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Friedrich Merz to ask for series of exemptions in attempt to protect crisis-hit automotive industry The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, is to urge the EU to soften the 2035 cutoff date for the sale of combustion-engine cars. Merz said he would send a letter to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, on Friday urging Brussels to keep technological options open for carmakers. The sale of new petrol and diesel cars in the EU is scheduled to be banned in a decade’s time . Continue reading...

How will new tax rates and measures affect pensions, savings, car tax and more? We look into some individual queries From new tax rates on savings, to a pay-per-mile scheme for electric vehicles, via changes to pension contribution rules – this week’s budget included measures that will have an impact on household finances. Here are some of the questions people wanted the Guardian to answer after Rachel Reeves sat down: Continue reading...

Businesses grumble about lack of ambition and urgency as Rachel Reeves continues to shy away from meaningful tax reform Where was the applause for the budget from the business world? Well, there was the banking sector, but it was reportedly under strong encouragement from the Treasury to engage in a round of corporate cheerleading after being spared higher levies. Nor should one get carried away by JP Morgan’s coordinated announcement of a new £3bn office in Canary Wharf . Yes, the commitment shows some level of long-term confidence in the UK, but large international banks do not make property decisions on the basis of what they heard one afternoon. In the non-banking business world, the broad day-after reaction to the budget can be summarised as a resigned shrug coupled with amazement that the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, offered so few pro-growth measures even as the Office for Budget Responsibility set out two depressing forecasts. First, that the average growth rate for the economy...

Taxing EVs on the amount of electricity they use is fairer than the per-mile system outlined in the budget, writes Edward Leigh , while David Abrams reckons EV owners are being penalised for trying to do the right thing The announcement in the budget of the introduction of a per-mile tax on electric vehicles is an important start to reforming vehicle taxation to be fairer ( Report, 26 November ). But it is only the first step towards making it an effective tool to reduce traffic congestion and carbon emissions. I provided written and oral evidence to the 2021 Commons transport committee’s inquiry into road pricing and have led a focus group on how it could be made acceptable to the public. Although a per-mile charge is relatively simple to administer, taxes on fuel are fairer because they vary with the weight and efficiency of the vehicle. These are relevant because they determine external costs, such as the rate of road wear, severity of harm caused in collisions, and carbon emissi...

As they struggle with the cost of living, people weigh up whether Rachel Reeves’s measures will help them What the budget means for people on a range of incomes Budget calculator: find out if you are better or worse off For Brett and Maria MacDonald, the cost of living has been biting this year, from rising mortgage payments to childcare fees. Living in London with two young children and no extended family nearby, the pair are juggling work with parenting. Continue reading...

Chancellor says she will not ‘get into semantics’ when questioned on issue after her statement At a glance: the key points from the budget How does freezing income tax thresholds affect you? Paul Nowak , the TUC general secretary, has rejected the concerns raised by the Resolution Foundation (see 9.54am ) about the rise in the minimum wage rates. Asked about the thinktank’s comments, Nowak told Times Radio: I don’t accept those concerns ... First of all, that recommendation is based on the Low Pay Commission, which brings together employers, unions, independent experts, they’re tasked with making a recommendation on the minimum wage, which balances getting money into people’s pockets and the impact on unemployment. Continue reading...

Rishi Sunak’s ‘temporary’ 5p-a-litre cut to be reversed in stages from next September in effort to keep EVs attractive Budget 2025 – live updates Fuel duty will be frozen again, but only for five months until September 2026, the chancellor has announced, as she confirmed a new 3p-a-mile charge for electric cars from 2028. Rachel Reeves will freeze fuel duty in April at 52.95p a litre for petrol and diesel, a 16th successive year without a rise, but the so-called “temporary” 5p cut introduced by Rishi Sunak will be reversed in stages from September. Continue reading...

Industry experts welcome extra incentives but fear a consultation on a mileage tax sends mixed messages Drivers will be able to claim government subsidies to cut the cost of buying a new electric car until 2030 under plans to be announced by Rachel Reeves at next week’s budget. The chancellor will unveil an extra £1.3bn for subsidies for new electric vehicles (EVs) and a further £200m for charging points, as she attempts to prevent the market for clean cars drying up amid concerns about a new pay-per-mile tax . Continue reading...

Need for new road taxes is clear – but there are concerns that pricing plan could stall transition away from petrol Three pence: a small charge per mile for an electric vehicle, but a giant conceptual leap for Britain. Chancellors of the exchequer have long resisted any form of road pricing as politically toxic. That may be about to change next week: Rachel Reeves, perhaps inured to being pilloried for any money-raising proposal, is expected to introduce a charge explicitly linked to how far EVs drive. Continue reading...

Shabana Mahmood reveals plan to revise rules on legal migration, including a 20-year wait to gain permanent residence for migrants on benefits In an interview with ITV, Keir Starmer also defended the decision to delay the publication of the government’s review of educational provision for pupils with special educational needs and disabilties (Send) in England until next year. He said the government needed to take time to get this right. He said: We do need to attend to Send provision. I think uniformly there’s a sense that the system at the moment isn’t working and needs reform. My strong view is we need to get that reform right and therefore we need to take the time to consult with parents and others. These breakfast clubs are a real gamechanger. They’re free and you saw this morning how much the children enjoy them. They’re getting a decent meal, and they’re getting activity, and that sets them up for the day. Continue reading...

Lisa Brankin says new levies could discourage switch to EVs amid reports chancellor mulling pay-per-mile charge Business live – latest updates The boss of Ford UK has warned Rachel Reeves against increasing taxes on electric vehicles in next week’s budget, saying it could discourage drivers from making the switch away from petrol and diesel cars. Lisa Brankin, the managing director of Ford UK, said it was “certainly not the right time” to introduce new levies on EVs, amid reports that the chancellor could implement a new pay-per-mile charge on electric vehicles (EVs) from 2028. Continue reading...

Amazon’s Zoox will give free rides in parts of the city in attempt to counter Waymo’s early lead in self-driving taxis Amazon’s Zoox is launching its robotaxi service in San Francisco, offering free rides through parts of the city as it accelerates its attempt to challenge Waymo’s early lead in the race to transport passengers in self-driving vehicles. The expansion, announced on Tuesday, will be confined to a few major San Francisco neighborhoods and limited to people who signed up on a waiting list to ride in Zoox’s gondola-shaped robotaxis, which have no steering wheel. The San Francisco launch comes less than three months after the Amazon-owned robotaxi company launched its first ride-hailing service along the Las Vegas strip. Continue reading...

Weaning ourselves off gas is the only way to reduce energy bills long term. Cutting support for this is exactly the ‘sticking-plaster politics’ Labour promised to end After years of painfully high energy bills, diminishing household budgets and stalled investment, this year’s budget, on 26 November, should be the moment when the government finally starts to confront why the UK’s energy system is so expensive. And yet, if recent briefings suggesting that Labour will dramatically scale back the heat pump subsidy for households are to be believed, it is now repeating exactly the same mistakes as its predecessors. People want relief from painful energy bills. In the long term, electrification is the only way to provide this. In practice, that means switching from gas boilers to heat pumps, shifting from petrol cars to electric vehicles: boosting access to technologies that are modern, cheaper to run, and are already becoming mainstream. At present, our energy system protects the legacy ...

Electric cars will get a 25% discount and electric vans and HGVs 50% in changes to be introduced in January London’s congestion charge will rise by 20% in January to £18 and electric vehicle drivers will be liable to pay to enter the heart of the capital for the first time. EVs will no longer be exempt from the levy, Transport for London said, but will pay a lower rate. Electric car drivers will get a 25% discount, while electric vans and HGVs will pay 50% of the full charge. Continue reading...

Google subsidiary to offer services on San Francisco, LA and Phoenix freeways as it scales expansion amid competition Alphabet’s Waymo said on Wednesday that it will begin offering robotaxi rides that use freeways across San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix, a first for the Google subsidiary as it steps up expansion amid global and domestic competition in the self-driving industry. Freeway rides will initially be available to early-access users, Waymo said. “When a freeway route is meaningfully faster, they can be matched with a freeway trip, providing quicker, smoother, and more efficient rides,” it said. Continue reading...

Paul F Faupel and Venetia Caine make suggestions about the chancellor’s idea of a pay-per-mile charge on electric cars Rachel Reeves’s proposal to introduce a pay-per-mile tax levy on electric vehicles is idiotic, especially suggesting that hybrid vehicles will have a reduced rate and still pay the usual road tax ( Rachel Reeves considering pay-per-mile tax for electric vehicles in budget, 6 November ). Furthermore, requiring drivers to predict their yearly mileage in advance and then pay or reclaim the difference for actual mileage depending on whether they have underestimated or overestimated it is too cumbersome. If the DVLA is to oversee the collection/repayment system, it will undoubtedly need to recruit more staff or outsource the arrangement, with all the attendant pitfalls that would entail. The fairest way for the taxation of all motorists is to abolish the road tax and introduce a road toll system, as used on the Dartford crossing and the M6 toll road. Automatic number pl...

Chinese search giant Baidu challenges Google’s Waymo’s driverless vehicles and Musk aims for a $1tn pay package Sign up for the TechScape newsletter here Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, writing to you from Barcelona, where my diet has transformed at least half my body into ham. Sam Altman’s bet: can OpenAI’s profits keep pace with industry’s soaring costs? ‘It shows such a laziness’: why I refuse to date someone who uses ChatGPT What we lose when we surrender care to algorithms EU could water down AI Act amid pressure from Trump and big tech Google plans to put datacentres in space to meet demand for AI Continue reading...

Motoring journalist and presenter of the BBC’s Top Gear and Channel 5’s Fifth Gear who became an advocate of electric cars Quentin Willson, who has died aged 68 after suffering from lung cancer, was a secondhand car dealer in business with his twin brother Ashley when he was chosen in 1991 to join the presenting team on BBC television’s motoring magazine show Top Gear as the used-car expert. He was informative and intelligent, with a wry delivery, sardonic smile and scathing comments. While praising the perennially popular MGB sports car for both its road-holding and price-holding abilities, he described Jaguars as “the domain of spivs, crooks and bookmakers” in earlier times. Continue reading...

Installing a dedicated charger is good option – so too is switching to an EV tariff and charging at night or smartly Could leasing a used electric car help you afford one? When you buy an electric vehicle you need to think about how you will charge it at home. The two main things you will need are a charger and a smart meter. Continue reading...

Data from peak motoring body shows battery-electric vehicles accounted for 9.7% of new cars sold in September quarter, the highest proportion on record Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Electric car sales in Australia continue to reach new record levels, according to figures that reveal the market share for internal combustion engine vehicles fell below 70% for the first time. The latest quarterly sales data from peak motoring body the Australian Automobile Association (AAA) shows electric vehicles accounted for 9.7% of new cars sold in the three months to September, the highest proportion on record. Continue reading...

Motoring journalist created and fronted shows including Fifth Gear, Britain’s Worst Driver and The Car’s the Star The former Top Gear presenter Quentin Willson has died after a short illness, his family said on Saturday. He was 68. The television presenter and motoring journalist died “peacefully surrounded by his family”, a statement said. Continue reading...

With more secondhand cars available and salary sacrifice schemes offering extra savings, the lease option is taking off When Anthony Santos was looking for a car to replace his Audi Q3, a diesel SUV, he felt reluctant about making the switch to an electric car. “I was considering it, but I probably wouldn’t have,” says Santos, a sales manager at RWinvest, a property investment company in Liverpool. But when he started looking at his options the ability to lease a used electric vehicle (EV) caught his eye. Continue reading...

Making Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire appears to fit a US investment culture of backing high-flying innovators For all the headlines about an on-off relationship with Donald Trump, baiting liberals and erratic behaviour, Tesla shareholders are loath to part with Elon Musk. Investors in the electric vehicle maker voted on Thursday to put the world’s richest person on the path to become the world’s first trillionaire , despite the controversy that is now seemingly intrinsic to his public profile. Continue reading...

Chinese manufacturers are using the electric transition to seize market share, with the UK as their gateway When Tesla wanted to catch the eye of British buyers, it put its cars and bright signage at a dealership in west London’s prominent Hogarth roundabout. Exposure to half a million drivers every day helped the US carmaker to become the dominant electric vehicle seller in the UK. Yet drivers passing by that site now see something different: twin Chinese brands Omoda and Jaecoo, both owned by the state-controlled manufacturer Chery. Chinese cars are on a roll across Europe – they outsold Korean rivals in western Europe for the first time in September. That success is highly reliant on the UK. Of the half a million Chinese cars sold in western Europe between January and September, 30% were bought by Britons, according to Matthias Schmidt, a Berlin-based automotive analyst. Continue reading...

The issue of how motoring taxes should change as we decarbonise the economy has been dodged for too long. Car salesmen need to get real If you want a document to give you sleepless nights, the Office for Budget Responsibility’s biennial Fiscal Risks and Sustainability report is a go-to publication. This is the one that looks to the horizon and covers everything from demographic trends to state pension promises to the climate crisis. The headline finding in this July’s version was a true jaw-dropper. The UK’s public finances are on an unsustainable long-term trajectory because government debt would rise to a remarkable 270% of GDP by the early 2070s – up from almost 100% today – if current policies were left unchanged. Continue reading...

EV drivers would face 3p-a-mile charge on top of other road taxes to offset falling revenue from petrol and diesel cars Rachel Reeves is drawing up plans for a new pay-per-mile tax for electric vehicles to announce in this month’s budget worth an extra £250 a year on average, according to reports. Under the plans expected to be announced on 26 November, EV drivers would face a new charge of 3p a mile on top of other road taxes to offset falling revenue from petrol and diesel cars as drivers switch to greener options. Continue reading...

KitKat, affectionately known as ‘mayor of 16th Street’, was struck and killed by a Waymo in the city’s Mission District The death of beloved neighborhood cat named KitKat, which was struck and killed by a Waymo in San Francisco’s Mission District last week, is sparking uproar in the city and across the internet. Now local politicians and community leaders are harnessing momentum to put new limits on the fast-spreading autonomous vehicle industry. KitKat was a regular fixture at the deli and liquor store Randa’s Market, and was well known in the neighborhood and on social media . In a recent podcast interview, Daniel Zeidan, part of the family that owns Randa’s, described KitKat as unequivocally adored. Continue reading...

Industry bodies say proposals will force site closures, slow investment and cost drivers up to £300 a year more The UK charging industry has said it could face a £100m bill as the government considers making public charger operators pay business rates for the first time, at a time when slower-than-expected electric car sales have put pressure on the sector. ChargeUK, an industry body, said that its estimates suggest that operators will have to pay business rates on as many as 64,000 parking bays beside chargers which have not, up to now, been liable for the taxes. The lobby group said the change could add as much as £300 to the annual charging bill for some people if the cost is passed on to the customer. Continue reading...