It is admirable that the country has made good inroads into converting to electric powered cars but there is a sting in the tail to this transition, one that is being ignored.

Latest figures are that there are now 300,000 BEV cars (about 6% of total cars) in the UK. At what cost to the Treasury?

These cars on average were given a grant of £3000 towards the purchase price. They pay no road tax and no fuel duty (which is around 60% of the pump price).

I estimate that so far, based on current figures, the conversion has cost the treasury £1.5 billion and this hole in the country’s budget will grow as more drivers convert from petrol and diesel.

At sometime, sooner rather than later, this deficit will have to be corrected.

The country currently pays interest of £40 billion a year servicing our national debt and cannot continue to support electric conversion without raising the necessary taxes from other sources.

Where will the tax burden fall?

Peter Tarrant

Upwey