EV

[Suff]

The same as yours. Detect EV charge and, preferably, the model. The model has specifics as to the road degradation and can be tied to the cost.

EV charging needs to be separated from the standard home electricity usage and also smart charging solutions need to be available in the vehicle software so it can charge at the best possible tariff.

Those who have heavy vehicles which consume a lot of power and charge regularly should bear the larger chunk of the cost. Just as taxation on heavy fuel burners does today.

The point is not that personal EV charge units default to avoiding peak periods. The point is that the entire ecosystems should be priced and timed to consume the most available free power and the least peak power. This is not rocket science and simple software coding can do the job.

The black hole in finances is a different issue. It is hard to both encourage a move to EV and then penalise the EV owner for making the right climate choice. Until EV is the only choice, taxes and costs will have to lean towards the FF vehicles.

Remember, EV's are running at about 120mpge in Electric costs. Most Fossil burners average about 38mpg for petrol and 43mpg for diesel. My recently bought 2 year old 2l Citroen Euro 6 engine manages just under 47mpg but it is a 170bhp engine with 8 speed automatic transmission. Manual is slightly better and the 1.5l engine is even better (if less performance).

There is a LOT of scope for adjusting the balance of payments. Even then, Hybrid EV's which cost over £40k rrp (not dealer discounted), attract annual taxation cost for 5 of the first 6 years. With Hybrid EV's being generally more expensive than FF, this comes into play more than you would expect. One person who bought a BMW i.3 Hybrid would have chosen a different model if he had realised his options choices took him over £40k and attracted £2,400 of taxation over the next 6 years.

Right now EV's are exempt. But when it is only EV's? They are not going to be exempt are they?

Then EV's don't have regular servicing intervals. OK Tesla wants an annual check up, but others don't. Equally regenerative breaking reduces brake and tyre wear, there is no clutch, usually no geargbox, transmission is significantly more simple and vibrations from the "motor" minimal, causing less damage.

Plenty of scope to load on the taxes to balance things out post 2035. Given that the vehicles themselves are far cheaper to own and run than an initially cheaper FF vehicle.

Back to defaulting peak periods to OFF. This is not some WOW LOOK AT THIS EV'S ARE CRAP moment. It's simply common sense. Needless to say the press didn't recognise common sense and presented it as something else.

What can I say? If Covid reporting didn't enlighten as to how wholly inadequate and, basically, crap, our press is, far be it for me to enlighten with their EV reporting.

[Workingman]

Electricity prices will naturally rise, and I accept that. For my domestic use I will grudgingly pay the wholesale price plus the supplier's charge plus the VAT on top, as I do now. Electricity will never be free.

What I will not accept is an additional charge on my domestic electricity to cover the losses in VED, fuel tax and the VAT on fuel tax due to EVs. Nor will I accept any creative accounting or indeed other taxes EV related in order to subsidise them. That would be the case even if I ran an EV. I am not alone.

The black hole in finances is a different issue. It is hard to both encourage a move to EV and then penalise the EV owner for making the right climate choice.

They would not be being penalised or victimised, bless, they would quite rightly be filling the void created in the treasury's coffers by their choices and not passing the tab on to the the rest of the population. They have had bribes a-plenty. For the best of reasons they have chosen to run an EV and it is up to them to fund its operation in its entirety, just as I have to do today with my FF burner.

I take it that you will be happy to pay 17p kWh + 60% tax + VAT on the lot + VED for your car on your home charger (today's prices) approx. 34p kWh or twice the domestic price. You know that you want to, it will save the climate.

When it comes to fast or rapid chargers on the A roads and Motorways and supermarkets you will be at the mercy of the providers, just as we FFers are today, and they will fleece you, as we are. Happy motoring.

[Suff]

Given that the government doesn't use fuel duty and ved to maintain transport, you know everyone is going to get taxed.

EV tax exemptions are a short term fix until EV's are mandatory. Then they will bear their full portion of the taxes just as FF vehicles do today.

The Major difference with an EV is that you can "make" fuel for it yourself and pay no taxes on it.

Something which will come to the fore in the following decades.

For instance all those solar installations which now return no benefit at all. Correctly tied to your EV, can return significant benefits.

Which will also take away power requirements from the grid.

This is a very long journey and we have just taken the first step.

[Suff]

Tesla finally releases it's full self driving Beta request button.

Musk says that it will use their insurance monitor app for 7 days and if a driver gets 100/100, they get the beta.

One driver had a bit of fun..

He didn't want FSD Beta anyway....

[Workingman]

I meet drivers like that every time I get in the car.

Ask 100 drivers to rate their driving abilities and 95 of them will claim to be perfect.

Strange, that, as none of them are as good as me.

[Suff]

Yes, odd isn't it. One guy on the forum talked about electing to take a driver re-education course in place of a fine.

The first thing they asked was who is an above average driver. Nearly everyone put their hands up.

[Suff]

Just recently Tesla held their County Fair at their ongoing Gigafactory build at Brandenburg, Berlin.

Sandy Munro (Ex chief engineer for Ford and now runs a teardown specialist firm), talks about it.

https://youtu.be/b9b36haJGi0

However, this is quite a long video, have a view if you want. But the real hard hitting part comes after 25 minutes.

https://youtu.be/b9b36haJGi0?t=1525

The last 5 minutes are well worth spending time to listen to. It explains why Big Auto are failing miserably to transition and what is likely to happen because of it.