{"id":572301,"date":"2025-11-15T15:51:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T15:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/572301\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T15:51:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T15:51:13","slug":"sadiq-khan-must-hate-cars-his-latest-tax-makes-zero-sense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/572301\/","title":{"rendered":"Sadiq Khan must hate cars – his latest tax makes zero sense"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sadiq Khan<\/a> has unleashed his latest attack on drivers – and this one seems to confirm that he really must hate cars. The sudden decision to introduce London<\/a> Congestion Charge fees on electric vehicles<\/a> from January 2, 2026 is a baffling one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The London Mayor has been a major advocate for electric cars and, if anything, has encouraged their introduction. In 2019, he announced it was important to \u201creject fossil fuels\u201d and “embrace an electric evolution\u201d. Just earlier this year, he announced he wanted London to be the \u201cworld’s first EV-ready global city\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Transport for London (TfL)<\/a> has invested heavily in EVs under Mayor Khan’s rule as the city prepares for the future. TfL has signed deals with companies such as BP and Zest for the installation of EV chargers with a target of up to 60,000 plugs across all 32 London boroughs by the end of the decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So if EVs are so important to London’s future and Sadiq Khan\u2019s legacy as Mayor, would slapping a daily tax on those drivers<\/a> who have made the leap to battery models be a good idea? Probably not.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ginny Buckley, the chief executive of Electrifying.com<\/a> seems to agree, arguing that the news sends a \u201cconfusing signal\u201d. She explained:\u201cYou can\u2019t champion clean air while penalising the vehicles that deliver it.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the announcement, Mr Khan said: \u201cWe must support Londoners and businesses to use more sustainable travel, so\u202fI’m\u202fpleased that substantial incentives will remain in place for Londoners who switch to cleaner vehicles, as we work to build a greener and better London for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surely, the biggest incentive Mr Khan could have given was to keep the rates free for electric cars at such a crucial stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT)<\/a> shows that 386,244 battery electric models have been sold so far in 2025, a 29.9% increase on 2024.\u00a0These are impressive numbers and a major boost on where these figures were a few years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, new electric car sales are still dwarfed by petrol models with 814,154 combustion models sold over the first 10 months of the year.<\/p>\n

Second-hand sales are also on the up with 80,614 battery electric models swapping hands in Q3, a 44.4% rise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s amazing progress, but it’s easy to forget that used petrol car sales stood at 1,145,148, a 1.9% rise. The reaction hasn\u2019t been good<\/a> for Sadiq Khan. Toby Poston, Chief Executive of the BVRLA,<\/a> stressed that EV adoption was at a \u201cfragile stage\u201d and axing the discount could \u201cstall the transition” and \u201cpush people away\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, electric car firms have also called out the move, rightly concerned over what the fees could do for sales.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Matt Galvin, Managing Director of Polestar UK explained: \u201cWhilst we are pleased to see that the Mayor of London is pushing to reduce inner city emissions, to truly accelerate electric vehicle (EV) adoption, all EVs should be exempt from these charges, and parking discounts in central London must return.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sadiq Khan\u2019s latest tax could be the most damaging yet, and it’s not just Londoners but the whole car industry who could feel the impact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sadiq Khan has unleashed his latest attack on drivers – and this one seems to confirm that he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[51,181583,181584,181586,181585,296,257,14252,181582,90248,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-572301","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-congestion-charge-london","10":"tag-electric-car-congestion-charge","11":"tag-electric-car-costs","12":"tag-electric-car-london","13":"tag-electric-cars","14":"tag-london","15":"tag-sadiq-khan","16":"tag-sadiq-khan-congestion-charge","17":"tag-sadiq-khan-london","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115554515950362595","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}