New call for electric vehicle road pricing

The spectre of Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) being scrapped in favour of a pay-per-use system has once again raised its head in Britain – albeit this time for electric vehicles only.

Public transport charity Campaign for Better Transport issued the plea, claiming it would have public support, although such a scheme would cause a massive upheaval in the country’s transport sector, which is already facing a mountain of problems changing over to zero emission vans and trucks.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is being urged to impose a pay-per-mile scheme on UK drivers to avoid a black hole from lost fuel duty revenue. It is proposing that drivers of zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) should be charged based on how far they travel. Under the plan, drivers with a ZEV before the implementation date would be exempt, incentivising the switch to electric motoring.

Duties levied on petrol, diesel and other fuels generate around £25 billion a year in revenue for the Treasury. This figure is expected to dwindle as more drivers transition from traditionally-fuelled cars to ZEVs. But successive governments have found the prospect of introducing per-mile charges – known as road pricing – to be too politically toxic.

CBT director of policy and campaigns Silviya Barrett said:

The new Chancellor faces a looming black hole. She can avoid it, in a way which is fair and which garners broad public support. But she should start now, as this issue will only get more pressing.

It should be cheaper to drive a zero-emission vehicle than a more polluting vehicle, but it’s only fair that these drivers should pay a share, and a pay-as-you-drive model can achieve this.

Barrett wrote a letter to the chancellor stating that “ZEV drivers should fairly contribute towards vehicle taxation” and calling for a “simple charge” based on “regular odometer readings”.

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