Fossil Fuels Win Again
This is not a budget roundup — it’s specific to Electric Vehicles [EVs], so if you want more economic detail, please seek out Martin Lewis on 𝕏.
The budget, that yearly event that is so despairingly salivated over in the weeks leading up to the event. Journalists and broadcasters desperately guessing at what might feature.
This year has been, frankly, insane. The press have created stories about income tax rises and then decided that the Chancellor had U-turned before a single word had been uttered. Unfortunately though, this year the Office for Budget Responsibility [OBR] actually dropped a humungous clanger about twenty minutes before the Chancellor was about to take to her feet, and ‘accidentally’ leaked their entire report online.
If you don’t know, the OBR produces a report that is based on the government’s forecasts and outlines, in detail, how they see it panning out over the coming years of the Parliament. Their boo boo is akin to a record company accidentally releasing a much hyped new album online before it was due to come out — this occasionally happened in the days before Spotify and streaming. Madonna’s Rebel Heart was leaked in 2015, one of the most damaging to the label — she described it as a form of terrorism.
So yeah, the OBR leak is a big deal and, unfortunately for the Chancellor, undermined her entire statement as we’d all seen the forecast before she spoke.
On to my Big Beef that I now have with the government — their announcement that they will be penalising those of us who drive EVs. I’ll try not to make it sound like a clap back because I feel hard done by … although I do. There is sound, factual evidence to back up my beef.
Our household has two cars, a larger family one that I drive and a slightly smaller one that my partner uses for commuting. We have been buying Renault cars from the same dealership in Bristol since 2013 and, I think, have had nine cars from them, thanks to the lease agreement whereby we can trade them in every couple of years for new models. It suits us and we’re happy with it.
Before my EV, I drove an Arkana self-charging hybrid; a very nice big car that was excellent on mileage, space and very comfortable. We’d inquired a couple of years ago about trading in to an EV, but it was too much of a monthly cost jump so we stayed in that one. When we went to look again last year, our lovely dealer said she could trade in the Arkana for a new shiny Megane EV, the fancy model too.
I’d not really done too much research, but we had a charger at home, it came with the house, so I jumped at the chance at moving across to the electric model. My motives were entirely environmental; I feel that we must do our bit, no matter how minor — I have a young son and want him to grow up in a liveable planet.
So that was that, we traded in the hybrid and went to a much smaller car, in order to make the change to electric driving. It has been excellent for the year I have had it, although there are some downsides that they don’t mention before you leap into an EV — such as the third of range you lose when it drops below 10° outside. That makes a big difference when you are on long journeys in the winter, as we discovered whilst driving to the Highlands for five days in January; away from home charging is not cheap and when you are only getting 150 miles range, it really racks up.
We drove to Portugal in the summer of this year, Gloucestershire to the Algarve and back [ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao]. That was also seriously expensive, even with maximum range enabled due to the lovely weather.
So, cold weather and long journeys aside, am I still happy I made the swap? Well, until today I was.
Today, the government decided that EV drivers needed to stump up to the cash-strapped treasury. I wrote about it on 𝕏 earlier this morning and was met with the normal amount of animosity and a smattering of ignorance, so let me lay out some facts about electric cars.
Firstly, there is a myth that EV drivers don’t pay Vehicle Excise Duty [VED] or what is commonly referred to as road tax — we do. Any car bought between 2017 and March of 2025 pays a standard flat fee of £195, the same rate as a standard modern petrol or diesel car. There is a new scheme from this year that allows a first year reduction to £10 for EVs but it then goes up to the standard rate.
Secondly, there is an additional charge called the Expensive Cars Supplement. This was brought in March 2025, so that any vehicle worth over £40,000 was subject to a sliding scale of extra road tax, up to £620 per year. This is not only for EVs but because of their expensive initial costs, disproportionally hit electric cars.
The Chancellor today announced that she would increase the threshold of this ‘luxury tax’ to £50,000 but, all this will achieve, in my opinion, is an increase by dealerships up to this new threshold to offset the losses they are going to experience with the new repressive pay-per-mile tax on EVs.
There is an argument that EVs cause more road damage due to their weight in the batteries, so their road tax should be higher, but hey are not in the same ballpark as the trendy flatbed trucks that I have to swerve to avoid most days when driving, though. You know the ones, the Ford Ranger types to be found taking up four spaces in every supermarket car park. Where’s the added tax on the weight of those?
Back to today’s announcement — 3p per mile on an EV and 1.5p on a plug-in hybrid.
Where do I start? OK, in my car, last year, I drove just over 12,000 miles, so that adds on an additional £360 per year from 2028 — not gargantuan, but it’s a relatively large increase in our fees. Add this to our increase in the EV electricity tariff offered by British Gas, by almost £100 per month, and it starts to mount up.
There are so many factors about this ill-thought policy that need addressing, such as:
How can they monitor mileage in personal cars? As with all other new vehicles, EVs don’t require an MOT until they hit three years old. If you are on a PCP lease type arrangement, like I am, then the cars will be exchanged for new ones before this period. So how is it possible to check mileage? Will it be a trust based, self-declaration? I’m sure that won’t be manipulated at all [insert sarcasm klaxon here]. I just don’t see the logistics available to monitor this.
The OBR states that this policy will lead to 440,000 fewer EVs on the road by 2030. This is a killer blow to the motor industry but, primarily, to the government’s green policymaking, more on that in a minute. One of my oldest friends is the General Sales Manager for a major car dealership in the south-east of the country — he sent me a text within minutes of the announcement that was expletive laden and emojis like this: 👿☠️🤢😵💫🤬🤯🤬😖. Even the OBR states that this could easily have a negative impact on the motor trade and economy overall.
For what? Why not increase fossil fuel duty and push more people to EVs, bringing the cost down and making the country greener? Their manifesto pledge was to stop the sale of all petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030 — today’s announcement jettisons that promise into the stratosphere. A broken promise that was central to those of us more green-minded voters when we desperately voted them in, to replace the Conservatives.
Hundreds of millions of pounds has been spent to bring the charging infrastructure up to a standard that is now pretty decent — if extortionately expensive. They are now reducing the number of EVs on the road, so this becomes cost-negative to install and will lead to increased user prices.
Whilst I’m still being barracked on 𝕏 because people think I’m moaning about the cost, you can see that my issues are more fundamental. This is a retrograde environmental step — a gigantic one. Aviation fuel is one of the largest contributors to global emissions. I did a bit of research and going in I knew that jet fuel was high on the list and I thought cargo ships would be next but actually, based on CO₂ emissions the list is as follows:
Private jets
Short-haul flights
Long-haul flights
SUVs/large petrol/diesel cars
Motorbikes
Small petrol/diesel cars
Cargo ships (dirty but efficient per tonne-km)
Electric cars (depends on grid)
Electric buses
Electric trains
Cycling / walking
Cargo ships are less polluting than SUVs and small petrol/diesel cars when measuring CO₂ per passenger-km.
This should be all we need to know about where taxes should really lie, but we know how all-powerful the fossil fuel lobby is. It’s quite stark that EVs are 8th in the list but now face increased taxes.
You may have realised, if you’ve got to this point, that I’ve taken this quite hard — I really have. But it’s not for selfish or financial reasons. The government have let us all down by stripping out an environmental promise at the behest of the frozen fossil fuel duty — again.
I fear that, alongside the move back to more heavy polluting vehicles, they may have pushed many more voters towards the Green Party. Talk about shooting yourself in both feet … and one hand.
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