If you bought an electric car before April 2025, you’ve never paid Vehicle Excise Duty (VED, or road tax). That exemption ended on 1 April 2025, and from April 2026 onwards, you’ll be paying the same rates as everyone else. Here’s exactly what you’ll owe, how the system works, and where most people trip up when calculating their bill.
The Basic Rates: What Most EV Drivers Will Pay
From April 2026, if you registered your electric car before 1 April 2025, you’ll pay the standard rate of £195 per year (about £16 per month). This is the same amount that petrol and diesel drivers pay once their car is more than a year old.
If you registered your EV on or after 1 April 2025, you’ve already been paying VED from year one. Your first year rate was £10, and from the second year onwards, you’ll pay the standard £195 annually.
These figures are based on the 2025/26 tax year rates. VED typically increases each April in line with the Retail Price Index, so expect your actual bill to be slightly higher in future years.
The £40,000 Supplement: Where It Gets Expensive
\p>This is where many EV buyers get caught out. If your car had an original list price of more than £40,000 when new, you’ll pay an additional £425 per year on top of the standard rate. That’s a total of £620 annually (about £52 per month) for five years, starting from the second time the vehicle is taxed.
The supplement applies from the second year of registration until the vehicle is six years old. After that, you drop back to the standard £195 rate.
Let’s say you bought a Tesla Model Y Long Range in 2024 with a list price of £51,990. You paid nothing in road tax until April 2025, when you started paying the standard rate. From April 2026, you’ll pay £620 per year until the car turns six years old, then £195 thereafter.
What Counts as the List Price?
\p>The critical figure is the published list price when the car was first registered in the UK, including VAT and any factory-fitted options. It doesn’t matter what you actually paid. If you negotiated a £5,000 discount on a £42,000 car, you’re still over the threshold.
Dealer-fitted accessories added after registration don’t count. So if you bought a £39,500 car and then added a £1,000 tow bar at the dealership as a separate transaction, you’d stay under the limit. But if that tow bar was fitted at the factory and included in the original invoice, it pushes you over.
Worked Examples for Different Scenarios
Here’s what you’ll pay depending on when you bought your EV and what it cost:
Nissan Leaf (£32,000 list price, registered March 2023):
April 2023 to March 2025: £0
April 2025 to March 2026: £0 (still in transition year)
April 2026 onwards: £195 per year
MG4 Trophy (£38,495 list price, registered June 2025):
First year (2025/26): £10
April 2026 onwards: £195 per year
Polestar 2 Long Range (£49,950 list price, registered January 2024):
January 2024 to March 2025: £0
April 2025 to March 2026: £0 (still in transition)
April 2026 to March 2030: £620 per year (£195 + £425 supplement)
April 2030 onwards: £195 per year
Common Calculation Mistakes
The most frequent error is assuming the supplement applies immediately. It doesn’t kick in until the second time you tax the vehicle. If you registered your £45,000 EV in January 2025, you paid nothing until April 2025, then £195 for the 2025/26 tax year. The £620 rate only starts in April 2026.
Another mistake is forgetting that the supplement ends after five years of paying it, not when the car turns five years old. Count from the second registration anniversary, not the first.
Some drivers also assume that older EVs registered before a certain date might be permanently exempt. They won’t be. If it’s registered in the UK and it’s an electric car, it follows these rules from April 2025 onwards.
How to Check Your Exact Amount
The most reliable way to check what you’ll owe is to look up your vehicle on the DVLA’s online checker at gov.uk/check-vehicle-tax. You’ll need your registration number. The system will show you the exact amount due and your vehicle’s official list price as recorded by DVLA.
If you think the list price is wrong (this occasionally happens, particularly with imported vehicles or special editions), you’ll need to contact DVLA with evidence of the correct price. The burden of proof is on you, so keep your original purchase invoice.
Your V5C logbook also shows the vehicle’s list price, though this isn’t always printed on older documents. If you’re buying a used EV and it’s borderline on the £40,000 threshold, check before you commit. A car listed at £40,500 will cost you £2,125 more in VED over five years than one at £39,900.