I hate

I could live with that

I'll look that up, I'm completely ignorant of the existence of non-private insurance.
I was thinking about it not just in reference to cars, but the concept in general, where it might exist as a purely functional entity rather than a cash cow (which is obviously my possibly ill-informed perception of the private insurance industry)

It's still private, you choose which provider you go through when you pay your registration.

Huge and uncomfortable change is required to enable more to not default to car.

Indeed. Things like a functioning public transport system for starters.

I'm in favour of 0-low% VED to nudge consumer behaviour.

As long as there are long protruding German cars, there need to be counter-incentives.

However, I think we've reached a stage in the EV take up where there should be weight cut off. Weight and size also needs to be taken into consideration for VED now as well.

Did a quick Google and an Evoque apparently has a kerb weight of 1,787 to 2,157 kg. Which at the upper end, let's be frank, is ridiculous given their interior space and typical use.

If we limited all cars maximum speeds to 85mph then they could be built in different shapes, with smaller tyres and brakes, fewer gears so lighter gearboxes etc.
we could stop the upward spiral

If they're all electric then they don't need gears, just big ol' batteries.

That’s true but they might have 2 sets of motors, inverters and controllers instead of 1set to be able to go from 0-135 mph smoothly

A Nissan Leaf weighs something like 1,700kg. Battery packs in electric cars can often weigh upwards of half a ton.

Even full battery powered vehicles do have a gear box as current generation electric motors spin at around 18000 rpm.
There is a reduction gear box that transmits power through drive shafts to the wheels.

For some reason the late, great Mike Burrows immediately springs to mind

True.

But a Taycan is 2,140–2,305 kg and a Discovery is 2,417 - 2,437 kg.

In both cases cars with that sort of weight that aren't benefiting society by moving goods around should have to pay a fairer share of the disproportionate damage they do to the roads.

Agreed, but we're going to see more and more of it with electric cars. More road wear, more non-engine emissions, more momentum when hitting people.

A Leaf is 50% heavier than a Yaris and it's touted as a small city car. There's one of those Fiskers on my street, it's massive and weighs about 2,500kg.

More road wear

Not that I disagree with the point you're making in any way, but even heavier cars cause no more damage to road surfaces than lighter ones. The vast majority of road wear is caused by HGVs.

My EV is showing similar tyre wear to my previous cars a Hybrid and a diesel.
Not sure about brake wear but most braking is Regen braking so it should be minimal.
With Regen braking the Hybrid had 10% brake wear at 40,000 miles.
No oil to change or service costs either.

I've seen a lot of talk of fourth power law and damage that heavier vehicles create

This is an illustration to neatly show how not that big an increase in weight gives a disproportionate amount of damage. Obviously, as you say, HGVs will be magnitudes worse than this

does that include tyre marks from the civics doing donuts in tesco carpark?

That’s just civic duty

Reaches for coat

Civics are front wheel drive, they can’t do donuts.

In reverse though, surely?

I was looking for this, as I was pretty sure that as you went above 2tn there was an exponential rate of damage.

Happy to be proved wrong on this though.

While the vast majority of HGVs aren't proving some sort of life changing humaniarian service, they are usually doing something that has a wider societal benefit and requires a larger weight.

While the vast majority of HGVs aren't proving some sort of life changing humaniarian service, they are usually doing something that has a wider societal benefit and requires a larger weight.

They’re also only allowed to use certain roads due to their weight and don’t have some some stressed-out, raging middle-aged asshole behind the wheel trying to prove they can do 0-60 in 4 seconds all the time.

stressed-out, raging middle-aged asshole behind the wheel trying to prove they can do 0-60 in 4 seconds

Have we met? 😋

don’t have some some stressed-out, raging middle-aged asshole behind the wheel trying to prove they can do 0-60 in 4 seconds all the time

but the driver is likely to be under quite a lot of time pressure to meet certain delivery slots