Rachel Reeves MP did appear surprised that Vehicles were due a MOT first at 3 years. Not long since the past Government was wanting MOT,s at 4 years. Strict Headlight Alignment Inspections annually would be 'Simply Clever'. Actually for EV,s the DVSA could have Mobile Units visiting EV Charging Hubs rather than going roadside Vehicle Checks halts. Actually send them around places doing Mileage Checks, Lights etc. Efter all there are so few EV,s in the UK supposedly. TAXI / Private Hire Vehicles checks at various Local Authorities are more regular than Annual, or first at 3 years. So plenty of those can have Mileage checks carried out.

Edited 24 January24 Jan by Evolution13

I never posted about it before, as I was not expecting to come across any external source to present as evidence with my post, because certain others insist on seeing the proof, or otherwise it is a nonevent.

Even the Government Departments do Press Releases that are a Wish more than a Promise. Daily the BBC say stuff about the Government which is really only about England & Wales and laws or regulations there. MOT,s are a England, Wales & Scotland thing, Northern Ireland has it's differences. First MOT at 4 years. Once the DfT / DVLA really have things sorted out & testing stations and examiners then great. I will have my 2nd hand EV MOT,d where i bought it and where it was MOT'd before i bought it. Also where they did servicing and part replacement. Not my usual place.

@Graham Butcher This would have been perfect for me if i did not have the EV Estate, lovely condition. but it looks like i am getting back the BMW estate as son maybe going abroad.

2 hours ago, Evolution13 said:

@lol-lol If the Public EV charging prices really drop they need to drop lots. Even if the VAT goes from 20% to 5% on Public Charging that is not lots, that is very little, 'real world' out of peoples income that they have after tax. Home charging is lovely, very cheap electric for 6 or 7 hours, even giving you cheap electricity for Household, Garage, Swimming Pool, greenhouse, battery storage etc etc. The Social Divide. Have and have nots,. but haves might really be able to reduce their energy bill, and transportation bill.

The Public charging providers have been quite open about their costs ie the very high capital cost of the equipment, grid connection costs and lastly the electricity cost and of course the VAT at 20 %.

What I think most public charge providers have been rubbish at is offering cheaper rates when electricity is cheaper like we have at home. I would like to see the combination of cheaper periods to charge, like 20p kwh as we have at home plus the 15% less of the VAT which should take about 30p per kwh on charging at certain times.

2 hours ago, Graham Butcher said:

Electric, if it suits your requirements for the daily usage pattern and if most of your charging can be done at home using cheap electric, or free at work etc, then yes, an electric car could well be the perfect car for you, especially if you can negate the massive depreciation that comes with them. If you plan to keep the car long-term and can escape the replacement battery costs (should it be needed) with home charging, mostly short local journeys, etc., then they can be excellent packages and sound financial cases.

Has anyone discovered anything about the tougher MOT tests that are supposed to be operational from April this year?
Rumour has it all the driver aids will be part of it, such as lane keep assist, blind spot monitoring, and others, etc., will also be part of the MOT.
It is also apparently has a gotcha for electric cars on battery degradation, if the battery hits 70% of its capacity, then it the car becomes an instant MOT failure and banned from further use???

91% of cars are bought on finance and I suspect the majority are on PCP arrangements.

If one is gappy with that monthly PCP payment then that is what you pay for the next 2, 3 or 4 years. With electric cars the servicing can be as little as £9 a month, road tax is a tenner for the first year and then the standard £195 a year on many EVs.

With PCP, whilst knowing your monthly outgoing you are protected from any dip in market value. If its lower you just give it back and walk away. If the value is higher then pay the balloon payment and either keep it or sell it and make a profit.

Renault 5 I just got is on 0% finance for the balance after deposit.

Both the 5 and the Scenic have modular battery packs so if the rare scenario happened that cells needed replacing this can be done at a module level.

Six hours driving during last week, 230 miles, no need to public charge, cost about £5, nice.

Edited 24 January24 Jan by lol-lol

80-90%. 84% in 2022. AI and statistics are to be taken with a pinch of salt. Then the % of leased Company Cars in the UK. Or cars that are just being Purchased / Leased to be handed back / traded in in 2-3 years. Salary Sacrifice, Business use, BIK. Looking forward to seeing reports of those that BOUGHT a car on Tick / never never even with 0% finance then buying it with their or borrowed money when the contract is up and then selling it privately making a profit.

Edited 24 January24 Jan by Evolution13

1 hour ago, Evolution13 said:

80-90%. 84% in 2022. AI and statistics are to be taken with a pinch of salt. Then the % of leased Company Cars in the UK. Or cars that are just being Purchased / Leased to be handed back / traded in in 2-3 years. Salary Sacrifice, Business use, BIK. Looking forward to seeing reports of those that BOUGHT a car on Tick / never never even with 0% finance then buying it with their or borrowed money when the contract is up and then selling it privately making a profit.

Had a company car about 20 years ago, not allowed Skodas as deemed too down market at the time but had SEAT, Volvo S40, basically a Focus at the time, awful 1.6 diesel engine in it, and Audi A4 and A3, 1.9 PDI, turbo variable blade geometry went on one of the Audis. Don't remember the company car tax being too bad but would have had an Octy if my own choice.

Since 2010 had a car allowance thru payroll. Get whacked for tax but at least could what I wanted as long as 4 door and kept tidy.

Since I resigned last week it is the loss of car allowance is one of the biggest outgoings i am concerned about. Renault 5 on interest free and after a 40% deposit it is only £86 a month. Scenic is over £400 a month and at 4.9% finance so need to do something about it, maybe payoff a third or half to bring the payments right down.

It is a case of looking at those monthly payments that I am sure buyers do whether car company finance or mobility scheme. My company was suppose to get on the Octopus EV Salary Sacrifice EV scheme but did not round to it and new company did not get us taken over staff on their scheme but just kept us on the car allowance scheme.

Got a sneaky feeling that not have my own cars will be the way forward and just getting one delivered when needed will be the increasingly common scenario, maybe keep the 5 at end of PCP.

If uk drivers increasingly choose to not have a car on the drive the effect on government finances would be massive. Whilst I gave been happy to take on cars since the General election I would not do so if certain parties were in power in Westminster.

Presumably the 3p per mile would ve collected from the hirer as part of the rental rather than after the annual check ?

With Motability people just need to look at if the vehicle will have them paying the total weekly benefit or with some cheaper cars maybe £60 a week instead of £77.05 (£333.80 a month) and that going up with the benefit increase each of the next 2 years. & if they are choosing a car with Nil advance payment or anything from £300 to £6,000.

Private buyers tend to look at total cost of having the car be that over a set periods or outright and try and keep it as low as possible.

All these figures being quoted do nothing but show precisely what I've always said about what car you have. If the car size is fine for you and meets your usage, wish list or dream car, and you can afford all of the costs involved, then those are the only things that matter.

If the above is fine for you, then you should be able to go out and get whatever type and size of car that fits the parameters that work for you.

When I started driving, the cars were petrol powered, and diesel was very much the domain of heavy transport and buses.

I've always had petrol cars up to the time when I was given a diesel-powered loan car when my company car was in for servicing. I enjoyed that time I had with it and the relaxed driving style compared to petrol. I asked for a diesel car when time came round to replace the old car, and was granted my wish and for the last 30 years or so, that has been my powerplant of choice.

That has always been my argument about electric cars, the other issues I raise are secondary ones, but the main reason for not liking the current situation is that the choice is being removed. You want to have a NEW car; that's fine, but its slowly becoming the only option available.

I know that some of the electric owners/drivers think that this YouTuber is very biased against electric cars, but as it turns out, he isn't; he drives a Tesla in reality, as he explains in this video. His gripe with them is very much with the fire hazards posed by them (not surprising as he is a fireman) along with the safety issues presented by the touch interface for controls and the lack of proper mechanical door handles to prevent people being trapped inside them when things go wrong.

(859) I Drove an EV 400 Miles in Winter: A Real-World Test - YouTube

I do not believe this guff about 36% and 5 minutes if it was even just for Edinburgh & Glasgow. It could be just about true in Dundee for a very fit person that can jog or run. But it is Motability that comes away with this stuff.

This morning I heard on the radio an advert for an electric car. I forgot what the car was, but it was the way that they were advertising it that caught my attention. They were say that it can drive from London to Sheffield on a single charge, which costs just £5.

That struck me as being extremely misleading because they are assuming the car is charged at home and the car has a capacity of at least 45 kWh, and based on getting 4 miles to the KW, it would require a full charge of 6 hours on a 7 kW home charger in order to get 42 kWh stored. What about the return trip, that is highly likely to cost around 6 times as much, approx £30.

Latest news is that Jaguar are now thinking about walking away from making only BEV and instead looking at ICE as a REX. Jaguar explores part-petrol car after pledging to go ‘all electric’

Coming to the UK next year

There are surely others like me that are hopeless using their left hand on Screens in the centre of a dash. Also that sit far back from the pedals and are comfortable, but do not have long arms and fingers that car reach a touch screen without leaning forward and having to divert their eyes to the screen. Personally i like an i-drive type controller to my left where it can easily be used and set or adjust stuff on a centre screen or one right in front of the steering wheel on the dash or heads up display.

41 minutes ago, Evolution13 said:

There are surely others like me that are hopeless using their left hand on Screens in the centre of a dash. Also that sit far back from the pedals and are comfortable, but do not have long arms and fingers that car reach a touch screen without leaning forward and having to divert their eyes to the screen. Personally i like an i-drive type controller to my left where it can easily be used and set or adjust stuff on a centre screen or one right in front of the steering wheel on the dash or heads up display.

Yes, even I have some trouble trying to use the touch controls for the radio, sat nav, telephone etc on my central screen, Thank god there are major controls like heating, etc. controlled that way.

Another step forward for electric trucks .........

I really can't see that working out, the sheer amount of power needed to charge those trucks is massive and its fine saying that will have those charging locations at roughly 4.5 hours distance from each other to coincide with the legal driving hours of a truck driver. That does not take into account of where the truck starts its working day and or the traffic/weather/road conditions etc all of which will have massive impacts on the distance travelled in that 4.5 hours from their starting location.

Take 2 of the top 15 truck fleet operators in the UK, Eddie Stobbart and Turners of Soham who have almost 6,000 HGV's between them, if they all get plugged in to charge overnight, then those 2 operators alone will take as much power from the grid as 2 cities the size of Birmingham takes.

So 2,700 HGV's (Eddie Stobarts fleet alone) @ an average of 200KWH charging speed equates to a staggering 540MW per hour.

The city uses daily 13,424.6MW so divide that by 24 gives a figure of 559MW per hour. It is estimated that drops to 30% at night, that drops to approximately 168MW per hour, these figures are not allowing for heating, so add on the HGV total charge per hour, 540+168=708MW. Bear in mind that there will be some element of solar energy supplied during the day, zero at night, so the extra energy will no doubt come from fossil fuels before Hinckly Point C comes online in about 10 years time but it will only supply 3,200MW so we still need many more stations to power the massive demands of electric road transport if the above figures are correct, and they only allow for just 1 fleet of 2,700 HGV's.

Bear in mind that there are approximately 742,000 HGVs registered in the UK currently and this is growing.

Edit to add some more precise info on some electric trucks. i.e., Volvo have battery capacities to 565 KHw and designed to charge from DC chargers 250KW to 350KW, full charge on 250KW in 2.5 hours or 350KW in 90 minutes and has a range of upto 300Km or 180 miles, so roughly London to Sheffield (140miles). So that trip would require a minimum of 90 minutes to recharge for the return trip, and that is twice the time normally allowed for a drivers break by law, which is 45 minutes after 4.5 hours driving.

Edited 31 January31 Jan by Graham Butcher

On 28/01/2026 at 23:35, Graham Butcher said:

I really can't see that working out, the sheer amount of power needed to charge those trucks is massive and its fine saying that will have those charging locations at roughly 4.5 hours distance from each other to coincide with the legal driving hours of a truck driver. That does not take into account of where the truck starts its working day and or the traffic/weather/road conditions etc all of which will have massive impacts on the distance travelled in that 4.5 hours from their starting location.

Take 2 of the top 15 truck fleet operators in the UK, Eddie Stobbart and Turners of Soham who have almost 6,000 HGV's between them, if they all get plugged in to charge overnight, then those 2 operators alone will take as much power from the grid as 2 cities the size of Birmingham takes.

So 2,700 HGV's (Eddie Stobarts fleet alone) @ an average of 200KWH charging speed equates to a staggering 540MW per hour.

The city uses daily 13,424.6MW so divide that by 24 gives a figure of 559MW per hour. It is estimated that drops to 30% at night, that drops to approximately 168MW per hour, these figures are not allowing for heating, so add on the HGV total charge per hour, 540+168=708MW. Bear in mind that there will be some element of solar energy supplied during the day, zero at night, so the extra energy will no doubt come from fossil fuels before Hinckly Point C comes online in about 10 years time but it will only supply 3,200MW so we still need many more stations to power the massive demands of electric road transport if the above figures are correct, and they only allow for just 1 fleet of 2,700 HGV's.

Bear in mind that there are approximately 742,000 HGVs registered in the UK currently and this is growing.

Think you have made a a whole bunch of assumptions there that are incorrect.

Truck firms, and my uncle had they largest private one in Cornwall with dozens of trucks, have choices which will suit each individual firm. Yes they will probably have 3 phase and therefore can install their own AC chargers. They would be 22 kw would have thought and act as we home charging people do ie how much do they need, maximise any cheap electricity periods and then top up more if they have not got enough ie what they need on the day rate if needed. Beyond that there is a whole bunch of choices. My uncle bought diesel by the tanker full, ie 20,000 litres at a time as it was cheap, of course, than going to the pumps. Bigger trucking companies, those that are smart and want to cash in on the saving better electric trucks and diesel powered trucks, especially with the rise in fuel duty coming in in just over 200 days time, would be preparing. Getting their own DC charger, with site battery, which go from 25 KWs last I heard. Another great part is one can, any many have already, get some solar panels on the roof, get your batteries charged up during the daytime and have some power from your batteries to further reduce ones traction power costs.

There are other options that are operating in parts of the world such as the batteries which are mounted similar to the 1000 litre or so saddle tanks can be swapped in and out, depleted ones or fully charged one. Other systems like the top of the 40 foot container top or curtain covers having solar collecting covers, I have several portable solar "panels" which are flexible and they can collect several KWhs of power when driving or when parked, more energy on the cheap. Each haulage firm needs to look at its potential and cost savings. Most of our warehouses already have EV charging for staff but as more of the trucks become EV then we will no doubt put EV charging over for them as well.

What JLR has been doing is awesome. 18,000 panels on their engine plant, over 10 MW at peak day time so probably tens of MW on a decent day. I am impressed the solar I am getting even on this January day, more than I need for the day time consumption....

https://media.jaguarlandrover.com/news/2025/08/jlr-powers-ambition-lower-carbon-global-operations-renewable-energy-drive

There is something far wrong in the UK. Sir Keir Starmer messing about in China and getting a lower tariff on whisky, fair enough. (Single Malt Whisky they don't care about blends.) the Prime Minister or Energy Minister or Trade & Industry are saying nothing about the 2 Wind Turbine yards that need approved in Scotland, Ayrshire and on the Moray Firth. Seemingly fears of Spying etc. If the yards are not built where they want in Scotland they will be built someplace else in Europe and then transported to British Waters and erected anyway.

5 hours ago, lol-lol said:

Think you have made a a whole bunch of assumptions there that are incorrect.

Truck firms, and my uncle had they largest private one in Cornwall with dozens of trucks, have choices which will suit each individual firm. Yes they will probably have 3 phase and therefore can install their own AC chargers. They would be 22 kw would have thought and act as we home charging people do ie how much do they need, maximise any cheap electricity periods and then top up more if they have not got enough ie what they need on the day rate if needed. Beyond that there is a whole bunch of choices. My uncle bought diesel by the tanker full, ie 20,000 litres at a time as it was cheap, of course, than going to the pumps. Bigger trucking companies, those that are smart and want to cash in on the saving better electric trucks and diesel powered trucks, especially with the rise in fuel duty coming in in just over 200 days time, would be preparing. Getting their own DC charger, with site battery, which go from 25 KWs last I heard. Another great part is one can, any many have already, get some solar panels on the roof, get your batteries charged up during the daytime and have some power from your batteries to further reduce ones traction power costs.

There are other options that are operating in parts of the world such as the batteries which are mounted similar to the 1000 litre or so saddle tanks can be swapped in and out, depleted ones or fully charged one. Other systems like the top of the 40 foot container top or curtain covers having solar collecting covers, I have several portable solar "panels" which are flexible and they can collect several KWhs of power when driving or when parked, more energy on the cheap. Each haulage firm needs to look at its potential and cost savings. Most of our warehouses already have EV charging for staff but as more of the trucks become EV then we will no doubt put EV charging over for them as well.

What JLR has been doing is awesome. 18,000 panels on their engine plant, over 10 MW at peak day time so probably tens of MW on a decent day. I am impressed the solar I am getting even on this January day, more than I need for the day time consumption....

https://media.jaguarlandrover.com/news/2025/08/jlr-powers-ambition-lower-carbon-global-operations-renewable-energy-drive

I think I'd trust my rough calculations over yours on this one. Single-phase or three-phase makes diddly squat difference to the huge amount total power required to recharge those HGVs. Typical HGV especially the articulated trucks used for tramping up and down the motorways (32-tonners, etc.), will not have car-sized batteries but something in the 700 to 800 KWH range, these will require huge amounts of power just to recharge 1 truck overnight ready for the following day's work. We already know that towing a caravan behind an electric car will approximately halve the range; that's the practical range, not the theoretical range quoted by the manufacturers.

These HGVs will be using the 150KW+ chargers, not the 22KW ones that you mention and given Ed Miliband's ambitious plans to effectively drive diesel trucks off the roads within a very short time frame. Hinkley Point C power station is not due to come online until the mid-2030s, and those DC chargers are already three-phase chargers.

6 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

I think I'd trust my rough calculations over yours on this one. Single-phase or three-phase makes diddly squat difference to the huge amount total power required to recharge those HGVs. Typical HGV especially the articulated trucks used for tramping up and down the motorways (32-tonners, etc.), will not have car-sized batteries but something in the 700 to 800 KWH range, these will require huge amounts of power just to recharge 1 truck overnight ready for the following day's work. We already know that towing a caravan behind an electric car will approximately halve the range; that's the practical range, not the theoretical range quoted by the manufacturers.

These HGVs will be using the 150KW+ chargers, not the 22KW ones that you mention and given Ed Miliband's ambitious plans to effectively drive diesel trucks off the roads within a very short time frame. Hinkley Point C power station is not due to come online until the mid-2030s, and those DC chargers are already three-phase chargers.

You need to do more research rather than guess.

The public chargers for the e trucks that Gridserve have just put online are 350 kw ones. I have 400 kw charger a mile from my house and provided by MFG who are a massive provider of EV charging as well as liquid fuel abd seem to be ready as anyone in the uk for the transition to electric motive power.

The UK lags many European countries and perhaps this is due to the extra land needed for the charging slots for EV trucks but as with EV cars the existing disel pumps will ve converted to EV chargers.

Something you have missed that us EV car drivers should ve careful what we wish for is as both more EV trucks come along and more massive battery mega packs come along they will buy the cheap night tine electricity, that 7 and 8 p per kwh stuff and we will have to pay much more or increasingly look at generating our own.

This is where the UK National Grid us actually transmitting less because there is much more local generation. Whether it is individual companies taking MWhs of power or households generating KWh for their own consumption meaning less needed by the grid in industrial and residential areas. Road side will need more but bith the capacity of production is due to climb massively, I can see circa 100GWs being in the various electricity producing tech ie wind, tidal, solar, pump storage, with massive battery banks smoothing demand and production and oft placed at the car and truck charging sites. A fantastic business for thise companies that get it right.

I keep looking at my battery storage options and I would not be surprised that I get a DC charger myself. Going from the batteries to DC for my EVs would be great. Get the earthing sorted out seems the challenge as AC from mains charging has earthing sorted but trying to charge from non mains charging seems challenging ie from batteries or V2L from one EV to another EV via a Granny charger. A tech problem to solve.

In Europe my company is already doing long haul EV trucking. We have access to MW chargers from country grids that already have excess capacity from renewable so the electricity is half the price than in the UK. UK will get there eventually but, as usual, is lagging some European countries for a host of reasons.

Edited 30 January30 Jan by lol-lol