If you own an electric car registered before April 2025, you’ll start paying Vehicle Excise Duty (VED, or road tax) soon. But there’s widespread confusion about exactly when that first payment is due, and how much you’ll actually pay.
The short version: you won’t pay anything on 1st April 2025. Instead, you’ll start paying from your first renewal date that falls on or after that date. That distinction matters, because it means the timing is different for every single EV owner.
When Your First Payment Is Actually Due
Your VED renewal date is tied to your vehicle’s original registration date, not the calendar year. If your car was first registered on 15th June 2023, your VED renewal date is 15th June every year. You’ll pay your first electric car road tax on 15th June 2025, not in April.
Here’s how this works with real examples:
Car registered 10th March 2024: First VED payment due 10th March 2025 (before April, so no payment yet). Second renewal on 10th March 2026 is when you’ll pay your first road tax.
Car registered 20th May 2024: First renewal is 20th May 2025. This falls after 1st April 2025, so you’ll pay road tax then.
Car registered 5th December 2024: First renewal is 5th December 2025. You’ll pay then.
The key point: if your first renewal after purchase falls before 1st April 2025, you get one more year of free road tax. If it falls after that date, you’ll pay.
What You’ll Actually Pay
For electric cars registered between 1st April 2017 and 31st March 2025, the rates from April 2025 are:
First year (first renewal after 1st April 2025): £10
Subsequent years: £195 per year, or about £16.25 per month
That first year rate is essentially a token amount. It’s from your second payment onwards that you’ll pay the full standard rate of £195 annually. This is the same amount that petrol and diesel car owners pay for vehicles registered after April 2017.
Taking our earlier example of the car registered on 20th May 2024: you’d pay £10 when you tax it on 20th May 2025, then £195 on 20th May 2026, and £195 every year thereafter.
The Expensive Car Supplement
If your EV had a list price over £40,000 when new, you’ll pay an additional £425 per year on top of the standard rate. This “expensive car supplement” applies from the second time you pay road tax, and continues for five years.
Let’s use a Tesla Model Y Long Range as an example, with a list price of around £51,990 at the time of writing. If this car was registered on 1st August 2024, here’s what the owner pays:
1st August 2025 (first payment): £10
1st August 2026 to 1st August 2030 (years 2-6): £620 per year (that’s £195 standard rate plus £425 supplement), or about £51.65 per month
1st August 2031 onwards: £195 per year
That supplement adds up to £2,125 over five years. It’s worth noting that the £40,000 threshold applies to the original list price, including VAT and any factory-fitted options. It doesn’t matter what you actually paid or whether you bought the car second-hand. If it was over £40k when new, the supplement applies.
What This Means For Company Car Drivers
If you drive an electric car through your employer, either as a company car or via salary sacrifice, you won’t personally pay the VED. Your employer pays it, just as they do for petrol or diesel company cars. The Benefit-in-Kind tax rates for EVs remain significantly lower than for combustion engine cars, at 2% for the 2024/25 tax year.
Check Your Renewal Date Now
If you’re not sure when your VED is due, check your vehicle log book (V5C). The date of first registration is in section D. Your renewal date falls on that same date each year. You can also check online at gov.uk/check-vehicle-tax by entering your registration number.
One practical tip: if you’re considering buying a new EV before April 2025 and you’re deciding between models either side of that £40,000 threshold, the expensive car supplement could cost you an extra £2,125 over five years. On a car you’ll keep for that long, it’s worth factoring into your decision, particularly if you’re looking at similar models with different trim levels.