How much is road tax for electric cars?
Our guide to electric car road tax – whether you need to pay and how it works
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By Ben Welham
Last updated: 24 March 2025
Electric car road tax
When it comes to getting on the road in a new car, there are a few extra costs you might have to factor in. Alongside insurance and any finance payments, you’ll usually have to pay road tax (Vehicle Excise Duty – or VED) to be able to enjoy your new wheels.
Electric vehicles (EVs) are a great way to skip some of those extra ownership costs.
You’ll get a 100% discount on congestion charges and the Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) until the end of 2025, but will you need to pay for road tax?
Do I pay road tax on an electric car?
As of April 2025, fully electric cars will need to pay road tax.
This means that EVs will pay the current lowest rate of £10 a year for the first year after they're registered, followed by the standard £195 annual rate from then.
For EVs registered between 1 March 2001 and 30 March 2017, you'll be paying £20 car tax per year.
Electric cars will also need to pay the expensive car supplement if they fit the requirement.
This is a £425 extra charge on top of your normal road tax amount for vehicles that cost over £40,000 when brand-new and will need to be paid from the second to the sixth year a car is on the road.
You can learn more in our electric car tax changes guide.
Do hybrid cars need to pay road tax?
Hybrid car owners also need to pay road tax.
It’s not all bad news though. Road tax for cars first registered between 1 March 2001 and 31 March 2017 is based on CO2 emissions.
And since hybrid cars often have lower CO2 outputs, examples from this time period are often eligible for cheaper road tax than a standard petrol or diesel model.
Do I still need to tax my electric car?
Yes, even when EV road tax was free, you still needed to tax the vehicle. You were just getting a 100% discount, which will be removed from 1 April 2025.
Will I need to pay the road tax surcharge on my electric car?
The road tax surcharge, also called the expensive car supplement or luxury car tax, is an extra fee for cars listed at more than £40,000 when new, and it means the owner will need to pay £425 per year on top of their road tax.
You'll need to pay this charge from the second to the sixth years of your car's life – five additional payments in total.
How is road tax (Vehicle Excise Duty) calculated?
Road tax for cars registered between 1 March 2001 and 31 March 2017 is calculated using the tailpipe CO2 emissions, and cars older than that date are taxed based on the size of their engine.
Cars from this time period with zero emissions, such as electric cars, used to get free road tax. From 1 April 2025, that's increasing to £20 per year, but that's still a massive discount compared to the highest band (255+g/km CO2 emissions) at £760.
If you’d like to work out the cost of taxing another new vehicle, you can use the calculator on the official government website.
How much is road tax on an electric car?
Now road tax is no longer free for electric cars, you'll need to work out how much it will actually cost.
EVs registered after 1 April 2025 will pay £10 for their first year road tax, then £195 for the years after that.
Or, you'll pay £20 per year if your EV was registered within the 2001 to 2017 cut-off.
New electric cars registered after 1 April 2025 will also be subject to the expensive car supplement. This means you'll need to pay that extra road tax cost on cars over £40,000.