Motorcycle Road Tax (VED) Inline With Cars?
Doing the rounds again is an e-petition on the HM Government petition website.
The petition is seeking to have motorcycles taxed the same way as cars, on the basis of CO2 emissions measured in grams per kilometre (g/km) driven, rather that the present system based on the cc – engine size.
The petition claims that a Honda VFR makes just 16.5g of CO2 and gives an example of a Toyota Aygo* or Citreon (sic) C1, a tax class B car, pays just £20 a year, producing 139gm of Co2… whereas currently the cost for road tax for a Honda VFR, over 600cc is: £78.00 for 12 months and £42.90 for 6 months.
However according to a September 2008 motorcycle test programme evaluating motorcycle emissions performance, based on the world harmonized World Motorcycle Test Cycle (WMTC) and the Euro 3 Test Cycle the CO 2 test results (g/km) were that a Honda VFR 800 emits:
Euro3 – 158.8
WMTC – 131.9
Therefore a Honda VFR 800 would have to pay, using the current CO2 rates of vehicle tax for already registered cars either:
Band G – CO2 emission (g/km) 151 to 165
12 months – £175.00
6 months – £96.25
Band E – CO2 emission (g/km) 131 to 140
12 months – £125.00
6 months – £68.75
Although some bikes may pay less you need to be careful what you wish for!
Emission testing for motorcycles is not part of our MoT (yet) – extra cost on the MoT.
Emissions banding like cars would probally only be applicable to new vehicles after a certain date – older motorcycles would still be rated on engine size – manufacturers have until 2016 to publish their emmission levels – so that government has the necessary emissions levels, based on type approval regulations, that they could base motorcycle tax on emmissions.
Information Links
More details in our “Motorcycle Emissions – Emissions Based Road Tax Scheme – Why Not?” report from 2009 – Click Here
Read the Right To Ride report from 2009 – pdf 301kb – Click Here
NIdirect government services – The cost of vehicle tax for cars, motorcycles, light goods vehicles and trade licences – Click Here
The epetition on HM Government – Click Here
* According to the manufactures a Toyota Aygo depending on the model and year has emission levels or around 106/104 g/km or 99 g/km thus a driver pays £20 a year for vehicle tax (zero for first year of registration) or pays zero. The Citroen C1 has similar emissions putting it in Band B but not “139gm of Co2” as stated in the petition.
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