THOUSANDS of drivers will be left £200 worse off due to Andy Burnham’s VAT cut on energy bills.
In his first major announcement, the new Prime Minister promised to save British families £45 a year on their energy bills by scrapping the tax.
Around 200,000 EV drivers have no at-home charger and must use public facilities Credit: Getty
Andy Burnham announced a VAT cut for energy bills in his first week as PM Credit: Reuters
But new analysis reveals that those who drive electric cars and don’t have an at-home charger will miss out on savings, creating a “driveway divide” across the country.
Around 200,000 drivers have electric vehicles but no home charging, the research from consultancy New AutoMotive found.
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These drivers will save nothing at all on VAT, and already pay the most tax out of all 2.2million electric car drivers – £216 a year – through using public charging facilities.
But those with an EV charger on their driveway will now pay no VAT from October, when the cut kicks in.
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Drivers with at-home chargers currently pay around 9p per kilowatt hour to charge their cars, but the cheapest public chargers cost 54p, according to ZapMap.
New Automotive chief executive Ben Nelmes said: “The Government havehanded EV drivers with a driveway a tax cut on power they were already paying least for.
“Meanwhile the driver charging on a public charger down the road, because they’ve got nowhere else to plug in, is still handing 20% to the taxman on every single mile.
“That’s a design flaw, and it leaves us with a VAT system that asks mostof those who can least afford to contribute.”
The consultancy group is calling on the Government to equalise VAT rates for all EV drivers by introducing “time-of-use” tariffs for street charging, so those without home chargers could get cheap rates by plugging in their cars overnight.
A government spokesperson said: “We are boosting the EV transition by saving drivers up to £3,750 off a new car, with more than 95,000 people benefitting already, and investing over £7.5 billion into the UK electric vehicle sector.
“We’re also reviewing the cost of public EV charging which will look at the impact of energy prices, wider cost contributors, and options for lowering these costs for consumers.”
