The 2024 Budget caused uproar in some quarters, but one announcement that slipped under the radar will shake up the pick-up truck sector.
At the moment, models that can carry more than a tonne in payload are classed as light commercial vehicles for tax purposes. This has seen a boom in double cab models that pile on the luxury, but cost a fraction in company car tax when compared with diesel-powered SUVs. Pick-ups will move to the emissions-based system for passenger cars in the 2025 tax year, so costs will shoot up.
We’ll likely see a rush of sales before the tax year starts in April (trucks bought before the deadline can pay at the current rate for four more years), and then a lull as demand drops.
But then it should pick up again, as the likes of Ford, Isuzu and Toyota come on-stream with their own plug-in pick-ups, be they hybrid, all-electric or even hydrogen-powered.
The one-tonne rule was a quirk of the UK’s taxation system, so don’t expect to see a sudden withdrawal by the class contenders – top-spec versions of the Ford Ranger and Volkswagen Amarok were already outside the realms of the LCV tax requirements anyway, and you still see those on the road – but it will take a little time for the alternative fuels to come on stream.
We’ve already seen the all-electric Isuzu D-Max, though, while the Maxus T90 EV is already sold here, albeit as a rear-wheel-drive machine. The Ford Ranger Hybrid uses existing tech from the Kuga to fast-track its arrival to market, so don’t expect the status quo to be upset greatly by the Budget changes.
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