@GRiLL@ - Your clearly playing devils advocate here. You say -
"I don't really see why they would start taxing us. Yes Fuel Duty is a massive influence on the cost of petrol, but even still it only contributes 3% to the total tax revenue of the country. This new proposed tax on companies like Google, Amazon should cover at least half of that".
Really? - Of course the government is going to introduce some tax measures to recover what they loose as the switch to BEVs impact on tax revenues, The massive tax on Petrol/Diesel will diminish substantially as BEVs gain ground - especially as we near the 2030 no new ICE vehicles to be sold date.
It matters not what the overall percentage is that fuel duty generates as overall tax revenue or where you see future tax changes that you feel will plug the gap (Amazon/Google etc) All governments like to generate Tax irrespective of need - they can always justify some expense, they particularly like the secret backdoor methods to generate tax - those stealth methods - its about greed not necessity.
You also have to add the VED aspect - or lack of for BEVs and the substantially reduced servicing requirements of BEVs - Petrol stations and garages have staff, staff have wages, wages get taxed - remove the stations/garages and tax generation reduces, replace filling stations with charging stations and hey presto - no staff needed at all on site.
Charging at home with just 5% tax on energy is unsustainable - all those cheap overnight rates will be phased out, additional taxes will be applied to energy companies, those who have Solar and storage batteries at home effectively charge at nil cost - so absolutely nothing to the chancellor and that wont be tolerated. Just look at the roll out of Smart Meters - what do you think is the reason the government are pushing this forward - Its not to be nice to people by letting them see instantly there energy use and costs, The save absolutely nothing - except for the energy companies who no longer need meter readers (and as readers go there's another stream of tax up the swanney) The whole point of Smart Meters is so when the majority have them variable charging rates can be introduced - so peak demand will see the price per KWhr increase - BEVs predominantly will charge overnight so energy demand will influence the price per KWhr overnight, and no way is the chancellor going to miss out on on the prospect of raising a bit more tax.
Just look at the London congestion charge - Nil for BEVs - as BEVs increased they introduced the £10 annual registration, BIK - being phased out - the government are like Tesco - Every little helps - so if you think they are going to miss an opportunity to replace fuel duty loss then you live in a different world to me. The government look at the long term - they have teams of clever people - you know the university graduates (and obviously relatives of ministers) working on that long term strategy with the aim of extracting tax from people and businesses and so much better if they can do it in a way most of us will never notice - in short they would Tax air if they could get away with it.
You also say
"Fuel tax is like tobacco and Alcohol tax, intended to discourage bad things, not really to generate revenue"
I disagree on this one too - No tax is introduced for the good of the nation, If that was true then simply ban Tobacco and Alcohol - solves the the bad things completely, Whenever the chancellor increases tax on Tobacco, Fuel and Alcohol He/She always state what the anticipated increase will be in revenue generation - therefore there is an assumption demand will not reduce - so where is the discouragement?
To be honest - Let the smokers smoke - the drinkers drink - if these things are that bad then these people will die earlier - and that is an advantage - No pension to pay them, If they were working it creates a vacancy for someone else to pay tax, The funeral services will have plenty of work - and paying taxes.
Everything depends on everything - a sort of balance - and applying that logically that includes tax losses from ICE vehicles being phased out - the tax needs to be replaced - and as sure as eggs is eggs that will happen.
My M3P costs virtually nothing to run, I have Solar and storage batteries - I get the FIT payments for 20 years, the house runs on free electricity for 10 months of the year
the FIT payments more than cover the costs of the other two months of the year when generation is less than consumption - last months electricity bill was £7.20 - most of that charge was the daily charges, The FIT payments were £38.02. So I'm well in profit. When the sun shines by lunchtime the home batteries are at 100% SOC (which runs the house for free for at least 24 hrs)- then i divert the energy to the car which is free of VED and no servicing requirements, I try to export as little energy as i can - but still get paid for 50% of generation as deemed export to the grid and another payment for 100% of the generation just for having Solar.
Prior to Solar and the Tesla my 911 consumed £80 a week in fuel, VED was £550 per annum, Servicing was £600 per year - so just using my figures the government has lost a substantial amount of tax - Its inconceivable this is sustainable, as we move forwards, Tax rules will change, new methods to generate have to be introduced. Its common sense.
