back to article Budget to make e-cars better for business?

Chancellor Alistair Darling’s pre-Budget report has revealed that electric vehicles will be exempt from company car tax fees for five years starting in 2010. The news has gone down well with e-car manufacturers, a spokesman for Vauxhall - doubtless with an eye on all those plug-in Amperas it now hopes to flog to travelling …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ha ha

    Well I'm not on that particular gravy train anymore, but when I was it was common that I would have to do Leeds to Glasgow and in a day with a car full of kit. What use would a battery powered car be then?

    Hybrid? Well my neighbour's Pious gets less mpg than my Lancer which is hardly good for the environment is it? Let's all swap to hybrids to cut our taxes and damge the environment while we're at it. Cool.

  2. Tony Hoyle
    Badgers

    Aargh

    So the news is.. car tax to go up. I got the most efficient I could when it was available (far better MPG that the pious , for about 1/4 the price) and it's been on the cheap tax band ever since.

    It's not suddenly become a gas guzzling monster.. it's still pretty efficient (a godsend since petrol prices are now so stupidly high), but now I pay more. Great.

  3. TeeCee Gold badge
    FAIL

    Plug-in hybrids.

    Am I the only one who sees a problem here?

    As a company car, one of these presents a dilemma. Do you a) let the thing run off its engine all the time*, filling the tank with the company fuel card for free** or b) charge it up overnight at home at your own expense, saving the company's fuel costs?

    Some may say that companies should provide charging points in the office car-park, but they're going to tax the fsck out of those so you won't be parking there anyway (c.f. government/joined-up thinking).

    I reckon anyone going for "b" is in line for the Order of the Carbon Cult with Oak leaf and Cluster.

    *Exactly like a non-plugin Hybrid.

    **Since you're taxed on this you may as well get your money's worth.

  4. Roger Greenwood

    Not normal

    But yesterday I drove 350 miles, in about 7 hours (traffic). Day before the same. Get me the lectric juice job that does that, without a recharge in between.

  5. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Thumb Up

    Note

    It's a 100% depreciation charge on *vans*. These will likely be kep at the company depot. An ideal place to put a charging point or 2.

    But the question is (as TeeCee points out) will "Badger" Darling tax you for it. Will the leccy companies stuff you with an extra high tariff?

    Joined government needed here.

    But in principle thumbs up.

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