Car tax
Car tax on an electric car
Checked on 1 April 2026.DVLA, V149: rates of vehicle tax from 1 April 2026 (as of 1 April 2026)
Do electric cars pay road tax?
Yes, since 1 April 2025. A new electric car pays a £10 first year rate and then £200 a year from its second licence. An electric car registered earlier moved straight onto the rate for its own registration period on that date.
Nothing about the charge is electric specific. The exemption was removed rather than replaced with a separate system, so an electric car is now taxed by the same three rules as everything else, decided by the date it was first registered.
What an electric car pays, by registration date
| First registered | First licence | Then, each year | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| On or after 1 April 2025 | £10 | £200 | Plus the supplement if the list price was over £50,000. |
| 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2025 | Paid at the time | £200 | No supplement, whatever the list price was. |
| 1 March 2001 to 31 March 2017 | Paid at the time | £20 | Taxed at the band B rate rather than the standard rate. |
The £50,000 threshold, and what it undid
- The expensive car supplement threshold for zero emission cars rose from £40,000 to £50,000 for any licence taking effect on or after 1 April 2026.
- It applies retrospectively, which is unusual. Most zero emission cars registered from 1 April 2025 are therefore not required to pay the charge at all.
- A zero emission car that took a second licence before 1 April 2026 pays one year of the supplement and nothing after that.
- The £40,000 threshold is unchanged for petrol, diesel, hybrid and plug in hybrid cars.
What about the first year rate on a new electric car?
It is £10, the lowest rate in the table, and it is paid once at first registration. Compared with a 150 g/km petrol car at several hundred pounds, that gap is now the only place CO2 changes what a driver pays in vehicle excise duty.
Common questions
- How much is road tax on an electric car?
- £200 a year, the same as a petrol or diesel car of the same age. A newly registered electric car pays a £10 first year rate, then joins the standard rate from its second licence like everything else.
- Do older electric cars pay too?
- Yes. An electric car registered before 1 April 2025 was exempt until that date and now pays the standard rate. Cars registered between 2001 and 2017 moved to the band B rate rather than the standard rate, which is a lower figure.
- Does an electric car pay the expensive car supplement?
- Only above £50,000 of list price, and only for licences taking effect from 1 April 2026. The change applies retrospectively, so most zero emission cars registered from April 2025 are not required to pay it at all.
- Is an electric car still cheaper to run overall?
- On tax the gap has closed to nothing. On fuel it has not: charging at a home rate costs a fraction of a petrol equivalent, and a company car driver still pays a fraction of the benefit in kind. The saving moved from the tax disc to the electricity meter.
Sources
- DVLA, V149: rates of vehicle tax from 1 April 2026 (as of 1 April 2026)
- GOV.UK, Budget 2025 overview of tax legislation and rates, Annex A: rates and allowances (as of 1 April 2026)
- GOV.UK, Vehicle tax rate tables (as of 1 April 2026)
- GOV.UK, Increase in the Vehicle Excise Duty Expensive Car Supplement threshold for zero emission cars (as of 1 April 2026)
- GOV.UK, Vehicle tax for electric, zero and low emission vehicles (as of 1 April 2026)
- GOV.UK, Pay your vehicle tax by Direct Debit (as of 1 April 2026)
- legislation.gov.uk, Finance Act 2025 section 66: rates of vehicle excise duty, omitting the reduced rate for alternative fuel vehicles (as of 1 April 2025)