I used an electric car to drive to my brother’s wedding – and barely made it!

In ‘tom’s guide’ on 10th April 2021, Tom Pritchard wrote a piece about his experience with a Nissan Leaf on a 250 mile round trip for his brother’s wedding. It makes for an eye opening read as he says “Needless to say that car sucked up power like the worst gas-guzzler. And it started pretty much straight away.”

“I picked a service station 74 miles into the journey, and figured half an hour would be more than enough time to give my battery the necessary pick me up. What I didn’t count on was the fact the Leaf’s range estimate doesn’t account for the fact I’d be driving at 70 miles per hour, the speed limit on British motorways.”

“It’s a good thing I’d already planned out my recharge break in advance, because that battery hit the 20% mark a couple of minutes before I reached the station. My car claimed that would only have taken me an extra 33 miles, though I imagine it would have been less considering how my power reserves had been depleting.”

Going electric sounds more like going out of business to me??

You can read the full article here: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/i-used-an-electric-car-to-drive-to-my-brothers-wedding-and-barely-made-it

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Are you ‘Tax Bill Savvy’?

It’s bad enough struggling through the problems the pandemic has brought us, and what a welcome relief the self employed support scheme is (to a point), but don’t forget that HMRC still want their slice of pie in the form of your usual annual tax bill!

It’s all very fine taking the grant monies as available, but are you setting aside what you need to pay your tax bill? Surely this is something you are doing anyway isn’t it? If you don’t know what your expected tax bill is, then give your accountant a right royal kick up the proverbial, or if you do it your self then you should know.

Here is the HMRC self employed tax ready reckoner, it’s pretty accurate and gives you a good idea both weekly and monthly of what your expected bill would be. You can avoid some sleepless nights if you stay on top of this!  

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Car makers warn electric car plans are “far removed from reality”

According to a piece in Auto Express online on 10 Dec 20, “Car makers warn electric car plans are far removed from reality“.

They said that “European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association calculates if EU targets of 30 million EVs by 2030 are to be met, their numbers must rise by almost 5,000%”!

Auto Express reported that “To meet the target, set for just nine years in the future, that those 615,000 EVs rise in number to 30 million, the ACEA highlights that close to a 50-fold increase in numbers would be required. That’s equivalent to a 4,778 per cent rise in the number of electric cars on the road.”

And that “The ACEA also warns that it considers a further three million public chargepoints will be required by 2030 to reach these goals from the 200,000 points that existed in 2019. That means a 15-fold increase is needed to bridge the gap.”

It seems the piece highlights what we are probably all scratching our heads about, and wondering who is going to have to pay for all this?!

Read the full article here…

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Third SEISS Grant now available for Self Employed

You can now claim for your Self Employed third support grant, the system is now live.

So if you have still been adversely effected by the COVID pandemic, then you could well be due another 80% of trading profit equal to the first grant you would have claimed, so get your self logged into HMRC and get claiming – don’t forget though, this is all taxable, so make provision for your tax bills!!

HMRC do a tax forecaster here…

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Manufacturing green vehicles churns out more CO2 than making fuel models

According to the Mail Online “Manufacturing green vehicles churns out more CO2 than making fuel models”!

Mail Online also reported that:

  • Electric cars would have to be driven for 50,000 miles before being as ‘green’
  • Report suggests the green transport revolution could increase emissions 
  • The research threatens to undermine the PM’s plan to achieve net zero emissions by banning sales of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030

And that –

Manufacturing electric vehicles generates 63 per cent more carbon dioxide than making petrol or diesel models, damning research has found.

It means some zero-emission vehicles have to be driven for almost 50,000 miles before they are as ‘green’ as cars powered by fossil fuels.

The revelation threatens to undermine the Prime Minister’s plan to achieve net zero emissions by banning sales of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030.

You can see the full publication here.

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