EV general discussion

m4rmite said:
I thought ulez was free for an ev, but the congestion charge was coming in for evs?
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Most of the ULEZ camera don't work anyway especially on side roads. Seems like Khan has been defeated in the suburbs.

If you sign up for their auto-pay system, you get automatically billed when your reg is picked up. So no need to pay it just incase. I've been in and out in an old diesel and not pinged by it. A colleague has been doing it for a year and not got a hit.
 
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There's no clarity on what the policies are for, that's the issue.

If the issue is congestion, then all cars should pay the fee.

If the issue is clean air, then battery cars shouldn't pay.

I think VED should be abolished. There is no reason to pay an extra tax just because you drive a car. Everyone in the country, whether a driver or not, benefits from the road network, it is a universal public good. Road maintenance should come from general taxation.

And then vehicle specific taxes should only be used to further a specific policy aim. If you want fewer ICE cars, increase tax on fuel. If you want less congestion, increase congestion charges in certain areas.
 
danlightbulb said:
Road maintenance should come from general taxation.
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It does, it doesn't come from VED though VED is thrown into the pot so you can argue that some VED goes towards road maintenance.
That's why Winston Churchill took Road Tax away, he said that everybody should be paying for the roads and not a certain people who drive vehicles.



@squerble
Have you found a reference yet on the Gov UK site?
I even gave you a search.
 
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danlightbulb said:
There's no clarity on what the policies are for, that's the issue.

If the issue is congestion, then all cars should pay the fee.

If the issue is clean air, then battery cars shouldn't pay.

I think VED should be abolished. There is no reason to pay an extra tax just because you drive a car. Everyone in the country, whether a driver or not, benefits from the road network, it is a universal public good. Road maintenance should come from general taxation.

And then vehicle specific taxes should only be used to further a specific policy aim. If you want fewer ICE cars, increase tax on fuel. If you want less congestion, increase congestion charges in certain areas.
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In a perfect world that's exactly what governments would do.

Unfortunately it's not a vote winner so we have had the fuel duty escalator frozen for 10-15 years now, congestion charging and road procing schemes voted down, etc.

Taxes just ain't popular so we're stuck with crappy policies because it's too hard to change
 
Just sorted out the insurance for the ID7


With 6 months left, we got a refund of £160. So probably about £300 ish a year cheaper than the BMW.


Moving house soon to a better area too, so hopefully it’ll go down again.
 
MrRockliffe said:
Just sorted out the insurance for the ID7


With 6 months left, we got a refund of £160. So probably about £300 ish a year cheaper than the BMW.


Moving house soon to a better area too, so hopefully it’ll go down again.
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Mine came in about £400 cheaper than my previous car - given what I'd heard about insuring EVs a pleasant surprise.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
@squerble
Have you found a reference yet on the Gov UK site?
I even gave you a search.
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Sorry forgot about this. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/vehicle-excise-duty-evasion-statistics-2023

Vehicle Excise Duty (VED, or road tax) evasion among vehicles seen on UK road...

There used to be a lot more, but it looks like they've done a find/replace across most of the main pages which all now say "vehicle tax" or "car tax". Either way, it's still referred to as a tax.
 
squerble said:
Sorry forgot about this. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/vehicle-excise-duty-evasion-statistics-2023

Vehicle Excise Duty (VED, or road tax) evasion among vehicles seen on UK road...

There used to be a lot more, but it looks like they've done a find/replace across most of the main pages which all now say "vehicle tax" or "car tax". Either way, it's still referred to as a tax.
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OK, you 've found one but you can see see that out of 1000s of pages on the DVLA/Gov site one mistake has been left because on the very same page the idiot who did it corrected it further below.
I've been following the DVLA site since at least 2003 and I can tell you that they stopped using that word at least since then.
The reason I know is because I got in an argument with a cyclist, went home and realised he wasn't talking BS and had to apologise to him.

t3EH5HC.jpeg

 
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MrRockliffe said:
With 6 months left, we got a refund of £160. So probably about £300 ish a year cheaper than the BMW.
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seem a good deal versus a 320dg20 ? - id7 seem to be many circa £35K on AT, would be £600 for me versus current £400 320i,
however I view VED as offsetting any delta insurance cost
 
Yaayuh! said:
Morning, ladies.

Is a heat pump option generally worth it or not? Does it differ car to car?
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From my research, no-one can really decide, there are a lot of factors that affect range in an EV so it's very hard to do a proper test.

For myself, my gut feel is that a heat pump is not going to be helpful on short journeys, but that is not scientific and I may be way off.
 
Southy_ said:
From my research, no-one can really decide, there are a lot of factors that affect range in an EV so it's very hard to do a proper test.

For myself, my gut feel is that a heat pump is not going to be helpful on short journeys, but that is not scientific and I may be way off.
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Seems to be what i'm finding with my duckduckgo-fu. Cupra Tavascan comes with insulated windscreen with the heat-pump too. So again, unsure of the real benefit of both. List price for the package is £1350.
 
Yaayuh! said:
Morning, ladies.

Is a heat pump option generally worth it or not? Does it differ car to car?
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It depends on the car and how much. The main benefit is additional range but that only really comes into play when you are on a long run.

It might as 20-30 miles of range over a long 4.5-5.5 hour run (assuming long range car) but is that really worth £1000? No, probably not. I’d have peed my pants by then anyway.

When around town etc then range is almost irrelevant, particularly if you can charge at home.

It should be standard but that’s my 2C on the matter. I probably wouldn’t pay for the upgrade in say an MEB based car where they charge £1000
 
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sparkymark75 said:
Even my daughters Corsa e comes with a heat pump as standard. Crazy that MEB platform have it as an expensive optional extra.
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The MEB heat pump is wired into the battery heat management system. It is not just a standalone air condition system. It helps to heat and cool battery inlet fluid. Without it, the car will be solely reliant on a PTC heater and heat exchanger so in winter days the car will be churning through those KWH quite quickly. If battery falls below 5c the heating will kick in to get it over 15c and the reveres I believe is 25c and cooling down to 15c.

It is expensive option but people spec 1500-3000 paint job which adds nothing to functionality, nor does the driver get to see the paint themselves when driving.

:confused:
 
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b0rn2sk8 said:
It depends on the car and how much. The main benefit is additional range but that only really comes into play when you are on a long run.

It might as 20-30 miles of range over a long 4.5-5.5 hour run (assuming long range car) but is that really worth £1000? No, probably not. I’d have peed my pants by then anyway.

When around town etc then range is almost irrelevant, particularly if you can charge at home.

It should be standard but that’s my 2C on the matter. I probably wouldn’t pay for the upgrade in say an MEB based car where they charge £1000
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Is it just energy efficiency or is there increased comfort with it? e.g. does it heat/cool faster?
 
Yaayuh! said:
Is it just energy efficiency or is there increased comfort with it? e.g. does it heat/cool faster?
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Just energy efficiency, if anything it will heat slower from cold compared to a resistive heater which can ramp up to full power almost instantly.

That said the difference between the two in terms of heat up time is minimal. It’s measured in seconds, compared to an engine which will be measured in minutes.

Edit: My car has a heat pump and if you get in it from cold, it’s blowing hot air before I have even pulled off my drive.
 
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