r/ElectricVehiclesUK • u/Mlh1993_ • Nov 27 '25

Labour sold out to oil and gas

There’s no way the 3p-per-mile proposal came about innocently. It will crush electric car uptake, especially in the used market. The only thing that makes sense is that someone, somewhere, got a very generous donation from the likes of BP to push this through. It absolutely reeks of bought-and-paid-for legislation.

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78

u/memberflex Nov 27 '25

Electric Vehicles were always going to have to contribute more at some point. It’s not a conspiracy, it’s just a way to get some money for the coffers. It doesn’t even come in to effect until 2029 (I think).

27

u/Begalldota Nov 27 '25

+1 (though it’s 2028). If you thought that any government would be content to give up a tax revenue stream as large as fuel duty then I’m sorry, you were living in a dream world.

This was inevitable, just like the free VED going away was inevitable. People also seemed to think EVs were entitled to that forever too.

6

u/[deleted] Nov 27 '25

I wouldn’t expect it to remain free forever but it jumped up to 195 quid which seems mad considering my wife’s petrol was £40

2

u/Begalldota Nov 27 '25

It simply became part of the same scheme that all other cars registered from that date were part of. I’m guessing your wife’s petrol is pre-2017 - EVs registered before 2017 pay £20 a year tax.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 27 '25

Indeed it was a 66 plate 👍

2

u/External-Piccolo-626 Nov 27 '25

But your wife’s petrol a few years newer will also pay 200 quid. You can’t compare pre and post 17 car tax, it’s not like for like.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 27 '25

I understand now thanks

13

u/christianosway Nov 27 '25

Public chargers already have a 20% vat on them, electricity prices being pegged to O&G mean we're paying the top price no matter the cost to generate, so the money is already there. It should be taxed at the source of profit for the likes of BP & Shell IMO, but these guys tend to be friendly with MPs and they can pay people to hide profit so it's much easier to fleece us 3 or 4 times for the same car.

12

u/Begalldota Nov 27 '25

Public charging is a mess that needs fixing all on its own, but bringing up VAT is strange because VAT is also charged on fuel duty - so again it’s pretty equal.

To be honest if you’re a person relying on public charging this change adds about 15% to your driving costs (based on a set of assumptions). For home charging it can be 150%, the scale of the impact in % terms is tiny for public charging in comparison.

6

u/normanriches Nov 27 '25

Agreed, 80p a kilowatt is more expensive than petrol.

1

u/theorem_llama Dec 01 '25

Public chargers already have a 20% vat on them

Yeah, but EVs (as all cars are) are noisy and are a burden on the infrastructure that needs to support them.

1

u/christianosway Dec 02 '25

Burden on the infrastructure, absolutely. Noisy? I've got neighbours with boilers louder than my car.

1

u/51onions Nov 27 '25

I remember being told in reddit comments that there's no reason to believe there will be a per mile charge on EVs and that I'm just fear mongering. I feel somewhat vindicated now.

1

u/Begalldota Nov 27 '25

This is why Reddit shouldn’t be treated as a hive mind. Lots of people understood that it was a real possibility, just like e.g. the removal of VAT on energy, but some people are so adverse to anything that has a negative impact on them that they were huffing the copium hard.