WTF is going on with road tax!!!

Maybe, but it seems equally crazy that EVs didn't pay anything!

Presumably the extra £425 is because the list price was over £40K?
 
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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Its ridiculous - my 2017 GT3 is only £195 - make it make sense!
 
A friend told me the easiest way is to Google search the same colour one, check its mot’d, taxed and insured and get a set of number plates to match it…
He says it makes the car fine exempt and also can tuck in to some free fuel if you like no need to go to the kiosk to pay it’s covered…
Got all this info when I went to see him at HMP Belmarsh last week…
 
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Reactions: RMB
IRD said:
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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Well all these 'Government incentives' to get the EV ball rolling had to end at some point.
So it looks like the 'luxury tax' will apply to EVs aswell. The Gov are on a winner there, as virtually ALL EVs are more than £40k RRP.
Interesting that as car prices have risen exponentially, the 'luxury tax' threshold has stayed the same for years. Stealth tax I think is the word.

Same is happening with 'free pay' on earnings.

Our Ford Focus comes into the 'luxury tax' bracket. Good old rip-off Britain.
 
I also SORN during the winter months, but just be mindful that if you are unlucky enough to have the car stolen or catch on fire the insurer is unlikely to pay out as the small print will say the vehicle needs to be taxed and have a valid MOT. I accept that risk because I resent paying inflated tax to this Government.
 
Mr Tidy said:
Maybe, but it seems equally crazy that EVs didn't pay anything!

Presumably the extra £425 is because the list price was over £40K?
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I agree with you Iain. Until April 1st EVs paid no road tax and weren’t subject to the luxury tax either. Hence our search for a car registered in March. The car we bought was originally £49000. We do have to pay the standard car tax of £195 but not the extra £420 pa because of the registration date. Yet the same car registered a day after ours does pay the £620. It’s crazy. There are rumours in the car trade that next year the government are going to raise the luxury car threshold to £50000. But I’ll believe it when I see it.
 
paul1969 said:
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.
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I have had similar discussion with people over the years and can only really come to the conclusion that the most 'eco-friendly' option is for people to continue to use their existing cars for as long as possible and not keep buying new cars, this goes for most products as large amounts of carbon emissions are created during the manufacture. But this would obviously cause much bigger issues with economies.

It is also worth noting that for your 10k mile compairson for the Z4 you havent included the carbon in actually creating the petrol and getting it to the pump for you to fill up the car, this from a quick google is around 600g/L so assuming a conservative 28mpg over 10k would be around 975kg.

I must admit that since i couldnt decide which was better for the world EV or BMW straight six i decided to have both :rofl:

At the end of the day the government use VED as a way to force/entice both manufacturers and consumers to buy what the government wants in that time, there are thousands of diesel and petrol cars barely paying any VED either
 
adam1985 said:
I have had similar discussion with people over the years and can only really come to the conclusion that the most 'eco-friendly' option is for people to continue to use their existing cars for as long as possible and not keep buying new cars, this goes for most products as large amounts of carbon emissions are created during the manufacture. But this would obviously cause much bigger issues with economies.

It is also worth noting that for your 10k mile compairson for the Z4 you havent included the carbon in actually creating the petrol and getting it to the pump for you to fill up the car, this from a quick google is around 600g/L so assuming a conservative 28mpg over 10k would be around 975kg.

I must admit that since i couldnt decide which was better for the world EV or BMW straight six i decided to have both :rofl:

At the end of the day the government use VED as a way to force/entice both manufacturers and consumers to buy what the government wants in that time, there are thousands of diesel and petrol cars barely paying any VED either
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I've got 1 of each...335d (diesel), Z4MC (petrol), Tamiya Porsche 959 Dakar (electric)...and a loan of this hay, carrot, apple powered 4x4...

Burger_Stall.JPG
 
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mmm-five said:
and a lone of this hay, carrot, apple powered 4x4...
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Presumably you mean 'loan'?
Of all the 'cars' the equine will still be the most expensive to run. Horses cost a fortune. I had a girlfriend once who loved nags. I got rid of her pretty quick when I realised it wouldn't be cheap to finance her hobby. ;)
 
Pondrew said:
Presumably you mean 'loan'?
Of all the 'cars' the equine will still be the most expensive to run. Horses cost a fortune. I had a girlfriend once who loved nags. I got rid of her pretty quick when I realised it wouldn't be cheap to finance her hobby. ;)
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Well, as I said, it's not mine, so don't have the associated costs of that beastie. I've also not got the quadruped entitlement code on my licence, so I'm only allowed to walk alongside it (never behind)...and feed it carrots & apples.
 
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