Best route to electric car?

[Maslins]

A friend of mine told me this about the Tesla he bought as one of his cars:
"If you own a company you get 100% tax write down in the first year and 100% vat on your first return, takes the model 3 £50k car down to about £30k, a bargain"

I haven't looked into it myself but I have no reason to doubt him, he's very crafty and is always spotting ways of making and saving money - probably why he's much richer than me!

Unless he's a taxi driver/similar, then he can't reclaim VAT on the purchase of a car. Yes he'll get 100% write down for CT purposes, which is great, but it does in turn mean if/when he sells it, his company suffers CT on whatever it's sold for.

[northernladuk]

Unless he's a taxi driver/similar, then he can't reclaim VAT on the purchase of a car. Yes he'll get 100% write down for CT purposes, which is great, but it does in turn mean if/when he sells it, his company suffers CT on whatever it's sold for.

And I'll bet every penny I've got he'll still be claiming the VAT and has no intention of telling the company about the sale (it's written off after three years so worth nothing to the company brigade?) which is where he 'cleverly saves' his money. Yeah, really clever all that is

[Snooky]

Unless he's a taxi driver/similar, then he can't reclaim VAT on the purchase of a car. Yes he'll get 100% write down for CT purposes, which is great, but it does in turn mean if/when he sells it, his company suffers CT on whatever it's sold for.

Yeah, I should probably have mentioned he's not a contractor, he runs/owns a reasonable size company and he bought it as a pool car for his staff to drive to clients, so it's a genuine company asset/tool rather than just his plaything. He's by far the richest person I know so I have no doubt he has a great accountant who's pointed him in the right direction

[northernladuk]

Yeah, I should probably have mentioned he's not a contractor, he runs/owns a reasonable size company and he bought it as a pool car for his staff to drive to clients, so it's a genuine company asset/tool rather than just his plaything. He's by far the richest person I know so I have no doubt he has a great accountant who's pointed him in the right direction

Probably had because that's completely different to 'Tesla he bought as one of his cars' and nothing like our situations. I still doubt he's bought a 50k tesla as a pool car and I'll bet he doesn't have a great accountant. A great accountant will have him working bang to rights. He's probably got a 'creative' accountant. The guy that had the Cayman got it on advice from his accountant who, rather than tell him what he should be doing to keep to the letter of the law, was telling him what he could get away with.

[lecyclist]

If you ignore the shortage of high-speed chargers (that can only be resolved by significant investments in public infrastructure - I've seen the data from the CPOs), then the financials being described here makes EVs worth considering. Even "vampire leakage" (losing charge of between 1 mile/ 1% per day when not in use, if the data is accurate) seems reasonable for occasional drivers, compared to older battery technology. https://teslaowners.org.uk/kb/reduce...e-tesla-parked

[TheDogsNads]

If you ignore the shortage of high-speed chargers (that can only be resolved by significant investments in public infrastructure - I've seen the data from the CPOs), then the financials being described here makes EVs worth considering. Even "vampire leakage" (losing charge of between 1 mile/ 1% per day when not in use, if the data is accurate) seems reasonable for occasional drivers, compared to older battery technology. https://teslaowners.org.uk/kb/reduce...e-tesla-parked

All rechargable batteries lose charge when not in use. Even non rechargable batteries lose charge. Manufacturers have to 'top up' lead acid batteries every so often to stop them flattening before fitting to vehicles. The reason EV batteries lose charge when not used is because the packs have such large capacity, a small loss is more noticable than say on your 500mah phone battery. it still happens but is tiny in comparison.

Hydrogen for cars is a non starter even if Toyota, whoever, may have a demo vehicle up and running. And if you think EV batteries are dangerous and a potential fire hazard, wait until you have a hydrogen 'bomb' pressurised to around 700psi in a full fuel tank \ cell. Hydrogen is biglumbering vehicles such as HGVs and trains has more legs because of the way it's stored and is more suitable to giving up it's energy at a consistent rate, not the stop \ start sudden squirt on the loud pedal car and van drivers are used to. in any event, extracting hydrogen and compressing it into a form to fuel vehicles isnt yet a free, get out of jail process.

EVs currently attract a favourable BIK but the Treasury's plans are to phase this out. It was proposed to increase to 4 or 5% a few years back but 'dishy' Rishi decided to postpone that. With the Government looking to rake in revenue to cover some of the pandemic's cost, it is debatable whether EVs will retain their tax efficiency for much longer.

[Paralytic]

With the Government looking to rake in revenue to cover some of the pandemic's cost, it is debatable whether EVs will retain their tax efficiency for much longer.

Even without the need to recover the pandemic handouts, anyone who thought that EVs would retain a relatively low tax burden over the coming years, as PE car sales/usage reduce, is extremely naive.

[Fraidycat]

Even without the need to recover the pandemic handouts, anyone who thought that EVs would retain a relatively low tax burden over the coming years, as PE car sales/usage reduce, is extremely naive.

It is obviously an incentive. They want the vast majority of new sales to be EV before the 2030 ban on PEs. Otherwise they will have to delay to it. Once enough people go EV they don't need to offer the incentive anymore. I don't think anyone is expecting this to be permanent.

[WTFH]

Hydrogen for cars is a non starter even if Toyota, whoever, may have a demo vehicle up and running. And if you think EV batteries are dangerous and a potential fire hazard, wait until you have a hydrogen 'bomb' pressurised to around 700psi in a full fuel tank \ cell. Hydrogen is biglumbering vehicles such as HGVs and trains has more legs because of the way it's stored and is more suitable to giving up it's energy at a consistent rate, not the stop \ start sudden squirt on the loud pedal car and van drivers are used to. in any event, extracting hydrogen and compressing it into a form to fuel vehicles isnt yet a free, get out of jail process.

Your source for this?

Perhaps in some backwater areas it's a non-starter, but the "demo vehicle" you refer to has sold around 11,000 units, while the Hyundai Nexo is selling around 8,000 a year.

[Lance]

Your source for this?

Perhaps in some backwater areas it's a non-starter, but the "demo vehicle" you refer to has sold around 11,000 units, while the Hyundai Nexo is selling around 8,000 a year.

I think there is some confusion between a hydrogen fuel cell car (nexo et al) and internal combustion hydrogen (which Toyota have got working as a proof of concept).