UK Government Sparks the Death of the Hybrid Car
When the plug-in Toyota Prius hybrid went on sale in 2012, its rechargeable battery pack and petrol engine combo was hailed as the best of both worlds.
Rather than having an electric motor recharge itself through regenerative braking like earlier hybrid models, plug-in hybrid (PHEV) owners could now hook their car into a three-pin plug and get a longer electric range – with the added reassurance of a petrol engine back-up. It could save you money, reduce range anxiety and be good for the environment.
But PHEVs are about to become the nation’s least-wanted car. From 2028, those who bought plug-in hybrids for their green credentials will become the most heavily taxed motorists.
They will be saddled with an “illogical” 1.5p per mile charge as part of the Government’s new road pricing initiative. As well as mileage charges, they will continue to pay fuel duty at the pumps, in effect being taxed twice for every mile they drive.
Electric vehicles (EVs) will attract a higher 3p per mile rate, but as drivers do not pay fuel duty, the principle of a pay-per-mile tax has been met with tacit acceptance. Self-charging hybrids, meanwhile, that don’t plug in are not affected by the new per-mile charge, and will continue paying normal fuel duty.
Car dealers believe fed-up PHEV owners will rush to sell as demand inevitably dips in the lead-up to 2028, when pay-per-mile is introduced.
Full story here.
Successive governments have pushed hybrids as a stepping stone to fully electric cars. But what this whole saga highlights is that those same governments shut their eyes to the loss of fuel duty revenue in years to come. It was a case of kicking the can down the road. Now thanks to ZEV mandates, the crows are coming home to roost!
For ages there was a lot of frankly nonsensical talk of road charging using satellite eye in the sky technology and black boxes. Eye in the sky? More like pie in the sky! As I often commented, such a scheme would take years to get up and running and probably not even work then.
Now EV drivers are facing the harsh reality that they have to pay their share of taxation, they are up in arms. Governments should, of course, have taxed them fully years ago. My solution would have been to charge it all through Vehicle Tax, at say £1000 a year. It would have of course have killed the EV rollout stone dead!
The Telegraph notes that most PHEVs have a tiny battery range:
Plug-in hybrids typically have a limited range in their battery pack, so it is common for drivers to ignore the electric capability of their car. The average range of the electric component of a PHEV is 15 to 60 miles. This is dwarfed by the capabilities of pure electric vehicles, which can achieve in excess of 300 miles on one charge, according to tests run by the consumer group Which?.
The feeble battery range of PHEVs means many owners don’t bother charging their car or using the electric function. Yet they will still be charged 1.5p for every mile they drive.
David Sillito, who drives a plug-in hybrid Lexus and lives in central Scotland, said: “If I drive to Manchester and back one weekend and then Newcastle and back the next to see my children, I’ll do a wee bit less than 1,000 miles. But around 900 of those would be done on the [fuel] engine, so I’m paying 1.5p a mile for 900 miles that I’ve already paid fuel duty on.
“I find that absolutely crackers and unfair.”
It does, of course, destroy the idea that PHEVs are saving the planet. I had an MG hybrid on hire for a week earlier this year. The guy who delivered it said the cable was in the boot, but nobody ever bothered to use it! They just filled up with petrol!
Another driver comments:
“Locally, we have BP pulse chargers and they’re 89p per kilowatt hour. I’m getting about 33 miles from a 14.4 kilowatt battery. It works out roughly 38p per electric mile for me, whereas if I fill it up with fuel in Tesco, I get 50 miles to the gallon, that’s roughly 11p per mile,” he said.
“So it’s just purely uneconomic to plug the car in anyway. But now in spite of the fact that I don’t drive it in electric, I’m going to be charged an extra 1.5p just because it comes with a plug.”
One in ten cars sold this year in the UK is PHEV, but it appears most of these are company cars, thanks to their generous benefit-in-kind tax rates.
In reality, hybrids are really dead end technology. Under current plans, new PHEVs will be banned after 2035. Between 2030 and 2035, they will be subject to the same stringent ZEV mandates that petrol cars now are.
No manufacturer is going to spend money of developing new models and setting up production lines.
source notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com