Drivers risk being forced to pay a “tyre tax” as Britain explores a crackdown on brake and tyre wear emissions.
Ministers have hired advisers to explore how to address harmful emissions that experts say are more harmful than diesel fumes.
The Department for Transport has asked consultancy Arup to “develop recommendations on how to better assess and control these emissions which will persist after a transition to zero tailpipe emission vehicles”, according to a Government filing.
Although the Whitehall officials this weekend insisted that Arup’s work was not designed to inform tax policy, it is being seen as one of the strongest signals yet that a tyre tax is coming down the road.
This could be read as – only by the truly cynical of course – and insistence that autonomous mobility must stop.
An interesting question to ask is whether buses, trains and trams have higher or lower such pollution? Given weight of course it’s higher per vehicle, but what about per passenger miles? And let’s do the calc properly, at normal loads, not assuming they’re full.
Wow. If we’ve improved vehicle emissions so well that we’re now concerned about worn-off tire particles and brake pad wear, we’re damned near immaculate. Next big thing – a tax to cover the paint particles that air friction buffs off. Or maybe the CO2 that the driver exhales while steering?
Good idea, as EVs are much heavier than IC vehicles!
“And let’s do the calc properly, at normal loads, not assuming they’re full”
Which applies for about 80% of the time. And on some occasions they carry NO passengers at all…
Hmmm, how a car is driven – how often and hard it brakes – could be argued as a factor in brake wear.
I’ll be interested to see if the fitting of trackers will form part of the “solution” to this blatantly invented “problem”.
I think the truly cynical might see this as an exploration of ways to replace revenue from fuel duty. They could just transfer it to vehicle excise duty (car tax), or introduce a mileage tax, but politicians love to spread taxes and have them non obvious. They’ll even be able to charge VAT on the tyre and brake tax.
The WEF doesn’t want you to dispel any myths about it. They enjoy trolling the proles, and Schwab positively cultivates his Bond villain persona.
They want you to know they really, really mean it about the owning nothing, eating bugs, and being happy. And that there is nothing you can do about it.
BiFR
Obviously the influence is indirect. Seems to be along the lines of the EU in that they (the WEF) are saying the fault lies in the governments that are implementing these changes rather than them in origination.
They do seem unusually buoyant though despite their changes looking on course to slaughter millions – perhaps those ‘conspiracy theorists’ might be on to something?
EM and PJF have it – it’s a way to tax EVs. Quite a good one since it will vary with mileage and, I’m particular, with city driving with all its braking and accelerating.
Mind you, people will then drive with tyres worn right down to the legal limit or below. So we’ll need a new body of supersleuths walking around checking the tyres on parked cars.
And people will go to France for tyre changes. And …..
Experts say brake dust and tyre particles are more dangerous than diesel fumes? In that case fine, control the more dangerous stuff and remove the penalty on diesel.
Roads wear out too. I guess the DoT haven’t noticed that ‘cos they’re stationery.