[retrotecchie]

@geoffers

Biodiesel should preferably be made from waste oil in my opinion. I used fresh cooking oil when I had to but waste oil was plentiful and they'd pay you to take it away 👍

[geoffers]

Originally Posted by retrotecchie

@geoffers

Biodiesel should preferably be made from waste oil in my opinion. I used fresh cooking oil when I had to but waste oil was plentiful and they'd pay you to take it away 👍

👍 I follow a superb off-grid channel, MartyT living in NZ who renovates old machinery; runs it on chip oil & old engine oil/diesel mix;
generates power from scrap washing machines powered from a stream with a pelton wheel etc etc: lucky chap 😎

https://youtu.be/WJjSMR51Ntw

[Larry58]

I'm 65 and have a disability. So I'm allowed a car on Motability. I've chosen a Skoda Enyaq 85, It does over 300 miles on a charge and I only travel locally. My only long journey is to my son's in Bridgwater. A round trip of 250 miles. So Just a top up will see me ok. I don't get the car until April or later. But I'm having doubts already.
I see all the ads for 'only 9p an hour' to charge. But as normal tariffs do, they omit to tell you about the standing charge. Which on Eon is just under £15 a month. Around 100 miles in an ice car. Then, I never see people comment on tyres. EV's chew tyres up. If I was looking to buy a car out of my money, I'd stay well away from them for a while. For those of you that live in London, Have you seen Mr Khan's latest tax that is coming? Charge cars by weight. A tax on EV's?

[retrotecchie]

@Larry58

Yes, cars should not be taxed on emissions but on how much wear and tear they cause on the roads. EVs should be in the same tax bracket as large SUVs.

You pay the standing charge for having an electricity supply. Whether you have an EV or not.

[meldrewreborn]

@retrotecchie

VED doesn’t reflect distance driven and fuel tax doesn’t apply to EVs. Since the object of both is just to raise money for our politicians to waste, we’ll find that they’ll be looking to find other ways to extract tax from society as fuel duties decline as EVs become more numerous.

[retrotecchie]

@meldrewreborn

Technically, EVs are using a fuel for a non-domestic energy purpose therefore the cost per unit for charging an EV should attract VAT at 20% rather than 5%. Public chargers carry 20% on their prices. The sooner the EV tariffs reflect this anomaly, the better. I would campaign to add 'fuel duty' to EV charging costs to reflect the reduction in take for fossil fuels. About time all road users paid their way.

[meldrewreborn]

@retrotecchie The whole business of transport taxation is riddled with inconsistencies. Trains I think use red diesel so pay a lot less than road users. Airline fuel isn't taxed (they could fill up in cheaper places than the UK if it were taxed). We would all favour taxation that taxed things we don't use more heavily than thing we do use. Eventually the market adjusts to the prices consumers actually pay.

And governments adjust taxation to cover gaps in their take.

[retrotecchie]

@meldrewreborn

Fuel taxation certainly has anomalies. If I buy a litre of petrol, I pay 20% VAT on top of 52.95p of 'Road fuel duty'. However, that litre of petrol is going in my strimmer or the mower, neither of which are road-going vehicles. There is a way of claiming back the duty from HMRC but the time and effort required to get that duty back every April is almost not worth the bother. All my off-road diesel for machinery is red diesel which doesn't have the duty. So why no 'red petrol' for non road applications?

Home heating oil (kerosene) attracts VAT at a rate of 5%. Jet A1 aviation kerosene is a bit cheaper but is sold by the metric tonne and minimum order is 5 tonnes. That's about 4900 litres which sadly won't fit in my 1500 litre tank. Aviation fuel carries VAT at 20% last time I checked so even in bulk only works out only a penny or two cheaper per litre than HHO.

[geoffers]

Originally Posted by meldrewreborn

@retrotecchie The whole business of transport taxation is riddled with inconsistencies. Trains I think use red diesel so pay a lot less than road users. Airline fuel isn't taxed (they could fill up in cheaper places than the UK if it were taxed). We would all favour taxation that taxed things we don't use more heavily than thing we do use. Eventually the market adjusts to the prices consumers actually pay.

And governments adjust taxation to cover gaps in their take.

I reckon ultimately the fairest way is going to be road pricing, with all cars having GPS trackers so you get charged for the mileage you do, irrespective of fuel type etc.

Seems unfair that low mileage users get penalized with a high blanket VED, and are effectively subsidising high mileage users.

I know they'll be lots of negative comments about personal privacy; "big brother is watching you" etc, but "Hey" everyone seems to accept big faceless corporates knowing about your every movement, but once it's suggested that the government tries this everyone's up in arms 🫣

[retrotecchie]

@geoffers

That's how things work in Australia. No 'car tax' but an extra levy is added to fuel. Do more miles or drive a gas guzzler, pay more. Drive an econobox with very low annual mileage, pay a lot less.