Rachel Reeves is hammering motorists who thought they were doing the right thing, Luke Chillingsworth argues.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is lining up her tax car tax raid (Image: Getty)
Rachel Reeves is lining up her next tax raid on British motorists and this time the Chancellor may have gone too far. For years, politicians have demanded UK drivers ditch their petrol and diesel combustion models for green eco-friendly electric cars.
In exchange for heralding the call to action and piling thousands of their own savings into new technology, British drivers were promised tax discounts and incentives. It made it look like politicians were not simply ‘anti-car’ as many campaigners have touted, but more ‘anti-pollution’ and that switching to EVs was the end of the issue.
Electric cars will be charged per mile from 2028 (Image: Getty)
Labour has been at the forefront of pushing EV tech on motorists, blasting Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives for pushing back the petrol and diesel car ban to 2035. But now owners of electric models have every right to feel conned as the Chancellor lines up a new pay-per-mile tax grab that will sting the hearts of the 1.5million EV owners in Britain.
From 2028, EVs will be charged 3p per mile to use the roads, with plug-in hybrid vehicles slapped with a 1.5p fee. It means travelling the 403 miles between London and Edinburgh will set motorists back over £12 per trip, with those heading between Cambridge and Oxford paying more than £3.
Commuters travelling around 10,000 miles per year will pay an additional £300, with insurance provider ALA Insurance predicting bills could rise by £267. The move is to offset the loss of petrol and diesel fuel duty revenues as more and more motorists make the switch to EVs.
It’s right that everyone should pay their way, but why are EV drivers being retrospectively punished so soon after doing what they were told was the right thing? Those who took the leap of faith and switched early should get to enjoy some of the benefits for a bit longer.
And what damage could this do to the UK car industry, which has spent the best part of the last half a decade preparing to switch over to full-time EV development?
There are already fears the new charges could be coming too soon, with the SMMT blasting the move as the “wrong measure at the wrong time”. In fact, it’s a tax grab that no other Chancellor in British history has gone through with, making Reeves’ move a national first.
Back in 2006, Labour discussed introducing pay-per-mile road pricing but finally conceded after a massive backlash to the plan dubbed “poll tax on wheels”.
Expect a similar reaction closer to 2028 as electric car owners realise that Labour is coming for their wallets.
