@davidwalton need to spread the word to press re-new tax in March 2025
That’ll at least delay the £190 until 2026.
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Your points feel technically correct but not in spirit.
Charging for road tax has traditionally been linked to emissions, but there’s no reason that this can’t (indeed, will have to) change going forward. When all cars are EVs, there’s zero chance we still all won’t be paying road tax.
I deliberately didn’t include ULEZ as that has a clear and obvious link to emissions being the basis for charging. My last four ICE cars have been exempt from it.
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You could say the opposite is true, it was originally for road and maintenance. And pre millennium it was based on engine-size rather than emissions. 
I think we all agree the system will need to change as you can’t have the majority paying no VED.
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The alternative is road pricing, which is a political hot potato and opens up a whole new can of worms about fairness.
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I think they could have kept the road tax introduction and halved/reduced the premium tax as a balance.
The Expensive Car Supplement only applies to electric vehicles registered on or after 1st April 2025, fortunately!
They need to look at that threshold imo.
£40k definitely used to be a luxury car a good decade+ ago.
In 2024+ it’s a “nice” car but not lux.
It’s an Electric Ford Capri or Mach-E, not a £90k Taycan or Mercedes EQE
Not a whole lot of EVs in that £25-40k range still.
I would imagine the point might be to encourage more lower cost EVs.
£40k may not get you what it once use to, but it’s still a huge amount of money for the vast majority of the population.
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It is a lot for the majority but that doesn’t stop the threshold changing when the pricing structure changes.
It’s a bit like the higher tax threshold for income, £50k used to be a very high salary. It’s not in 2024. Even more so if that’s one person salary supporting a family.
I feel it’s a fair threshold. You can serve any personal or family needs with a car under 40k, anything above that is still really a want and not a need.
Not that I really like the tax anyway, seems bad for the car market, but the threshold feels in the right place.
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I get what you’re saying and yet Fiscal Drag is a deliberate policy to increase the tax take.
I’d argue that if you can afford to but a new car over £40k, you can afford the road tax for it.
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What about supporting multiple tiers.
A rebrand needed to the £40k ‘nice car supplement’.
And the ‘luxury car supplement’ is now £80k+
I would say people aren’t buying £40k cars they are leasing them at many hundreds a month.
It’s the people with money in the bank buying the actual luxury cars.
Certainly feels like it would make sense to have a sliding scale - the same rate applying to a £40,001 car and a £120,000 car feels a little unfair on the cheaper car.
I’ve just bought a 2nd hand car and discovered this tax for the first time! Fortunately it ends in 18 months so not too much of a burden for too long!
(As an aside the car is a hybrid electric, not quite ready for full electric… And apparently I can get a whopping 25 miles on electric mode!)
Thanks. But they are all so big. Even the model 3 is probably a bit big for my liking. Are there any good small EV options?
And this could be added to the list
You might find in a few years we may get the ID.Golf
Keeps getting pushed back but expect it to take the ID.3 place ~2028.
The ID.3 is a solid choice, my pref would be the Born instead which is just a jazzy ID.3
Out of coincidence I just got an email promoting it’s bigger brother based on the ID.4/5
Side profile looks awfully like the Polestar 2. I’m sure it’s completely different in reality.
That could be another to look at but Polestar in serious financial trouble and rocky relationship with Volvo
Edit: just watched this and kind of a meh
I had an ID.3 Pro Performance for 3 years - great all-rounder. Family of 4, dog, camping trips (although car#2 required on trips due to palatial-scale tenting outlook) Highly recommended and arguably a great looking car, with that great low-speed otherworldly sound:
BUT… and here’s the but - why oh why did VW keep the left-hand drive wipers on the right-hand drive car. THAT drove me insane. The passenger got a great view in any wet weather and the driver (me) had to contend with wash-across from the bigger wiper on the other side every cycle! Madness. And the 0-60 of about 7 seconds. The torque was good, but it wasn’t exactly a drivers car. so 
But it did open my eyes as to what could be gamed with EV’s so it holds a certain spot in my heart 
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