Most manufacturers have developed high quality, good performance low emission engines these days. It seems obvious that except for the well off and the real petrol heads it won't be long before everyone will have a car with good economy and low emissions. Is the low rate vehicle excise duty really viable long term. Whether we like it or not the Government has to raise a good deal of money for road maintenance, new roads etc and it has to come from somewhere. With the inevitable big loss in income from the drop in fuel usage and VED where is the shortfall going to come from?

The motorist, as per usual

This has been discussed recently - http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/239601-government-considering-change-to-ved-system/page__view__findpost__p__2816107__hl__ved__fromsearch__1

They've already got plans to lower the bands progressively so that we'll always pay about the same amount. The Gov an't do without a revenue stream. how else would they give away all that money to fund Argentine propoganda or the Indian space program.

They've already got plans to lower the bands progressively so that we'll always pay about the same amount. The Gov an't do without a revenue stream. how else would they give away all that money to fund Argentine propoganda or the Indian space program.

It's been done like that for some years now. When I first got Furby, it was band above NIL punds. Next year ,another band & so on . In essence ,all they do is adjust the CO levels & hey presto ,more income. It started with engine size .

This has been discussed recently - http://www.briskoda....__fromsearch__1

Thanks for pointing me to that, most interesting.

Most manufacturers have developed high quality, good performance low emission engines these days. It seems obvious that except for the well off and the real petrol heads it won't be long before everyone will have a car with good economy and low emissions. Is the low rate vehicle excise duty really viable long term. Whether we like it or not the Government has to raise a good deal of money for road maintenance, new roads etc and it has to come from somewhere. With the inevitable big loss in income from the drop in fuel usage and VED where is the shortfall going to come from?

The Govt. will simply keep lowering the low tax emission bands to maintain income and drive (no pun intended) ever greater efficiency.

Nothing cynical about this, its just the way life works.