WTF is going on with road tax!!!

paul1969 said:
Everyone’s banging on about road tax and pushing people into EVs, but here’s the thing — my 2011 Z4 does under 5,000 miles a year, mostly weekends. Yet I’m hit with nearly £400 road tax, while EVs have been getting away with £0 until next year.

What nobody talks about is the fact that EVs still rely on fossil fuels. Power stations don’t run on magic, and if you add up the production costs of batteries and the electricity demand, many EVs are burning through more fossil fuel than my petrol Z4 ever will.

So why should a well-kept petrol car, barely used, get hammered with higher tax, while an EV driver doing huge annual mileage is still called “green”?

Feels like it’s more about revenue than saving the planet.
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I wonder how much the relatively puny £195 VED rate will put off the virtue-signalling elite who bought an EV after 1-Apr-17? Wonder if they'll feel as peeved as Z4MC owners when the VED was retroactively increased significantly after the car had been purchased?

Imagine them complaining that their £100k Tesla/Porsche/Mercedes/AMG will now cost an extra £195 to tax :rolleyes:
 
paul1969 said:
Power stations don’t run on magic,
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No, they mainly run on nuclear and wind/ solar power.

There is hardly any fossil fuel used to generate electricity in the UK now, although smaller ones use household waste and straw/ hay which is not very eco-friendly.
 
When you look at it properly, cars like our Z4s actually make more sense than the EVs the government keeps pushing.

Most EVs on the road are company cars taken for the tax perks. Without the benefit-in-kind savings and business write-offs, demand would fall through the floor. And the “cheap running cost” story isn’t what it seems. Sure, if you’re on a special overnight tariff you can get electricity as low as 8p per kWh — but not everyone has a driveway, smart meter or the right contract. Most people pay 22–24p per kWh at home, and if you’re out on the motorway it can be 70–80p per kWh. That’s £40–50 for a full charge — basically the same as filling a Z4 — except you’re sat there for half an hour instead of five minutes at the pump.

Then look at the carbon side. My Z4 puts out around 199 g/km CO₂, which works out at about 1.6 tonnes a year for the 5,000 miles I do. A typical EV doing 15,000 miles a year pulls around 3,600 kWh from the grid, which is about 0.7 tonnes of CO₂. Sounds cleaner — until you add the 6–10 tonnes of CO₂ it takes to make the battery, which adds another 0.7–1 tonne a year over its life. That makes the EV’s real footprint 1.4–1.7 tonnes a year — basically the same as my weekend Z4.

Even on a like-for-like mileage:

Z4 at 10k miles a year = 3.2 tonnes CO₂.
EV at 10k miles a year (plus battery spread) = 1.0–1.2 tonnes CO₂.

So yes, an EV looks better if you run both flat-out every day. But for cars like ours, driven occasionally and kept for years, the numbers are nowhere near as black and white as the headlines make out.

If road tax was truly about emissions, it would be mileage-based. Weekend petrol cars like ours are hardly the villains. Yet we’re hit with nearly £400 a year, while EVs rack up huge mileages and still get to be called “green.”

When you strip the politics out, the straight-six in the garage for weekend use looks a much better option than lugging around two tonnes of battery every single day.

At the end of the day, the government will always have the last word — but I know which side of the fence I’d rather be on.
 
pvr said:
However, looking at your mot mileage, the cost per mile is still high 😁
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Yes, I'm now spending at least half the year out of the UK and when I'm back there's so much else to do that I rarely have time to drive for fun...
 
My sister slipped up when she bought her Fiat 500 Twin-air in 2021 as 2016 and early 2017 registrations paid £0 Road Tax, but she bought a 2018 so has to pay £195 a year. But I suppose compared to my cars that's still a bargain!
 
Pondrew said:
No, they mainly run on nuclear and wind/ solar power.

There is hardly any fossil fuel used to generate electricity in the UK now, although smaller ones use household waste and straw/ hay which is not very eco-friendly.
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True that renewables and nuclear now make up a big chunk of the UK grid, but fossil fuels still play a big role — especially when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining. In 2024, around 35–40% of UK electricity still came from gas. So EVs are still tied to fossil fuels, just indirectly. At least with my Z4, I know exactly what fuel is going in and what I’m burning.
 
Deepseaskateboard said:
Can you register it abroad?
I don’t suppose people pay road tax if they drive in from abroad.
I’m pretty sure you can register a car anywhere.
Probably very complicated, but if you think this will cost over £8,000 in ten years (accounting for increases) if you are gonna keep the car it could be worth looking into. Not sure how this would subsequently affect insurance etc.
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No, I don't think this would work for several reasons.
Firstly, as far as I can think, France is the only EU country that doesn't have Road Tax...and many of them are higher than the UK.
Secondly, I believe you can only keep an EU registered car in the UK up to 6 months and then only if you are classified as a non-resident visitor. And, vice versa.
Thirdly, you would have to have the car insured by a company in that country and most insurances only offer cover something like 30-60 days continously abroad.

It was a major factor in the reason that I had my Z4M SORN most of the time, barely used it and then ultimately got rid. The basic costs involved in ownership just didn't stack up for me anymore.
The Alpina was more bare-able in this regard whilst there wasn't actually that much realistic difference in performance.

What irks even more though, is that my Mercedes SL350 has the same extortionate VED (yet it's ULEZ exempt!)..AND, it would be the same as if it were an AMG SL55. Ridiculous!

I SORN it for 9 months of year, at least. I would sell it but even though it's a really good car with only 45K miles on the clock, the value is so low (I think in great part because of the above) that it's not worth me selling.
 
RobertZ4M said:
I’ve just renewed my road tax on the M coupe. I just have it as a weekend toy. So I was shocked to see that it’s now £760 a year to tax!!!!

Please tell me someone’s found a clever way around this???
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Buy a 55 plate or prior E46 M3 ;)
 
Mr Tidy said:
Why pay more for a less good looking far more common car with rear seats if you don't need them? :fuelfire:
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That makes no sense, Z4Ms are generally more expensive than E46 M3s…

Plus your comment on looks is subjective.

Looks like Mr Tidy’s logic has been debunked once again ;)
 
PerryGunn said:
Not exactly 'paddling', it takes half my time getting the empty dinghy from Dover to Calais and the other half bringing back a full load... :fuelfire:
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I guess you do need 124 paddlers as you as the captain can’t be paddling of course 😁
 
pvr said:
I guess you do need 124 paddlers as you as the captain can’t be paddling of course 😁
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Manual labour...? Much easier leaving the grunt work to a pair of Yamaha XTO V8s, dear boy... only 450hp each but they cope....

...and to keep on topic, no road tax.... :p

YamahaV8.jpg
 
That is the Alpina versions, this is the M version :poke:
 

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R60BBA said:
That makes no sense, Z4Ms are generally more expensive than E46 M3s…

Plus your comment on looks is subjective.

Looks like Mr Tidy’s logic has been debunked once again ;)
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FFS, just go and have a look in the classifieds. o_O
 
Up to the beginning of April 2025 electric cars paid no road tax at all. We have just purchased a Skoda Enyaq registered on 31st March and pay £195. The same car registered a day later will pay £620 for the first five years. It’s just crazy.
 
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