Wide-ranging environmental metrics covering manufacturing in the government’s new Electric Car Grant could provide a pointer to the future of fleet taxation, says FleetCheck.

Peter Golding, CEO at the fleet software specialist, believes this is probably the first time such a comprehensive set of sustainability measurements has been applied to any government initiative of this type.

“Current taxation intended to encourage cleaner vehicle use – such as benefit in kind for company car drivers and road fund licence – is based around the CO2 output of the vehicle at the tailpipe. It’s quite a blunt instrument and what the government is applying here appears to be much more subtle.

“It is a development that might potentially provide an insight into current government thinking. There could be some awareness and concern about the higher manufacturing impact of EVs and a determination to reward cleaner processes.

“While we are claiming no particular intuition about government strategy, this does seem to us to represent something of a shift.”

Peter said any movement along this path was unlikely to occur quickly with the government having already provided benefit in kind taxation tables until the end of the decade based on the current banded CO2 system.

“It may be they are looking ahead to a moment in the medium term when almost all company cars are electric with zero tailpipe emissions. At that point, they may instead want to look at the wider environmental impact of each model, including not just manufacturing but transportation to market, recyclability and more.

“Certainly, this would make sense in terms of encouraging more sustainable behaviour from manufacturers and fleets as the EV revolution progresses.”