Road - Another dud cell

Just when new electric car prices are starting to fall and the used electric car market shows a glimmer of light, another threat to this new Government-led ICE car replacement initiative comes charging over the horizon.

The Government has already announced that from next April electric and low emission vehicles will be taxed in line with current DVLA guidelines. That means free road tax is going the same way as free public chargers. So much for cheaper ‘green’ motoring.

And there’s more – possibly. According to a survey carried out by Startline Motor Finance there are indications that some companies are considering ‘dynamic pricing’ for public car chargers.

Remember the furore over the Oasis re-union gigs? The more people who tried to buy tickets the more and quicker the price went up. Instead of hundreds of pounds the ‘official’ ticket sellers were able to charge thousands! Capitalism at its finest, eh?  And what was behind the scheme? Bland claims about ‘the market decides’ were just a pathetic excuse to try and hide the real reason – sheer bluidy greed.

Well, it looks as though the ‘dynamic pricing’ formula is not dead yet. If Startline’s survey results are any indication they could be coming to a charger near you. Not surprisingly, over half the folk who responded thought it was a bad idea, but giving hope to the greedy pocket plunderers, almost a quarter of respondents though it would be a good idea as they would be able to charge their vehicles when the dynamic pricing was at its cheapest.

Great in theory but how does the average motorist know which public chargers are operating at which pricing structure and then how do they know if there won’t be a queue, or the price has already risen, by the time they get there?

Folk who have home chargers and the ability to plug in at their place of work won’t be affected but for everyone else, where’s the protection?

We have been continually promised cheaper electricity by successive governments both up here and down there. Huge claims have been made about investment in ‘renewables’ and huge generating figures have been claimed for wind and solar power, so the simple, question is – when will we see the benefit?

Methinks all this increased power output is being used to heat up the ‘hot air’ which is being expelled by those who sit in the seats of political ‘leadership’ and the boardrooms of the power generating companies.

We can’t win, can we? Bah, humbug!