Who would drive an EV ?

[Carlton green]

Who would drive an EV? Well someone hoping for a free ride in terms of avoiding taxation that the rest of us have to pay - rather unfair. Mind, such cars are either provided by companies - at no or just nominal cost to the driver - or bought by individuals with loads of money.

Folk that really want green transport would be better doing the bulk of the mileage on a Honda 90 (or similar). They’ve a small CO2 footprint from manufacture and go miles and miles on just a little fuel (about 100 mpg), they weigh very little and take up very little road space. Much much greener than an EV; modern design scooters can be even better on fuel, be a bit quicker too and still have a small manufacturing footprint.

EV’s are a lot about virtue signaling and not so much about actually trying to ‘tread lightly’ in environmental terms.

[Denis99]

It’s not looking for a free ride.

The VED was introduced as a tax on emissions from a ICE. The more polluting the the ICE , the more tax on the car you paid.

The government are now going to change this because they have seen an increase in BEV ownership, and are losing out on revenue.

Don’t fall for the old “road tax” argument.
The VED money does not pay for the roads.

Local council tax and government infrastructure funds roads.

[Denis99]

EV’s are a lot about virtue signaling and not so much about actually trying to ‘tread lightly’ in environmental terms.


Tell that to the people who are living in areas with high road transport emissions, and with their health suffering because of it.

[Bmblbzzz]

EVs are primarily about enabling the motor vehicle industry to carry on and enabling motorists, including the ones who cycle, to carry on as if nothing changed. They will also have the benefit of reducing exhaust pollution, probably also brake pad pollution, and quite likely also carbon dioxide. But they will probably worsen the social ills of driving (including ill health caused by being driven into and through being driven everywhere) due to cheaper car travel. But we'll all be able to carry on driving to the bank.

[Carlton green]

EVs are primarily about enabling the motor vehicle industry to carry on and enabling motorists, including the ones who cycle, to carry on as if nothing changed.

^^ … tells it as it is. If we really wanted to be greener then the solution would be to role back the clock to smaller vehicles (but now with high efficiency engines), people (again) using active travel, people (again) using public transport and people (again) living short distances from where they worked. It ain’t rocket science and EV’s are merely a plaster covering a wart … business as usual.

[sjs]

Who would drive an EV? Well someone hoping for a free ride in terms of avoiding taxation that the rest of us have to pay - rather unfair. Mind, such cars are either provided by companies - at no or just nominal cost to the driver - or bought by individuals with loads of money.

Well, yes, I suppose. I chose one as a company car because of the zero BIK tax cost (no longer zero, but still very little). Nice car, but chosen mainly because much cheaper than an ICE vehicle, even a nominally much less expensive one. When I retire, I'll lose most of the tax advantage, and go back to petrol.

[pete75]

Who would drive an EV? Well someone hoping for a free ride in terms of avoiding taxation that the rest of us have to pay - rather unfair. Mind, such cars are either provided by companies - at no or just nominal cost to the driver - or bought by individuals with loads of money.

If they are bought by individuals with loads of money, they are being bought mostly by people who will be paying loads of tax.

The company bought cars are costing the company. If they choose to provide them for their employees at no or low cost that's up to them and nothing to do with you.

[Cowsham]

I had a P100 company car for a while -- shockingly fast really too fast for our roads but Megabucks. Our family car has just been totaled by a young ejit slammin into it so I took the wife car hunting so we are ready to buy when the money comes in from the at fault party. We originally thought diesel automatic ( has to be automatic ) but the price of the ev's has come down or conversely the prices of new ic cars have gone up but we were shown a new Nissan leaf. I would have been on for that but wasn't sure the wife would get on with it so didn't consider it at first. Her reaction was wow this is a easy thing to drive. The way it holds on hill starts out of junctions, nippy, silent, a host of electronic features like heated seats front and rear, windscreens, steering wheel, etc etc etc but she loved the cameras on rear, front and even the sides are done by tiny cameras on the door mirrors. That's only what we noticed on the 15 min test drive. Looks like we're goin electric!

One thing we noticed which is potentially dangerous but not if you keep aware of it -- the car is quite fast but very quiet. A motorcyclist or a big fast bike overtook us and a tractor trailer at the same time, I followed him a few seconds later when I had assessed the gap by which time he was way up the road a bit. I whizzed past the tractor but found I was reeling him in fast but he didn't seem to see or hear me so I knew to stay back until I knew what he was planning to do or when he realized we were right behind him -- he didn't even indicate just pulled off to the right at a lane. Now if I'd overtaken him ( no long white lines on the road )

[Carlton green]

Who would drive an EV? Well someone hoping for a free ride in terms of avoiding taxation that the rest of us have to pay - rather unfair. Mind, such cars are either provided by companies - at no or just nominal cost to the driver - or bought by individuals with loads of money.

If they are bought by individuals with loads of money, they are being bought mostly by people who will be paying loads of tax.

The company bought cars are costing the company. If they choose to provide them for their employees at no or low cost that's up to them and nothing to do with you.

Sorry, did something I say get too close to home.
Let’s be truthful about this, people who (outside of work) drive electric vehicles supplied by their employers are dodging tax and as such are effectively stealing from the Treasury. It might be argued that such drivers are using legal tax breaks, but we all know the truth . Surely everybody knows that company cars are a perk and a ‘tax efficient’ one at that, a perk for which the rest of us pay …

[francovendee]

I had a P100 company car for a while -- shockingly fast really too fast for our roads but Megabucks. Our family car has just been totaled by a young ejit slammin into it so I took the wife car hunting so we are ready to buy when the money comes in from the at fault party. We originally thought diesel automatic ( has to be automatic ) but the price of the ev's has come down or conversely the prices of new ic cars have gone up but we were shown a new Nissan leaf. I would have been on for that but wasn't sure the wife would get on with it so didn't consider it at first. Her reaction was wow this is a easy thing to drive. The way it holds on hill starts out of junctions, nippy, silent, a host of electronic features like heated seats front and rear, windscreens, steering wheel, etc etc etc but she loved the cameras on rear, front and even the sides are done by tiny cameras on the door mirrors. That's only what we noticed on the 15 min test drive. Looks like we're goin electric!

One thing we noticed which is potentially dangerous but not if you keep aware of it -- the car is quite fast but very quiet. A motorcyclist or a big fast bike overtook us and a tractor trailer at the same time, I followed him a few seconds later when I had assessed the gap by which time he was way up the road a bit. I whizzed past the tractor but found I was reeling him in fast but he didn't seem to see or hear me so I knew to stay back until I knew what he was planning to do or when he realized we were right behind him -- he didn't even indicate just pulled off to the right at a lane. Now if I'd overtaken him ( no long white lines on the road )

If you're buying a used model it would be very interesting to hear how old and what you think of the range if it's over 4 years old.
For a second car they may make perfect sense.

[pete75]

Who would drive an EV? Well someone hoping for a free ride in terms of avoiding taxation that the rest of us have to pay - rather unfair. Mind, such cars are either provided by companies - at no or just nominal cost to the driver - or bought by individuals with loads of money.

If they are bought by individuals with loads of money, they are being bought mostly by people who will be paying loads of tax.

The company bought cars are costing the company. If they choose to provide them for their employees at no or low cost that's up to them and nothing to do with you.

Sorry, did something I say get too close to home.
Let’s be truthful about this, people who (outside of work) drive electric vehicles supplied by their employers are dodging tax and as such are effectively stealing from the Treasury. It might be argued that such drivers are using legal tax breaks, but we all know the truth . Surely everybody knows that company cars are a perk and a ‘tax efficient’ one at that, a perk for which the rest of us pay …

No, why should it, I don't own an EV, nor have I ever had a company car.
Have you any evidence there is a lot of tax fraud by employees who have company vehicles? If you haven't your claim they are stealing from the Treasuring is rubbish.

[sjs]

Sorry, did something I say get too close to home.
Let’s be truthful about this, people who (outside of work) drive electric vehicles supplied by their employers are dodging tax and as such are effectively stealing from the Treasury. It might be argued that such drivers are using legal tax breaks, but we all know the truth . Surely everybody knows that company cars are a perk and a ‘tax efficient’ one at that, a perk for which the rest of us pay …

It's not stealing if the thing being taken has been given away, for the specific purpose for which it is being used, is it? That said, I do agree that the BIK perk for business users, which is unavailable to everyone else, is unfair.

[Cowsham]

I had a P100 company car for a while -- shockingly fast really too fast for our roads but Megabucks. Our family car has just been totaled by a young ejit slammin into it so I took the wife car hunting so we are ready to buy when the money comes in from the at fault party. We originally thought diesel automatic ( has to be automatic ) but the price of the ev's has come down or conversely the prices of new ic cars have gone up but we were shown a new Nissan leaf. I would have been on for that but wasn't sure the wife would get on with it so didn't consider it at first. Her reaction was wow this is a easy thing to drive. The way it holds on hill starts out of junctions, nippy, silent, a host of electronic features like heated seats front and rear, windscreens, steering wheel, etc etc etc but she loved the cameras on rear, front and even the sides are done by tiny cameras on the door mirrors. That's only what we noticed on the 15 min test drive. Looks like we're goin electric!

One thing we noticed which is potentially dangerous but not if you keep aware of it -- the car is quite fast but very quiet. A motorcyclist or a big fast bike overtook us and a tractor trailer at the same time, I followed him a few seconds later when I had assessed the gap by which time he was way up the road a bit. I whizzed past the tractor but found I was reeling him in fast but he didn't seem to see or hear me so I knew to stay back until I knew what he was planning to do or when he realized we were right behind him -- he didn't even indicate just pulled off to the right at a lane. Now if I'd overtaken him ( no long white lines on the road )

If you're buying a used model it would be very interesting to hear how old and what you think of the range if it's over 4 years old.
For a second car they may make perfect sense.

This one will be brand new but my brother has had a Nissan leaf since about 2013 when the first ones came out and still has it 10 years later -- seems to be still very pleased with it.
Realistic range on his is about 100miles the new one we're looking at is about 130 miles ( claimed 160 something ie 39kwh. You can get a higher capacity battery 59kWh which I think extends the range to around 200miles but the price of the car is too much to justify.

The great thing about electric cars is how simple they are compared with ic cars and especially hybrids. Also wear and tear on things like brakes are much less because of regeneration braking.

On a full charge on economy 7 ( here is about 18p per kWh in England much less I'm told ) works out around £7 (0.18×39) which takes you about 130miles. £7 buys around a gallon of petrol ( 4.54 x roughly £1.50 a ltr ) which will take you about 60 miles in a modern economical ic car so fueling costs of electric are half that of an ic car.

Here for the last 10 years fast charging points were free to charge so my brother has had that advantage too. Unfortunately I won't cos that's all changing now but over ten years at today's prices still works out around £4500. The price of the car is comparable with ic now so fuel saving is a real saving.

[re_cycler]

This one will be brand new but my brother has had a Nissan leaf since about 2013 when the first ones came out and still has it 10 years later -- seems to be still very pleased with it.
Realistic range on his is about 100miles the new one we're looking at is about 130 miles ( claimed 160 something ie 39kwh. You can get a higher capacity battery 59kWh which I think extends the range to around 200miles but the price of the car is too much to justify.

Fully Charged Show episode where Robert Llewellyn has his original 2010 Leaf fitted with new batteries and comments on the cost of ownership to date.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVxEOET ... hargedShow

[Cowsham]

Sorry, did something I say get too close to home.
Let’s be truthful about this, people who (outside of work) drive electric vehicles supplied by their employers are dodging tax and as such are effectively stealing from the Treasury. It might be argued that such drivers are using legal tax breaks, but we all know the truth . Surely everybody knows that company cars are a perk and a ‘tax efficient’ one at that, a perk for which the rest of us pay …

It's not stealing if the thing being taken has been given away, for the specific purpose for which it is being used, is it? That said, I do agree that the BIK perk for business users, which is unavailable to everyone else, is unfair.

You declare this on your tax return surely?