Calls for Government to Tax ICE off the Road
Internal combustion engine vehicles should be taxed off the road, according to an automotive analyst.
Matt Finch from the The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit told TU-Automotive: “Weight tax could be introduced as a way to stop people buying big, polluting SUVs when they don’t need them. I’m not against big vehicles, but I am against big vehicles not being used efficiently. They take up space on the road and cause damage to the road surface, plus the pollution they give out.”
He continued: “In Norway, they’ve introduced weight tax, with vehicles in weight bands. However, the thing is, they’ve excluded electric vehicles from this, because they want to encourage people to buy an EV. The question is, when do you re-introduce comparatively heavy EVs back in, and once you do that, how to continue encouraging the purchase of an EV? I would also add in an air pollution tax, and noise tax too. “
Finch also mentioned that hybrids aren’t any good if drivers don’t know how to use them effectively. “When used well, a hybrid is great for the environment as most car journeys are short. But when used badly, they just make the problem worse, because the car is lugging around a battery for no reason,” he said.
Finally, a core cause for emissions getting worse, not better, is the inefficient use of cars, Finch said. “Car culture has gone a little too far, I think. We have people buying these massive SUVs, but the average commute has 1.1 people in the car. That’s not efficient at all. If you can fill all seven seats, then great – that’s really efficient. The rush hour is the busiest time on the road and then we’ve got cars sitting in traffic idling, with 1 person in most of them. It’s a big problem.”
