Another scrappage scheme? To rid us of diesels.

[julianm]

I think I can remember when diesels were meant to be super duper, but now:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-ra...

[Mr E]

Isn't this just boris saying stuff?

[Sensibleboy]

Conveniently encouraging people to move to more highly taxed petrol cars.

[With these feet]

"Given £1000 to £2000 to scrap their diesel".

So that would be the premium paid over the petrol variant......

Getting rid of all the Buses and taxi's then Boris?

Only diesel in our house is the transit, though if Ford had dons a V8!

All this green bks wastes taxpayers money and depletes the used car market in the UK (I bet theyre not scrapped, just shipped off and sold elsewhere ) How many decent used cars were removed from circulation by the last incentive? All those tiny cheaply built imports that were bought must be due for replacement again now!

[Negative Creep]

Boris said:

“I feel very sorry for them,” the Mayor said. “This has been a massive failure of public policy, millions of people were told they were doing the right thing, the clean thing, the environmentally friendly thing, by buying a diesel.

I presume he made a stand against the current taxation system when it was introduced?

[hedgefinder]

if some kind of scrappage scheme - diesels for electric it would surely make more sense... pretty sure the wife would be interested too..

[tenpenceshort]

hedgefinder said:

if some kind of scrappage scheme - diesels for electric it would surely make more sense... pretty sure the wife would be interested too..

I don't think they'll take your wife.

[thatdude]

hedgefinder said:

if some kind of scrappage scheme - diesels for electric it would surely make more sense... pretty sure the wife would be interested too..

This could work; most commutes around london are mo greater than 15 miles either way I should think, so most electric cars would cover a few days of running.

There needs to be a better charging infrastructure...perhaps workplaces can have incentives to place charge points etc?

[skyrover]

This is what happens when you let idiotic, idealist politicians make decisions based on unsound science, while ignoring the engineers who actually know what they are talking about.

The American's never allowed most diesel car's for this exact damn reason.

Thankfully they never fell for the bullst Co2 nonsense and regulated the real pollutants, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and particulate matter.

Edited by skyrover on Thursday 11th September 08:31

[robinessex]

I bet if the entire country swoped to electric cars overnight, the government would soon put an extra tax on the electricity to charge them up

[silverback mike]

I remember lpg being dirt cheap, that's creeping up as well...

[Fastdruid]

robinessex said:

I bet if the entire country swoped to electric cars overnight, the grid would collapse under the load and the government would soon put a punitive extra tax on the electricity to charge them up

FTFU.

In all seriousness I can see smart controlled chargers and wildly differing tariffs being mandatory if electric cars really take off as we wouldn't have the capacity to charge them all at peak times.

[Blib]

robinessex said:

I bet if the entire country swoped to electric cars overnight, the government would soon put an extra tax on the electricity to charge them up

They're already on it.

[Riley Blue]

I'm ahead of the game, I changed my A4 TDI for an A8 4.2 petrol

BTW if you think we're swamped by dirty diesels here, I was sipping a nice cold beer at a roadside cafe in France last Sunday, I'd say 8 out of 10 cars that went past were diesel powered.

Edited by Riley Blue on Thursday 11th September 11:20

[JDMDrifter]

So to be better for the environment we've so far tried:

• Taxing higher emission cars
• Incentivising selling old cars for a new one
• Told everyone diesels are the best for the environment

So the next step must be:

• Tell everyone diesels are bad for the environment
• Incentivise people out of diesels and back into petrol

Are we going backwards? If so i'll take the incentive, buy an LS400 and will be hailed for saving the environment!

[Baryonyx]

I would welcome any step that will reduce the number of diesels on our roads or make life more difficult for diesel owners. People should be encouraged towards petrol, hybrid and electric cars.

[Rich Boy Spanner]

I imagine there aren't many private cars in London that emit the same levels of particulates that most of the black cabs do. We also seem to be one of the few 'advanced' economies that doesn't use gas powered buses.

The government popularised diesel through the use of high fuel taxes. If we had US (or anywhere even close)petrol prices the take-up of those early, slow diesels would have been tiny and we wouldn't be where we are now.

Instead the government pushed C02, and public transport - on filthy, black cloud emitting buses. You could argue the point that the government policy of pushing diesel and ignoring the emissions has caused premature deaths.

My company car policy limits all cars to below 130 grams per kilometer of C02. Until very recently there were hardly any petrol cars that could do that, and now still not many that are realistic 35,000 mile a year motorway munchers - and the personal company car taxation is again based on..... Co2, and most (apparently) new cars are bought as company cars...

I did try a Prius for 9 months. Great town car, awful noisy uncivilised thing on the motorway. And apparently hybrid battery production is also bad for the environment. So, the only seemingly realistic option, petrol cars, is unviable because the government fuel tax has taxed them out of reach - unless you drive so few miles you most probably don't even need a car.

No point blaming the owners/users, diesel cars were bought within the choices people were given by government taxation policy. I'd have loved a nice quiet petrol car - the fuel bills would nearly double for a private car, and my company car tax would rocket - if I could have even got one below the company stated Co2 limit.

Edited by Rich Boy Spanner on Thursday 11th September 10:35

Edited by Rich Boy Spanner on Thursday 11th September 10:39

[FiF]

JDMDrifter said:

So to be better for the environment we've so far tried:

• Taxing higher emission cars
• Incentivising selling old cars for a new one
• Told everyone diesels are the best for the environment

So the next step must be:

• Tell everyone diesels are bad for the environment
• Incentivise people out of diesels and back into petrol

Are we going backwards? If so i'll take the incentive, buy an LS400 and will be hailed for saving the environment!

The other thing that pisses me off about this is the way they impose the taxes.

First stage impose extra tax to influence behaviour. They might try and pass it off as a discount but in reality it is just a slightly smaller tax increase.

Second stage. Oh we got that wrong we need to discourage that behaviour and do an about face. Do not simply alter the theoretical discount across so it's sort of tax neutral but leave the higher tax on the previously discouraged option and ramp up the tax on the previously cheaper option to make that even more expensive.

Third stage. Oh st.technology has moved on and people are now finding a really low tax option practical. Bugger that we'll have to tax them.

Now about that moat and duck house.

[anonymous-user]

Baryonyx said:

I would welcome any step that will reduce the number of diesels on our roads or make life more difficult for diesel owners. People should be encouraged towards petrol, hybrid and electric cars.

What a happy chap. Perhaps when electric cars have evolved sufficiently they will be a viable option. Careful buying into the party line, it'll be whatever the masses drive that gets taxed to oblivion.

[Devil2575]

With these feet said:

"Given £1000 to £2000 to scrap their diesel".

So that would be the premium paid over the petrol variant......

Getting rid of all the Buses and taxi's then Boris?

Did we actually read the article?

Giving evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee of MPs, he said the Government should help tackle local pollution hot spots and fund a transition to zero-emission buses and taxis.