Answers · UK 2025/26
How much is road tax on an electric car in 2026/27?
From April 2025 electric cars pay Vehicle Excise Duty like petrol and diesel. For 2026/27 the standard rate is £200 a year. A new EV costing over £50,000 also pays the expensive-car supplement of £440 a year for five years, making the total £640 a year during that period.
Full answer
Electric cars used to be exempt from Vehicle Excise Duty, often called road tax, but that ended in April 2025. For 2026/27 a fully electric car pays the standard VED rate of £200 a year from its second year onwards, the same as most petrol and diesel cars. In the first year, new electric cars pay only the lowest first-year rate rather than the high first-year rates that high-emission petrol and diesel cars face. The bigger cost to watch is the expensive-car supplement. Any car with a list price over a certain threshold pays an extra annual supplement of £440 a year for five years, on top of the standard rate, running from the second year to the sixth. For electric cars the threshold is £50,000, which is higher than the £40,000 threshold that applies to petrol and diesel cars, giving EVs a small concession. So a new electric car costing more than £50,000 would pay £200 plus £440, a total of £640 a year, for those five years, then drop back to £200 a year afterwards. An EV priced under £50,000 simply pays the £200 standard rate. These changes mean the running-cost advantage of an electric car over petrol or diesel has narrowed for tax purposes, although EVs still benefit from much lower benefit-in-kind company car tax and cheaper fuelling. Use a car cost calculator to compare the total annual running costs of an electric car against a petrol equivalent.
Try the calculator
Related guides
More answers
This answer is informational only and does not constitute financial, tax or legal advice. Figures are for the 2025/26 UK tax year. See our methodology and sources.