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Road pricing is back on the political agenda. Government sources suggest Chancellor Rishi Sunak is considering replacing fuel duty, as electric power gradually replaces petrol and diesel.

Meanwhile, the Transport Committee of the House of Commons has launched an inquiry into zero carbon vehicles and road pricing.

We have been here before. In 2007 some of my colleagues were working on a study for the Department for Transport (DfT) into the public acceptability of road pricing when an email went round the university urging people to sign an e-petition urging the Prime Minister to “scrap the planned vehicle tracking and road pricing policy”.

It went on to attract 1.8 million signatures, prompting Blair to abandon the plans.

I interviewed Peter Roberts, the man who started that petition, for Roads, Runways and Resistance: From the Newbury Bypass to Extinction Rebellion*.

The book tells the inside story of the most controversial transport issues in Britain since the late 1980s, the ones which provoked widespread protest, through interviews with ministers, civil servants, advisers and protest leaders.

It outlines how, in 2000, a small group of farmers and hauliers closed down the UK economy faster than Covid-19 in protest at rising fuel taxes.

The Government made small concessions at the time, but the enduring legacy of those protests is illustrated in the fuel tax graph below; fuel tax has fallen by more than a third since then.

Those stories, and that graph, illustrate the biggest problem with plans for road pricing today. Over the next few years, decarbonisation is the main challenge for the transport sector.

The sixth carbon budget now before Parliament would require the whole sector to cut its emissions by 70% by the mid-2030s. There are only two ways to do that: take petrol and diesel vehicles off the road and/or reduce the distances they drive.

Fuel tax rises would be the most effective way to create a ‘push factor’, and yet, governments continue to cut them, with hardly a murmur of opposition.

Road pricing could create a push factor if it increases the cost of driving conventional vehicles. It would make driving more expensive on congested roads, but if it replaces fuel taxes, it could make it cheaper to drive on uncongested roads, which have more capacity. That would increase carbon emissions.

It all depends on how the prices are set. Would politicians really use this as a way of making motoring more expensive? If not, then road pricing might make sense after the fleet has electrified, but not before, as I have written in my evidence to the Transport Committee.

In the meantime, governments should reverse those fuel tax cuts aim to accelerate the shift away from petrol and diesel.  By Graham Hill thanks to Fleet News

Company car drivers charging an electric vehicle (EV) at home could save up to £1,250 a year by choosing the right tariff, says Rightcharge.co.uk.

With energy prices rising in the UK as from 01 April 2021, many households will be paying larger electricity utility bills, including those drivers who charge their company vehicles at home.

However, the vehicle home charger and energy comparison site says that this is the perfect opportunity for fleet drivers to find more generously priced EV-friendly energy tariffs that cover charging for fully-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles – providing a combined home and vehicle charge saving on household energy costs.

For example, a fleet driver covering 20,000 miles annually would expect to pay £2,344 on a standard variable tariff from one of the big six energy suppliers, which would include both household energy use and £1,300 for the charging of the vehicle.

From April that total will increase to £2,599 a year, including £1,454 for charging the same car, representing an annual price increase faced by the driver of £154 for just the charging alone, potentially impacting any financial benefit-in-kind (BIK) taxation gains drivers may have gained from swapping from a conventional diesel car to an EV.

Yet users who switch to a lower-cost alternative EV energy tariff after April 1, could find themselves paying only £1,349 a year – with the charging element representing just £459 of that amount – says Rightcharge.

This represents a massive saving of £995 on charging a vehicle at home, with an additional £255 saved on household energy bills. That’s a total saving of £1,250 a year.

Charlie Cook, founder of Rightcharge, said: “EV-friendly energy tariffs are so incredibly cheap in comparison to a standard tariff, that a homeowner can actually start charging their car at home and reduce their total energy bill at the same time – effectively getting from A to B for free.

“A fleet driver doing 20,000 miles per year can save £1,250. That’s a huge saving EV fleet drivers could be making by simply switching.”

Rightcharge allows users to compare EV-friendly energy tariffs by taking their car into account as well as their home, helping customers to minimise costs for running EVs – plus special payment available for fleets. Rightcharge also helps users to select the correct charger for vehicle and home offering.

Cook said: “We want to help drivers minimise their EV costs – and we suspect many just don’t realise what they can save. Our price comparison website points them in the right direction.”  By Graham Hill thanks to Fleet News

The Transport Committee has launched an inquiry into the benefits and safety of Smart Motorways in response to numerous calls for them to be scrapped.

It comes less than a year after the publication of an 18-point action plan to improve safety, in March 2020, following a previous review of Smart Motorways by the Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps.

Shapps told MPs earlier last month that he did not want to carry on with the system of Smart Motorways.

“What I commit to is making sure that the motorways we have in this country are safer than the motorways that came before them. That is the commitment I make. To be robust and clear from the evidence of, sadly, how many people die on our motorways, they are the safest form of road, but they should be safer,” he said.

Campaigners against Smart Motorways have labelled them as ‘death traps’. One coroner concluded that smart motorways ‘present an ongoing risk of future deaths’ while another has referred Highways England to the Crown Prosecution Service to consider if corporate manslaughter charges are appropriate following the 2018 death of a grandmother on the M1 in South Yorkshire.

Recent media coverage reported 14 fatalities on smart motorways in 2019 compared to 11 deaths in 2018 and five the year before.

The Chair of the Transport Committee, Huw Merriman MP, said: “The Department for Transport says Smart Motorways help us cope with a 23% rise in traffic since 2000, helping congestion. The Department’s own Stocktake report points to lower fatal casualty rates for smart motorways without a permanent hard shoulder than on motorways with a hard shoulder. The serious casualty rate is slightly higher.

“This message isn’t reaching the public, whose confidence in smart motorways has been dented by increasing fatalities on these roads. Road safety charities are also expressing concerns. Will enhanced safety measures help? Will the public accept them following an awareness campaign? Or should there be a rethink of government policy?

“There are genuine worries about this element of the motorway network and we want to investigate how we got to this point.”

Smart motorways were introduced as a technology-driven approach to deal with congestion through increasing capacity on motorways and controlling the flow and speed of traffic. They can be divided into three different designs, of which the most common is All Lane Running (ALR) introduced in 2014. These are the type that cause the most concern for campaigners as broken down vehicles can end up stranded in live lanes.

Edmund King, AA president, said: “Coroners, and indeed police and crime commissioners, have voiced serious safety concerns with ‘smart’ motorways, which makes this inquiry very timely.

“For more than a decade the AA has campaigned to improve the safety of smart motorways*. Tragically, too many people have died on these roads in the interim.

“Hopefully this inquiry will concentrate minds to stress the urgency of safety improvements.” By Graham Hill thanks to Fleet News

Petrol and diesel pump prices could rise by 10p per litre as the price of oil hits a 13-month high.

Analysts are predicting dramatic fuel price hike as the price of a barrel of oil is set to soar from $64 to $80.

The RAC is warning that UK drivers need to brace themselves for further potentially dramatic pump price increases.

Having dropped to just $13 last April, the price of a barrel of oil has now recovered, jumping by $20 in three months. Some analysts are now predicting oil could reach $80 a barrel this year, a price last seen in October 2018, and petrol prices could rise to around 130p and diesel to 134.5p based on today’s exchange rate.

At $100 a barrel – a price that JPMorgan has said is a possibility next year – petrol and diesel could hit records high of 143p and 148p respectively.

RAC Fuel Watch data shows that petrol prices have already been rising for 13 straight weeks, with a litre now 8.03p more expensive than November 22, 2020, at 121.84p per litre.

The situation with diesel is even more pronounced, with prices now having risen for 14 weeks (up 7.68p since November 15, 2020) at 124.91p per litre.

RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: “When the pandemic hit last year, the effect on forecourt prices was nothing if not dramatic – those still driving through March and April paid less to fill up than they had done since mid-2016, when the price of oil plummeted as a result of deliberate over production.

“But by the summer the oil price had rebounded and today is at a level not seen since the start of 2020, meaning storm clouds are once again gathering over UK forecourts. Ironically and rather unfortunately, as economic confidence grows as measures to combat the coronavirus take effect, it’s likely to mean drivers end up paying more to fill up in the coming weeks.

“The last thing drivers, and possibly the economy, need is a fuel duty increase – not least as petrol prices have now been rising for 13 consecutive weeks. A hike in duty at a time of rising fuel prices could put unprecedented pressure on lower-income households and might have the negative effect of forcing everyone who depends on their cars to consider cutting back on other spending.” By Graham Hill thanks to Fleet News

The UK Government will scrap a new EU law requiring vehicles such as fork-lifts, golf buggies and quad bikes to be insured like a car or van.

The ‘Vnuk’ law requires a wider range of vehicles than those such as cars and motorbikes to be insured, including ones previously not requiring insurance.

The law also extends to vehicles on private land, meaning people with a ride-on lawnmower at home would require insurance where it would have previously not been needed.

Had the EU law been implemented in Great Britain, it would have meant the insurance industry would have been liable for almost £2 billion in extra overall costs.

Bypassing Vnuk will also protect the existence of the UK’s motorsports industry as the EU rules would have meant any collision involving vehicles from go-karting to Formula 1 would have been treated as regular road traffic incidents requiring insurance.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “We have always disagreed with this over-the-top law that would only do one thing – hit the pockets of hard-working people up and down the country with an unnecessary hike in their car insurance. I am delighted to announce that we no longer need to implement it.

“Scrapping this rule would save the country billions of pounds and is part of a new and prosperous future for the UK outside the EU – a future in which we set our own rules and regulations.”

The move is supported by Logistics UK. James Firth, head of Road Freight Regulation Policy at the organisation, said: “Implementation of the ‘Vnuk’ ruling into UK law would have been wholly unnecessary; the type of operations that would have been brought into scope by the ruling – for example, use of forklift trucks – are in most cases covered already by companies’ Public Liability or Employer Liability insurance. Logistics UK is pleased by the government’s decision today; it will prevent many logistics businesses being subject to additional and unnecessary costs and administrative burden.” By Graham Hill thanks to Fleet News

A logistics company has proved it was not liable for a collision with a Lamborghini using dashcam footage.

The crash, involving a Leicestershire-based Crouch Logistics vehicle working on a UPS contract, occurred in Northampton on November 27.

Amio Talio, the Lamborghini Driver, claimed the UPS vehicle “came out of nowhere” and crashed into his £180,000 Huracan.

His car collided with the Crouch Transport vehicle and then hit another parked car.

The Camera Telematics’ Street Angel device fitted to the Crouch Logistics van captured the incident and the footage was able to prove that the driver was not at fault and therefore not liable for what could have been a very expensive insurance settlement.

Chris Crouch, managing director of Crouch Logistics, said: “Our decision to install Street Angel on our fleet of vehicles has been completely vindicated by the performance of the Camera Telematics’ kit in determining who was liable for the accident – particularly as the Lamborghini driver contested that the UPS driver was at fault. Having accurate footage from Street Angel proved in court that the Lamborghini driver was liable for the accident. and that the UPS driver was in the clear.”

Street Angel works by using 4G connectivity to continually record video evidence of the journey and the vehicle’s surroundings on to the internal memory. It uses accelerometers to measure g-force in all directions to detect any impact or harsh event, such as braking or cornering.

When the g-force parameter is breached the device instantly uploads a video clip of the event to the cloud while generating an instant email alert to the fleet manager notifying them of the event.  By Graham Hill thanks to Fleet News

Electric vehicle (EV) drivers can pay more than four times as much for the same amount of electricity when they use different public chargers, new research reveals.

A study carried out by What Car? has highlighted that charging a BMW iX3, with an 80kWh battery, from 10%-80% could cost between £9.32 and £40.66, as a result of the different tariffs and charges offered across the UK charging network.

BP’s Pulse 7.4kW pay-as-you-go tariff was the cheapest found, with a charge costing £9.32 for the iX3, at a cost of £0.18 per kWh.

While other providers were found to offer cheaper kWh rates, they often required a subscription fee or one-off payment, which inflated prices.

With a subscription, these networks would help owners save money in the long run. However, charging up at home is still the cheapest option, with the 10-80% boost for the iX3’s batteries costing £7.25.

Source London Flexi (7.4kW) delivered the most expensive charge in the study, costing £40.66 – despite providing the same 7.4kW charging speed as BP Pulse.

Available to London residents in Camden, Kensington & Chelsea, and Westminster, the charge included a £10 one-off sign-up fee and £0.073 per minute tariff.

The network’s 7.4kW chargers automatically stop charging a fee after four hours for cars being charged up between 8pm and 7pm, so an overnight charge for the iX3 on the Flexi tariff would cost £27.52, including the initial £10 fee.

The one-off fee also makes the first daytime charge on a 22kW Source London Flexi subscription expensive at £38.79. That said, subsequent charges are more affordable and frequent users will recoup the cost of the initial fee. It’s also important to note that Source London only charges its highest rates in the three London boroughs listed above; prices are lower elsewhere and many of its chargers are free to use.

A spokesperson for the company said: “Source London is the only network to include on-street parking in its usage fees. This gives our members the ability to park anywhere in London, including Central London, without having to pay any additional on-street parking fees which would often have to be paid separately at other locations.”

Outside London, Ionity’s rapid 350kW network proved most expensive, with a £0.69 per kWh fee to use its rapid chargers. The 80% charge would take just 35 minutes, though, compared with more than seven hours using a slower 7.4kW charger.

What Car? editor Steve Huntingford said: “Unlike petrol and diesel prices, which are relatively stable across the country, tariffs for the UK’s public charging network can vary wildly due to different electricity and subscription fees. Our research highlights the importance of doing your research before you leave home to find the most cost-effective way to make your journey.”

The findings follow the launch of a Government consultation to investigate ways to improve the public charging experience for drivers.

Among the key points is a proposal that charge point operators have to make pricing information more readily available, along with location and power output data.

The Government says that this is essential for ensuring costs are fair, for driving competition, and for increasing the confidence of both existing EV drivers and those considering making the switch.

Cost of charging a BMW iX3 (80kWh), according to What Car?’s study:

Cost of charging a BMW iX3 (80kWh), according to What Car?’s study:

Network and tariff	Monthly fee (£)	Fee per charge (£)	Cost per kWh (£/kWh)	Total 10-80% charge cost (£)
Source London Flexi (7.4kW)*	0.00	0.00	0.073 per min	40.66
Source London Flexi (22kW)*	0.00	0.00	0.13 per min	38.79
Ionity (350kW)	0.00	0.00	0.69	35.74
Source London PAYG (7.4kW)	0.00	0.00	0.084 per min	35.28
Source London Full (7.4kW)	4.00	0.00	0.05 per min	25.00
Source London PAYG (22kW)	0.00	0.00	0.157 per min	22.18
BP Pulse subscription (150kW)	7.85	0.00	0.27	21.84
BP Pulse PAYG (150kW)	0.00	0.00	0.42	21.76
BP Pulse PAYG contactless (150kW)	0.00	0.00	0.42	21.76
Shell Recharge (43kW, 50kW)	0.00	0.00	0.39	20.20
ESB subscription London (50kW)	4.99	0.00	0.28	19.49
Source London Full (22kW)	4.00	0.00	0.109 per min	19.40
Osprey (22kW to 50kW)	0.00	0.00	0.36	18.65
Instavolt (50kW)	0.00	0.00	0.35	18.13
Geniepoint London (43kW, 50kW)	0.00	1.80	0.30	17.34
Char.gy PAYG (7kW)	0.00	0.00	0.33	17.09
Ubitricity SmartCable Membership (7.4kW)	7.99	0.19	0.16	16.57
Geniepoint Rapid (43kW, 50kW)	0.00	1.00	0.30	16.54
ESB contactless London (50kW)	0.00	0.50	0.30	16.04
Geniepoint (7kW, 22kW)	0.00	0.50	0.30	16.04
BP Pulse subscription (50kW)	7.85	0.00	0.15	15.62
BP Pulse PAYG contactless (50kW)	0.00	0.00	0.30	15.54
Ecotricity (43kW, 50kW)	0.00	0.00	0.30	15.54
ESB PAYG London (50kW)	0.00	0.00	0.30	15.54
BP Pulse subscription (7kW)	7.85	0.00	0.12	14.07
BP Pulse PAYG (50kW)	0.00	0.00	0.25	12.95
Ubitricity PAYG (7.4kW)	0.00	0.00	0.24	12.43
Pod Point (43kW, 50kW)	0.00	0.00	0.23	11.91
BP Pulse PAYG (7.4kW)	0.00	0.00	0.18	9.32

*£10 sign-up fee, the cost per minute on 7.4kW chargers is capped at four hours between 8pm and 7am, making overnight charging cheaper

Winter conditions can reduce the range of a battery electric vehicle by up to 40%, participants in the Optimise Prime EV trial have reported.

The Ofgem-funded programme is the world’s largest commercial EV project and aims to discover how the UK’s electricity infrastructure will cope with the mass adoption of EVs, as well as how businesses can accelerate their transition.

It features three fleet partners – Royal Mail, Centrica and Uber – who each have different operating modes, as well as Hitachi and electricity distribution networks UK Power Network and Scottish and Southern Electricity networks.

James Rooney, fleet engineer at Centrica, said: “In 2014, we took on some Nissan eNV200s and they were a really good van in the summer, not so good in the winter.

““Bearing in mind this is old tech, we could get 70 miles out of them in the summer but in winter that could be down to 40 miles with a mix of what the cold does to the battery in terms of potency as  well as the driver using the heaters.

“It’s less of a problem now with battery preconditioning and liquid-cooled batteries, but we certainly see a seasonal disparity.”

Royal Mail has had a similar experience. “We introduced our first 100 EVs throughout 2018/19 so we’ve had them for a couple of winters now,” says Anna Pearson, fleet innovation and environment manager at Royal Mail.

“The colder and darker conditions means we have to use the heaters and lights more, and we have seen a drop in range.

“We’ve probably seen a drop of about 25% to 30%, definitely. That obviously depends on how the vehicle is being driven as well.” By Graham Hill thanks to Fleet News

The Government wants charge point operators to make charging an electric vehicle (EV) no different to fuelling a petrol or diesel car.

A consultation, launched by Department for Transport (DfT) over the weekend, outlines a series of measures it believes could transform the charge point experience for EV drivers.

Key is interoperability, with the Government suggesting customers should be able to make a contactless payment, without having to download an app.

The consultation – The consumer experience at public electric vehicle charge points – also reveals how the Government wants to improve charge point reliability by forcing operators to respond to faults quickly and provide a 24/7 helpline for drivers.

“Standardisation to a pence-per-kilowatt hour (kWh) basis will enable a simpler pricing framework for all users.”

Furthermore, it is proposing charge point operators have to make pricing information more readily available, along with location and power output data.

The Government says that this is essential for ensuring costs are fair, for driving competition, and for increasing the confidence of both existing EV drivers and those considering making the switch.

“These proposals will ensure that it’s as easy – or even easier – for drivers to charge their car as it is to refuel a petrol or diesel vehicle,” said the Department for Transport (DfT).

The consultation is also seeking evidence on three emerging policy areas: accessibility for disabled consumers; weatherproofing and lighting; and signage.

Jack Cousens, head of roads policy for the AA, said: “In simple terms, drivers want charge points to be as easy and simple to use as a fuel pump.

“They don’t want to have a multitude of apps or membership cards, but the ability to simply understand how much it will cost them and pay by card.”

EV charge point pricing

By opening up chargepoint data, the Government believes it will enable the development of consumer-friendly apps and improve consumer experience.

It will also reduce costs by encouraging competition and innovation, and support system planning across the transport and electricity sectors, it says.

Fleet operators and company car drivers have long argued for a far simpler payment system for charge points.

The Association of Fleet Professionals, when ACFO, highlighted how ‘charge point anxiety’ could thwart the wider adoption of EVs.

“We would caution against interventions that would stymie innovation that will benefit consumers,” Daniel Brown, REA

The consultation says that consumers should be able to understand and compare pricing offers across the UK network to select the best available price, as is currently the case for petrol and diesel vehicles.

“Standardisation to a pence-per-kilowatt hour (kWh) basis will enable a simpler pricing framework for all users,” it adds. “Providers would still be able to offer a range of bundled services tariffs.”

It’s an approach which, it says, will ensure alignment with the energy sector and the price of electricity used across the network, helping consumers compare how much they are paying at home with how much they are paying when they use the public charging network.

The Government says it is also essential that the charge point network is maintained, and faults are repaired quickly, to ensure a minimum 99% reliability across the charging infrastructure.

Daniel Brown, head of transport at the Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology (REA), believes an open, reliable, and “simple-to-navigate” charging network is crucial to keep the confidence of drivers and fleets and take EVs into the mainstream.

“We welcome Government setting baseline expectations and ‘guard rails’ for the industry to deliver on,” he said.

“The EV charging sector, however, is a complex blend of telecoms, electricity provision, payments, real estate, and hardware and we would caution against interventions that would stymie innovation that will benefit consumers and be the backbone of emerging British brands.”

The consultation was launched at the same time as the DfT announced it would be expanding the Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS) to include small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and the charity sector for the first time.

In addition, it said that the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS), which provides up to £350 towards a charge point, will continue next year and be expanded to target people in rented and leasehold accommodation.

The consultation will run until April 10, 2021. Fleets can respond using the online form.

There will also be consultation workshops running throughout the consultation period. Anybody interested in attending these events, can contact consumerofferconsult@olev.gov.uk.  By Graham Hill thanks to Fleet News

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has outlined its electrification strategy which will see Jaguar offer an entirely electric model line-up by 2025.

The Reimagine strategy was revealed by the car maker’s new CEO Thierry Bollore on Feb 15^th 2021.

“Reimagine will see us transition to being an electric-first business. By the end of the decade we will have achieved that goal, nameplate by nameplate every model will be available with full battery power,” he said.

Currently the only fully electric model offered by JLR is the Jaguar I-Pace. It has recently launched a wide range of plug-in hybrid variants across some of its most popular models including the Evoque and Discovery Sport, however.

Bollore confirmed there will be six all-electric Land Rovers within the existing Range Rover, Discovery and Defender families by 2030, with the first launching in 2024. Land Rover models will continue to be offered with a mixture of powertrains, including plug-in hybrid, until 2036.

Jaguar will only sell electric cars by 2025, but the revised model range will not include the replacement XJ that was due to launch this year. That project has now been cancelled, although Bollore hinted that the model name could be retained for future use.

No further details have been given on how the existing range of Jaguar models, such as the recently facelifted XE, XF and F-Pace, will be affected between now an 2025, but a statement issued by JLR outlining the new strategy said: “By the middle of the decade Jaguar will have undergone a renaissance to emerge as a pure electric luxury brand with a dramatically beautiful new portfolio of emotionally engaging designs and pioneering next-generation technologies.”

The brand expects 60% of Land Rovers will be sold with zero-emission powertrains by 2030 and will begin to phase out diesel engines from its model range from 2026. By Graham Hill thanks to Fleet News