Letter: Reports of a new pay-per-mile tax seem like a fair idea - Electric Vehicle (EV) owners must pay their fair share to use our roads

There’s talk that the chancellor might introduce a pay-per-mile tax for Electric Vehicles (EVs).

It seems like a fair idea, and honestly, it should have been anticipated, especially since electric vehicles are no longer exempt from Vehicle Excise Duty (VED).

Petrol and diesel car owners are hit with double taxation on their fuel – first by fuel duty and then by VAT.

Roughly two-thirds of the cost of a litre of petrol or diesel is tax, which adds up to about 66p per litre, give or take a few pence.

For electric vehicles registered before 31 March 2017, the annual VED (road tax) is just £20. Those registered after that date pay £195. That’s a lot less than many petrol or diesel cars, which also face heavy fuel taxes.

If EV owners feel that pay-per-mile is unfair, they are mistaken. What’s really unfair is that motorcycles are still taxed based on engine size, regardless of emissions. For example, my 900cc motorcycle costs £121 per year, which is much less than many EVs.

Electric vehicle owners pay a kilowatt rate, and if they charge at home, which many do, they get a domestic rate VAT of 5%, making their fuel much cheaper than for a petrol or diesel vehicle owner.

Plus, if they have solar panels at home and a car charge point, their fuel is practically free.

The era of zero VED for electric vehicles was only ever intended to jump-start their uptake, which should have been obvious to everyone. Zero taxation on EVs was never a sustainable policy.

It is not really about the fuel cost anyway, no matter what you drive. It’s about paying a fair share to use our roads.

If someone can afford a car that uses fuel that can be virtually free, that is just great. Even with the pay-per-mile system for electric vehicles, it will still cost more to use my motorbike than for an EV owner. But my motorbike has much lower emissions than a diesel or petrol car. It is also lighter than any car, so it causes much less wear and tear to the road surface and takes up less space.

Most electric vehicles are much heavier than petrol or diesel equivalents, which means they cause even more wear and tear on the road.

Plus, they take up the same amount of space as a petrol or diesel car.

So, why should they get to use the roads for almost nothing?

In March 2020, HM Treasury asked for ideas on how to make Vehicle Excise Duty work better.

Motorcycle Action Group UK suggested taxing all vehicles based on how heavy they are by axle weight. A fair system, we believe. This would mean heavier vehicles, which cause more damage over time to the roads, would pay more than lighter, less damaging vehicles.

That idea was turned down, but it seems to have been partially resurrected.

It is only fair that all vehicle owners who use our roads pay their fair share.

With more and more people switching to non-fossil fuel vehicles, and remembering that VED is a big part of the UK budget, which has been going down as EVs become more common, it is only fair that EV owners should be taxed appropriately.

Martyn Boyd, NI Rep for Motorcycle Action Group UK