How would pay per mile car tax work?

I've thought of a system so that everyone pays their fare fair share of using the roads and it's very topical. Digital IDs. Bare with me!

Everyone is going to have a digital ID whether you like it or not, and it'll be mandatory to carry it with you (RFID card, mobile phone or whatever). The government potatoes will detect when you are travelling at more than say 6mph and start to charge you at a given rate (+VAT, +yearly RPI increases).

The amount paid per mile will be tiered so that the faster you are travelling the more you pay.
Your body weight will be known by the system so the heavier you are the more you pay too. It was considered for EVs so why not drivers and passengers of vehicles?!

Ah, but what about passengers of pubic public transport I hear you cry! They're using the road aren't they? Therefore they should pay. We could consider a drop in fares to mitigate it but lets not get too radical.
Cyclists will of course be included, in fact the general hatred towards cyclists and finally making them pay "road tax" is what will make this idea an election winner.
But, but, what about passengers of somebody else's vehicle? Oh, they'll pay too. Make that work colleague freeloading git pay their share.

It'll be so woke because it will include everybody!
By my calculations it would generate tax revenue of more than the GDP of the UK.

Now of course the negative part. We know the government couldn't organise a **** in a brothel and their history of large scale IT projects is somewhat tarnished. However this idea will generate so much tax revenue that we could hire software developers from the likes of Fujitsu, NHS system integrators and those needlessly rejected by Google and SAP. We must include AI or course, because you can't spell Millennial without including a and i.

I think my idea is so brilliant that I'm thinking of applying for a job in the government's think tank department. I could also help them with that trip to the brothel too because we're all about to get ******.
 
mid_gen said:
I don't think anyone thinks they're winning the next GE mate :p

Something needs to be done to balance the books as people move to EV though. Not entirely sure what the easiest answer is.

There's probably enough ANPR around to make a decent estimate of people's mileage over a year (haha, that'll upset the Facebook conspiracy crowd :))
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I expected more from labour. But they dont seem much better than Conservatives tbh. Sad.

I agree something needs to be done to balance books. Maybe look at taxing the rich a bit more. I am sure there are ways to do it without the "yeah but then they will leave the country" line.
 
I personally think the reason people quote "pay per mile" is because the people who use the roads more often pay more for the use of the road, it doesn't seem right that someone who does less than 3k a year pays the same as a taxi driver who does 50k a year but that's the system thats in at the moment.
TNA said:
Nice one labour. At the rate they are going they won't get a win in the next GE.
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Not a chance Labour win the next election, they've virtually guaranteed Reform are going to be next in power, god help us
 
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mattyg said:
I've said this before, We already have a pay per mile cost, In the fuel we use. I know this is currently about EV's, They could just link it to chargers couldn't they, electricity used to charge vehicles get a fuel duty.
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That would never fully work though. Fine for public charging and commercial settings where you have fleets of vehicles using dedicated chargers, but for home charging - how do you measure the electricity used to charge a car vs an electric shower/oven/heater/etc.?

lordrobs said:
Seriously though, EV was always going to reach price parity with ICE on a cost per mile basis.
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Which is fine, when they reach purchase price parity, convenience parity, and we don't have green targets to hit.

None of the above are currently the case, so the main reasons for people to switch are:

a) To save the planet - yeah, I'd put money on the number of people buying an EV primarily for this reason to be in the single figures.
b) They prefer how an EV drives - a valid argument, but let's be honest, again this will be a minority - most people aren't going to care, they just want something to get from A to B as cheaply and easily as possible
c) Cheaper running costs - while still true if you charge mostly at home, the government seem intent on getting rid of this one. If an EV costs more to buy, the same amount to run, and is less convenient, then people will just stick with a cheap ICE, and who can blame them?

Maundie said:
I personally think the reason people quote "pay per mile" is because the people who use the roads more often pay more for the use of the road, it doesn't seem right that someone who does less than 3k a year pays the same as a taxi driver who does 50k a year but that's the system thats in at the moment.
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Pay-per-mile would be fine if it replaced VED completely, calculated so that those who drive "average" mileage end up paying the same, but you just know that it's going to end up on top :(
 
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Well, clearly this is going to impact the number of people who buy EVs and thus reduce the uptake of 'green' cars and progress towards net zero.

Net Zero being the scared cow that cannot be touched in anyway. And seems to be a large part of the reason we have the most expensive energy costs in the developed world.

Or can it? If the Chancellor can reduce our progress to net zero in this way, the government can do it in other ways.

Like reducing our electricity prices by decoupling renewables from the price of gas.

Every cloud and all that.........(and no, I don't think the government will do this)

(I appreciate this is veering off topic and there is a thread in SC for this, but it seemed relevant here too.)
 
Haggisman said:
That would never fully work though. Fine for public charging and commercial settings where you have fleets of vehicles using dedicated chargers, but for home charging - how do you measure the electricity used to charge a car vs an electric shower/oven/heater/etc.?
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My first thought was through the actual charger. If all new chargers were "smart" as you cant plug an EV directly into a socket.
 
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Haggisman said:
That would never fully work though. Fine for public charging and commercial settings where you have fleets of vehicles using dedicated chargers, but for home charging - how do you measure the electricity used to charge a car vs an electric shower/oven/heater/etc.?
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It can't. Even my smart charger when supplying cheap electricity outside of peak hours, the whole house gets the electricity at the cheap rate.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
You can build your own dumb charger with components which are easily available online or just import one from elsewhere.
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Yep. Theres lots of things that have workaround. Its whether or not MOST people would break the law to get around it. Red Diesel, Dodgy fire sticks etc.
 
So just as companies are forcing everyone back in to the office, the government wants to punish them for going to the office.

But for something like this it will be easy to cheat, but hard to enforce.
 
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mattyg said:
My first thought was through the actual charger. If all new chargers were "smart" as you cant plug an EV directly into a socket.
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Yeah you can just plug your EV straight into a standard 3 pin socked with the granny charger.

That's how a lot of people charge their cars all the time if you don't do mega milage, myself included so there'd be no way to differentiate it from a fan heater.
 
mattyg said:
My first thought was through the actual charger. If all new chargers were "smart" as you cant plug an EV directly into a socket.
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You can though, you just need a granny charger.

If all chargers were smart, then yes it would work, but they would need to be able to stop people from using non-smart chargers, which is basically impossible. Even if they passed legislation to make all new chargers smart (including granny chargers), what's to stop people using existing ones (which would end up being worth a fortune!), or as @b0rn2sk8 says, just making/sourcing your own.
 
surely would be better and much easier to implement a separate tier of VED for electric vehicles

a fair system would maybe by power, or by efficiency W/mile - like as for petrol/diesel cars are charged dependant on emissions

otherwise sounds VERY complicated to work out how many miles you have done - you could have gone to South of France or something and racked up loads of non UK miles

other than that sounds fair - I don't see why Electrical vehicles should pay less than other vehicles
 
Any substance to this year's pre-budget "omg they're introducing pay per mile" frothing from the tabloids or just the usual engagement farming?
 
Kenai said:
Any substance to this year's pre-budget "omg they're introducing pay per mile" frothing from the tabloids or just the usual engagement farming?
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They've openly said they are considering it.

So a touch of substance but far from a certainty.

My sceptical self thinks they may be testing the water with a tactical information leak to see how it goes down.

It's worth bearing in mind that the majority of people will hear "extra costs to EV drivers" and react with complete indifference. Especially as so many have them on a short term lease because it works out cheaper, so even EV drivers will just run the numbers and ditch them if they no longer suit their wallets. Only kicker will be the cash spent on installing a charger.
 
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