to raise taxes on the remaining vehicles.
Remember how diesel fuel duty was hiked when more drivers changed from petrol.
Some ‘tame’ scientist will write a report demonising electric cars and ‘hey presto’ taxes will have to rise, for the good of the planet and little children everywhere.
Government is very expensive and has to be funded by extracting as much tax as possible from the masses.
The most expensive diesels will rise by 500 a year for the first year. What impact will that even make do they think the buyer who can afford 50 grand for a car will even notice this change laughable it is.
Surely if all new petrol and diesel cars are banned by 2040 all that will do is encourage people to drive their old cars for longer- when they will become less and less eco friendly (especially old diesels). I’ll be dead by then (or at least not driving any more) thank goodness so won’t have to worry about having a plug in car lol
Article is unclear. Just had a VED renewal for my diesel at £30 for the year so renewed early just in case of rises after March 31st. It’s 1.4 litre with a CO2 under 100gm so less polluting than most petrol vehicles in terms of CO2 emissions and it’s also pretty low on NOx emissions compared to taxis, trucks and all the big diesel polluters that are being ignored as it would impact on cost of living stats.
It’s going to be a danger to my wallet
Don’t know how they can claim to be simplifying the VED system. It seems far too complicated and extremely difficult to decide what car might be most affordable either today or in the future.
All electric cars are totally impractical for most. Why are they not promoting hydrogen as a fuel which only produces water vapour at the exhaust?
I’ve been saying this for a while John. The Government is blind to alternatives and he’ll bent on developing an electric charging infrastructure that will not, cannot ever satisfy the needs of vehicle owners. The idiot Mayor of London is suggesting charging points on every lamp post. Does he know how many vehicles per lamp post would have to share the facility?
Has anyone quantified the amount of lithium or whatever will be required to complete the change over of the Nation’s cars to electric power? Or how much more nuclear waste will be produced from the additional power stations that will be required to charge them all.
They should be encouraging petrol stations to begin a transition to hydrogen pumps. Take out one petrol/diesel pump per station and install a hydrogen one.
Unfortunately there are none so deaf as those who do not want to hear.
HYDROGEN IS THE FUTURE.
The national grid won’t be able to cope if all cars were plugged in overnight.
A 100kw/h battery charged in 10hrs would require a 10kw/h supply ( with zero losses ).
Multiply that for all the cars in the country…
Then there’s yhe problem of generating it… we already have a deficit and import quite a bit from france.
The idiot motorists who buy these laughably HUGE private vehicles which literally cast a shadow over normal cars due to their height and width but ALSO make it impossible to park in bays next to them makes me wonder and fear unrestrained human nature (yes, and I include me in that!).
I get more and more disillusioned as I get older. It seems that some ‘out of control’ type people would actually BUY vehicles which were TOO big for the roads or anything else, IF they weren’t restricted by law…. MADNESS!!!! 🙂
Don’t these people even realise just how ridiculous they look in their equally ridiculous, impractical, silly sized, cars?
ITS CALLED PERSONAL CHOICE SOME PEOPLE HAVE A CAR OR WHATEVER TO GO FROM A TO B AND SPEND THE WEEKENDS PLAYING GOLF OR FOOTBALL OR SHOPPING
WITH THE WIFE OTHERS ENJOY THE FUN OF A BIG POWERFULLY CAR DONT PLAY FOOTY JUST GO RACING AT WEEKENDS CIRCUIT RACING OR DRAG RACING WE ALL HAVE A CHOICE ON HOW TO SPEND OUR MEAGER EARNINGS I PERSONALLY GO RACING AND DRIVE BIG AMERICAN CARS ITS WHAT MAKES MY DAY AND I AM NOT GIVING IT UP WHILE I LIVE AND BREATH
Barry, I’m certainly not having a go at you as I’m similar to you and we’re in a minority. In my case though I’ve wanted to motor race but could never afford it….. I did pick up a sixties Mustang (my era) hired for my son’s wedding.
For you (and me) it’s an interest and a hobby…..and for practical use too in your case. What I’m on about is the seemingly increasing numbers of these MASSIVE SUVs…. I really don’t get the attraction UNLESS it’s keeping up with the Jones’s…. in which case they should move further away from the Jones’s! 🙂
Another rip off made by government. all the “global warming” propaganda is a SCAM aimed to rip the taxpayers and gove our money to benefit cheaters and wealthy government figures who parasite on the whole working society!
Peter, you’re a joke. Another Trump. Global Warming is a scam.. please wAke up as see the truth. The facts are there. It’s not just a government saying it’s happenng. The facts are there of you’ve got the balls to look. But perhaps you’d rather tak3 the Trump way out
Well said sir , it totally agree with you because you are right it is all b*****t volcanoes give off more co2 in a day than a city does in years so hopefully someone can smoke on that.