hmm... I saw a report that noted transport's contribution to carbons was a stubborn 30% or so of the whole economy. "stubborn" because as the efficiency of vehicles has improved it's been offset by the rise in the number of vehicles and their increased use.
It would be good if the VED consultation separated out light passenger vehicles from heavier ones - which pollute inversely to their number
indeed, weight might be a useful factor in VED - if only to discourage the scourge of the SUV. At the moment VED varies by 3 factors - emissions, propulsion source, and cost. Maybe they should ignore cost - because if you're going to charge someone for buying an electric vehicle over £50k you're incentivising them to choose the car they want irrespective of the power unit. Whereas reducing weight generally reduces emissions (the exception being car shaped batteries aka Tesla - but a blanket zero emissions rate on electrics takes care of that.)
So how about a VED system comprising:
- a new car charge in its first year, which can be offset against an old car of equivalent or higher emissions being scrapped, so that the size of the car park isn't increased, and the net emissions effect of buying a new car is to reduce the emissions of the nation's car park
- an annual charge because you're putting a car on the road. It's a flat tax on all vehicles
- an emissions charge in three bands: zero (for electrics & cleanest hybrids) medium (for hybrids) and high for everything else
- a weight multiplier on the emissions charge: reduce the charge by 50% for vehicles under 1500kgs, no change for 1500-2000kgs, +50% for vehicles over 2000kgs
+ a simplified tax on fuel, framed as a pollution tax. It's a very simple "user pays" mechanism, which would incentivise high mileage drivers into cleaner cars.
You'd aim for a hybrid 4 seat family car covering say 6k miles a year to cost less to run than it does to tax & run the equivalent petrol or diesel car today. SUVs should cost more if they're petrol or diesel powered. And not reduce their cost if hybrid, because of the weight penalty, so that people are incentivised away from SUVs unless they're very cleanly fuelled.
