In message , at 14:09:42 on
Wed, 12 Aug 2009, Recliner remarked:
Nissan's model will include leasing the very expensive battery pack,
which will make the purchase price of the car competitive with
comparable petrol and diesel engined models while still costing at
least 20% less to run.

Assuming the treasury doesn't find a way to tax
electricity-for-motoring at 500% like it does petrol and diesel. I
look forward to fun and games with the Excise turning up to see if
you've illegally topped up your car with "Red electrons".

Even if they fail to do that, I bet the favourable tax treatment of
electric cars won't last long, once they get more popular. And if you
need some sort of special power socket to charge more powerful electric
cars, that would give them to opportunity to insist on a special meter,
so maybe they would be able to tax anyone with an "electron guzzler".

Substantial new infrastructure will be required, so that gives an
opportunity for "special sockets" at home as well as at communal
charging points.

The infrastructure is needed for all those homes where the car isn't
parked in the drive, and for neighbourhoods where the electrical supply
hasn't been sized to allow everyone to draw an extra 100amps
continuously (ie almost all of them).
--
Roland Perry