lol-lol

In HMRC we would report to government not just how much we collected from the various tax types but how much it cost to collect those taxes. Collecting Excise Duty on hydrocarbons is the most efficient tax of all. A small number of staff collect the £25B in hydrocarbon excise duties. This will fall as there are less diesel and petrol cars on the road of course. Whilst there is looking like being about a 9% rise in the energy cap prices on October 1st there would be a rise in VAT revenue on the that electrical supply but it looks like more and more people are installing solar and therefore the will be importing less energy from the national grid and paying the VAT on it. As I said above the tax has to be collectable and the UK government cannot the electricity people make themselves from solar. They could raise the vat rate on the supply of electricity to homes and that will raise much more revenue in the winter. The 5% rate of energy supply could move to 6,7,8, 9, 10, both 8 and 10% has been the VAT rate previously. Of course this hit everyone and especially in the winter and with winter allowance being means tested I have heard with much more power of the government to get energy companies to supply the winter fuel allowance rather than supply it to the royal families and other super rich. Fuel duty has not kept up with inflation and it really should or even better have a duty and VAT controlling mechanism which keeps diesel and petrol say between £1.50 and £1.60 a litre and this range is index linked, maybe slightly less for Central and North Devon, Cornwall, West Wales and Northern Scotland where locals may deserve cheaper petrol and they do not pollute towns and cities. Tax can be very flexible and targeted but it needs a bit of imagination and blue sky thinking to be as fair as possible whilst help protect the environment as well as refill our depleted coffers. I do not believe pay per mile will work as people will use the motorways less and drive through Cotswold villages and the like to take a shorter route, that will not go down well.

I know a giant 6'6" South Afrikan whose car of choice was the 300. There are few cars I do not put the seat right back to the stops and some smallish cars let you do it but the room behind that seat would be for primary school persons or younger. Use to be that many cars from certain countries seemed made for the smaller stature. Tried a Hyundai Coupe and it was just way too small for those over 6 foot. Original 10 foot long Mini could be setup to accommodate those 6 foot 6 but needed the stop tabs removed from the seat rails and the little bracket to drop the steering column down. Zero room for legs of the passenger. I will test out the Scenic on those well over 6 foot tall relatives but the spec looks fine for them, as long as there is not 3 across the back seats.

One reason I have gone for the Scenic as several of us are 6 footers and daughter no 1's man is 6 foot four, his brother is 6 foot 10. Head room and knee should be fine, only the cabin width might be a bit short for say one or two kids chairs and adult size people. Megane would have been too tight but Scenic has lots of good reviews fo those 6 foot plus a few inches. The Passat and Superb had been the go to cars for the giants, maybe a Cryshler 300 and maybe the ID7 might be the VW tall persons car of the future and perhaps Skoda will do a version of that. ID 7 seems to be being met much more widely praised than the ID 3,4 and 5 with the Skoda Enyak being further up Journo list than the smaller IDs.

My Renault Arkana was built in South Korea. The Scenic, sister car to the Nissan Ariya has the LG battery packs. I see Nissan shares have gone to junk status so wonder if they will survive. Japan just did not get BEVs like China and South Korea and it may cost them their auto industry. Manufacturing in Siuth Korea should circumvent the massive EU and US trade tariffs. (Ibcluding cars supplied to Ireland North and South.

EV production has not really focused on limo type cars. The battery packs have tended to make the SUV/MPV or tallish city cars the way to go in their design. Chinese have probably more EV models, something like the BYD Han, which is probably slightly above the Superb in size etc ie E segment in car parlance. I would rather stick with French cars the go Chinese. Polestar 4 perhaps. This cars are about complete another level or several levels above even the 280 hp 4 wheel drive Superb. Did they now stop producing that one and now it is just this 200 hp versions and less ? Hopefully EVs and cars in general will have executive saloons available as these are the cars to munch the miles but then that is going to be harder and harder, accept in Germany, where we have spies in the cars like a nagging mother in law telling you are doing over 70 mph. I will just stick the Scenic in eco mode, which only allows 71 mph, and just chillout look at the starship enterprise dash. Maybe use kickdown once in a while perhaps.

Also the fact ones money is not burning up at something like 12p a mile on fuel but rather 2p a mile. Also the fact that an expense service is not coming up quickly also !!!

I know you do not like the Zoe seats, be interested to see what you think of the Scenic if you get a chance, but would not be having such issues in a Renault ie 22 Kw AC charging (hope my Scenic is getting 22 kWs like the Zoe) plus the 275 miles summer range of the Zoe/Scenic 60 kWh you would have halved your need to charge and time to charge, just saying. Renault very emboldened, cocky really, saying, quoting Autoexpress, better range and value than a Y. Of course new TESLA Juniper model Y is out next year and quite likely to take Car of the Year next year 2025, as the Scenic did this year (2024) ............

Far from it. I have a company Fuel card for petrol but not for EV charging (there is a problem here with all EVs except TESLAs) but I use the EV where I can as that use renewable, or nuclear base load, electricity which will be UK or Danish or French or Norwegian generated probably rather than using the climate damaging petrol derived from oil that has probably come from the Middle East. Same as I do with my pension investments ie choosing ethical investments rather than no ethical ones. It's a life choice and made to give my children, grandchildren a better chance to live in a world where they are not paying for my choices whether that is EV or investments.

One of my daughters just kick BG in to touch as they had nearly £1k credit but BG would not let me lower their DD. It is not all about the very lowest energy cost rates but the service and flexibility as my family member found out ie set a DD rate, got into biggish credit and Octopus gave them a payment holiday and drastically cut their DD payment. Just what you want on maternity leave !!.

Not EV tariff limited. One just has to be an Octopus customer and click to join in. One needs a Smart meter obvious so system knows one has used the power in the hour slot. Octopus have now passed Centrica ie British Gas due to their prices and service. A Shining example of the Third Way of living. A business but massively benefits the customers and not only the owners. Greg Jackson is a super star.

I probably will not bother to plug the car in you an hour but will charge up some of my batteries, put a washing and/or clothes drying cycle and any other charging up of devices. No driveway required for the above.

Octopus announce another free hour of electricity tomorrow ie Sunday 18th of August 2024, between 1 pm and 2 pm BST. As a response petrol stations have announced two hours of free petrol. Nah, I made that up. This free lecky is becoming a thing all over the world where solar, along with wind energy is in such abundance the good lecky suppliers are happy to give away for free. This is likely to extend to longer mid day periods going forward here in the UK but also in Oz, mainland Europe and other places where, despite massive battery storage continuing to be built, closing coal plants for good in Oz, China, Germany and many other countries. Negligible cost for motive energy, very low services costs and falling EV proces.The truth about electric cars. (And low to zero emission so help saves the planet for our kids & grandkids)

The dropping of EV subsidies in Europe, particularly Germany, had much to do with the drop in sales. EV do not need subsidies any more. UK got it right dropping those subsidies more than 2 years ago. Subsidies should be more about keeping public services running which is very difficult when one if expecting drivers to run their cars for 45p per mile !! Yet Gilmour and Waters have not really got on for decades.

Why does he talk in such an affected way and is so self righteous in his presentation ? Do you know if he has any engineering qualifications ? There are valid points here, such a Mercedes using parts many Europeans would regard as below par as well as owner neglect and building safety system being switched off. As sometimes said it often takes two to have an accident or in this case maybe 3 errors ?

Gaza death toll over 40k now I gather. Q park Liverpool not discriminating against EVs. They have actually just installed EV chargers on level 0. Presume fire detection and suppression has been considered at least.

Unfair to those who charge in public and have to pay the higher rate of Value Added Tax. One of Con MPs highlighted this during PMQs and Sunak did not answer the question at all. Pathetic. Hope Labour sorts this out even if it is lowering the VAT rate on public supply in several stages. IMO should restore the Excise duty escalator at least inline with inflation.

But one pays that anyways on one's electrical supply. As another bonus one is only charged 5% VAT rather than 20% with dinosaur juice with all the noxious byproduct gases when burning and then producing the carcinogens.

Octopus giving an hour of free lecky from 1pm today. In a counter move the petrol station are thinking of giving a happy hour of free fuel. Nah, made that bit up.

He said about old Zoes using Chademo ! To quote the football anthem for referees "You dont know what your doing". Generally like Fully charged and this presenter but the lack of basic knowledge undermines credibility.

Smaller engines are oft worse at emissions as it is the high cylinder temperatures that create the nasty NOX. Skoda moved from the 1.4TSI to the 1.TSI EVO, same power but better emissions. Allowed them to lower cylinder temperatures and they introduce cylinder deactivation of course. Ford ECOBOOST engine not so good on emissions, maybe OK on CO2 but not so good on NOX. Good petrol hybrids can provide low emissions and not always cost the earth like the Clio etech shows which if you do not want a little Yaris is widely regarded as the best cheapish, still £22K mind, full hybrid. But this can improve year on year with bigger lithium battery, or LIFEPH as they constant improve on energy denisty whilst becoming much cheaper too.

Is there going to be that much to do ? Renault are only having 20 specialist battery locations in the UK who will be able to replace the individual packs if needed some years down the line.

These headline figures are quite eye watering. The journos tend to test the top of the range models with all the toys on them, Renault's incredible photoelectric chromatic roof panel is a wonder but would not be on my list of things to have. The eleventh commandment, left behind by Moses on the third tablet which he did not go back for says do not pay retail. I have gone for the cheapest version of the Scenic etech but I still get quite a wack off the list price of £37.5k and also the finance at 4.9% is a nice to have too, plus a decent wallbox that would cost a grand to buy and have fitted I presume. I am not even sure what the luxury car tax will be doing on cars over £40k, even if already registered...... https://www.carbuyer.co.uk/car-tax/112227/car-tax-2024-ved-rates-explained-and-how-to-tax-my-car#:~:text=If you purchase a new,cars are exempt until 2025. I did not want to risk it so was happier to get under £40k to be sure to avoid. Also the more expensive models are fitted with 20 inch wheels as OE. Too big for this type of car IMO plus it dents the range significantly as well. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zero emission vehicles Electric and hydrogen cars are currently exempt from paying road tax, however, as of 2025 any car registered from 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2025 will pay standard annual rates of road tax – currently £190 per year. New cars sold from 1 April 2025 will incur the lowest rate of VED in the first year (currently £10), rising to the annual flat rate in the second year. EVs costing over £40,000 will lose their luxury car surcharge exemption in 2025, as well. Owners will have to pay an additional £410 per year from the second year through to the sixth. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So cars might only effectively cost well under £40k and have plenty of room for 5 persons, some who are a long way over 6 foot as in my family's case. Expensive, well a matter of perspective, very cheap to run, for lecky and servicing every too years quite cheaply, practical longish ranges. As to devaluation this is the beauty of PCP, one has the choice to hand it back or keep it for the ballon price if one has grown attached to it. I will find it hard to part with Zoe next year as it has been such a good car. Little birdie tells me that Renault might sell it to me well below the balloon payment price as its market value will probably be several £k less than that balloon payment !! Considering the tech in these cars (though I am Renault through and through and not Stellantis and I find some of their marketing just wierd) these cars have massive more tech year on year and I just am really looking forward to getting stuck in to my Scenic 60 kWh in a few weeks time, it is due to arrive in Bristol shortly according to my App tracing it.

Well I knew the Zoe, latest ZE50 version, was a queen of the long range small EVs but Gott im himmel, or should I say Sacre Bleu or the like, just got back from driving from Worcester to Liverpool, work in Liverpool this morning and drive back this afternoon in the little EV and guess how many time I charged up on route ? Answer below V V V Drum roll.... V V V V V V Not once !! Google say 240 miles, Zoe thought it was only 233 miles. And was I in turtle mode at the end of the journey ? No still had 25 miles showing in the miles of range left guessommeter, which seems quite accurate on the Zoe (better than Nissan according to Modern Hero is his high mileage Nissan van). I am blown away just how good the Zoe is on distance. I thought Worcester to Manchester airport and return was about it and not Liverpool which is about another 40 miles further. Even 233 miles plus 23 is impressive but really it is 240 miles plus 25 miles ie 265 miles range. Good conditions ie started with ambient temp fo 12C and it was 18C on return. I am thinking that maybe 300 miles is going to be possible in the Scenic 60 kWh if I can get over 260 in the Zoe. Wowser. Oh and will be claiming mileage at 45p per mile tax relief of course. Cost of energy for this journey 52 kWh at 8.5 pence per KWh from Octopus on new 5 hours per night Go tariff.............. about £4.40 !!!!!!!! Even my son's etech Clio would have used the best part of £24 of petrol. Even using my fuel card on the Arkana it would have cost me of £10 on the BIK on 4 gallons of petrol !! Not even close on fuel costs even with best tax advantages !

Sorry, must have skipped or something. Oh and Autos can be more economical too. The 7 speed DSG in my beautiful Mk 2 Octavia, L&K, with the now unusual in the UK 1.8 TSI, short stroke version of the EA888, was a fantastic tool for both acceleration and economy, 57 mpg I think it was quoted at, 2 mpg better than the manual one could get.