Motorcycle Road Tax (VED) Rates 2026/27: What Riders Actually Pay

A Simpler, Cheaper Tax System Than Cars

Vehicle Excise Duty for motorcycles, scooters and motor tricycles works on an entirely different logic from the car VED system. Where cars are taxed using a first-year rate based on CO2 emissions, then a flat standard rate of £200 a year from year two, plus a premium supplement of £440 a year for five years on vehicles with a list price above £40,000, motorcycles are taxed purely on engine capacity, in a small number of simple bands that have applied in broadly similar form for years.

This makes motorcycle VED both cheaper and far more predictable than car VED — there's no emissions calculation to navigate, no list-price threshold to worry about, and critically, no equivalent of the car premium supplement, even on high-value machines.

The Engine Size Bands

Motorcycle VED bands run broadly as follows (figures represent the standard annual rate; six-monthly and monthly payment options carry a small surcharge):

• Up to 150cc — the lowest band, covering learner-friendly bikes, small scooters and mopeds.
• 151cc to 400cc — a modest step up, covering many popular commuter and learner-progression bikes.
• 401cc to 600cc — a further increase, covering mid-size sports and naked bikes.
• Over 600cc — the top standard band, covering large-capacity sports bikes, tourers and adventure bikes.

Even at the top band, annual motorcycle VED remains meaningfully below the £200 standard car rate — one of the practical cost advantages that keeps motorcycling attractive for commuters weighing up running costs against a car.

No Premium Supplement for Expensive Bikes

One of the more striking differences from car taxation is the absence of any equivalent to the car premium supplement. A car with a list price above £40,000 pays an extra £440 a year on top of the standard rate for five years from the second year of registration — a substantial additional cost that has increasingly caught mid-range family cars and EVs as prices have risen (the EV threshold for this supplement was raised to £50,000 from April 2026). Motorcycles have no such mechanism, regardless of how expensive the bike. A £30,000 flagship adventure tourer or superbike pays exactly the same VED as a much cheaper bike in the same engine-capacity band.

Electric Motorcycles Since April 2025

Electric vehicles across the board — cars, vans and motorcycles — lost their long-standing VED exemption from April 2025 as part of a wider move to bring EV taxation in line with petrol and diesel vehicles. Electric motorcycles and mopeds registered from that point are now taxed, broadly, similarly to the lowest engine-capacity band for petrol motorcycles, rather than paying nothing as they previously did. This removed one of the smaller financial incentives that had encouraged riders to consider electric motorcycles and scooters, though running cost savings on electricity versus petrol remain a separate and generally larger factor in the electric-versus-petrol motorcycle decision.

Paying Motorcycle VED

As with cars, motorcycle VED can be paid as a single annual payment, a six-monthly payment, or by monthly direct debit, with the more frequent payment options carrying a small percentage surcharge over paying the full year in one go. VED must be kept continuously valid (or the vehicle formally declared off-road with a SORN) — riding without valid tax carries the same enforcement risk, including automatic number plate recognition camera detection, as it does for cars.