Photo by
ui-martin on
Unsplash According to a new study from emissions experts Nick Molden and Felix Leach — respectively the CEO of emissions testing company
Emissions Analytics, and Associate Professor of Engineering Science at the
University of Oxford — cars should be taxed on a combination of weight and mileage, as detailed in their new book
Critical Mass: The One Thing You Need to Know About Green Cars, which ‘outlines with brutal clarity’ that the current system for Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) is flawed, even calling it a ‘mishmash of incentives and penalties’.
The book offers evidence-based thinking that has the basis to ‘overcome bitter factional disputes between different groups trying to promote one powertrain over another. Michael Heseltine, former Secretary of State for the Environment and Deputy Prime Minister, said: “I welcome this contribution to the most important challenge of our time.”
The authors highlight that next year the so called ‘road tax’ will undergo a major overhaul and will include electric vehicles (EVs) that are currently exempt from VED. “Starting 1 April 2025, EVs will lose their VED exemption. That means buyers of new EVs will have to pay the next lowest first-year tax rate, which currently stands at £10. Once an EV hits its second year on the road, owners will be required to pay the standard VED rate, which is currently £190 and is expected to increase with inflation from April 2025. The new legislation will also hit buyers of EVs costing over £40,000 with additional tax; and used EV buyers and hybrid buyers will also have to pay more. However, there is a solution that is not only better for the environment, but simpler to administer and much easier to understand.”
Mr Molden explained: “Taxing a car on a combination of its weight and mileage offers a simple, potentially universal approach to pricing-in the environmental impact of cars while at the same time overcoming the objections to the current mishmash of incentives and penalties. In our book, we offer an intuitive ‘proof’ of why mass and distance are fundamental to designing a system to incentivise the purchase of ever-greener cars and this is contrasted with other flawed bases for judging environmental impact, such as measures of vehicle efficiency, including energy and fuel efficiency, as well as elements incorporated in the current system such as fuel type and laboratory CO
2 emissions.”
Mr Leach concluded: “Specific tax rates are proposed and compared to existing taxes to illustrate winners and losers — winners being small city cars and losers including high-mileage heavy cars and SUVs. The concept proposed is a reliable revenue-raiser at a time of widespread fiscal pressure and declining vehicle taxation. It could also be adopted rapidly and transitioning to it is easy.”