The main driving force behind this seems to be hybrids, both plug in and conventional.
It’s very difficult to levy a plug in hybrid fairly, because part of their driving is on electricity, part is petrol, and the amount varies widely between vehicles, meaning with a set RUC rate, they are either getting stiffed or are freeloading, and no two are the same.
The fact that non plug in hybrids are so insanely efficient probably doesn’t help either.
This is one of the few good ideas our govt has had, I think.
It has been needed since the prius became popular…
You can get some extreme efficiencies for vehicles now. It is quite unfair on those who cannot afford the latest in tech to be paying the highest road maintenance tax.
The latest corolla gets 3.8l/100. If you are driving an equivalent one from the early 2000’s you are not going to be doing much better than 10l/100. So a person that can’t afford a new car is paying ~2.5x the maintenance tax.
I don’t think the gap is quite that big, unless you’re driving exclusively in heavy traffic, I’d expect somewhere in the 7l/100km range for an old corolla.
In stop and go traffic, the difference could well be double in the older vehicle though.
The main driving force behind this seems to be hybrids, both plug in and conventional.
It’s very difficult to levy a plug in hybrid fairly, because part of their driving is on electricity, part is petrol, and the amount varies widely between vehicles, meaning with a set RUC rate, they are either getting stiffed or are freeloading, and no two are the same.
The fact that non plug in hybrids are so insanely efficient probably doesn’t help either.
This is one of the few good ideas our govt has had, I think.
Agreed.
It has been needed since the prius became popular…
You can get some extreme efficiencies for vehicles now. It is quite unfair on those who cannot afford the latest in tech to be paying the highest road maintenance tax.
The latest corolla gets 3.8l/100. If you are driving an equivalent one from the early 2000’s you are not going to be doing much better than 10l/100. So a person that can’t afford a new car is paying ~2.5x the maintenance tax.
I don’t think the gap is quite that big, unless you’re driving exclusively in heavy traffic, I’d expect somewhere in the 7l/100km range for an old corolla.
In stop and go traffic, the difference could well be double in the older vehicle though.
We definitely want to discourage the purchase of fuel efficient cars that’s for sure.