ROAD PRICING ‘MAY BE OF TO OUR SECTOR’ SAYS HCV
Pay-per-mile may be a good option for 20-40-year-old classic cars – but only if it’s not your sole vehicle
The CEO of the Historic and Classic Vehicle Association has said that replacing vehicle excise duty (VED) with a pay-per-mile taxation system could be of benefit to most ‘modern classic’ owners thanks to their low annual mileages. Garry Wilson told CCW: ‘We may support it if in the round it is a benefit. It won’t suit all vehicle users and if the plan is to fill the void left by the transition to low CO2 vehicles over recent years then we do not want the classic car of whatever age to make up any shortfall in taxes.’ Currently, only classics over 40 years old are exempt from paying VED, with cars registered from 19822000 paying £170 if their engine cubic capacity is less than 1549cc, or otherwise £280 a year. Modern classics, such as the Jaguar XK8 or Bentley Continental, face even harsher taxes, despite typically low annual mileages. Cars registered from 2001 are taxed based on C02 emissions, to a maximum of £340 if they were built before 2006, or £600 if built after that.
Under a road pricing system, a car’s mileage is tracked using ANPR systems and/or GPS trackers, with the owner then charged a rate per mile driven. To raise the same amount of money as the treasury currently gains from VED, the rate would be around three pence per mile, though the rate would be many times that if the government also tried to raise the money lost from declining fuel duty receipts through the same tax.
Garry was quick to recognise, however, that there is a danger of younger classic owners being harshly taxed. He said: ‘There is a large group of younger drivers using 1990s cars as daily drivers such as the ubiquitous E36 and E46 BMWS, MGFS, etc, and any such pay per mile road taxation scheme would need to be reviewed to understand how it would impact these users.’
❚ hcva.co.uk