Electric car road tax in 2026: what you pay now and the mileage charge coming in 2028

The short answer

For the tax year 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027, an electric car registered on or after 1 April 2017 pays the standard rate of £200 a year, the same as a petrol or diesel car of that age. A brand-new electric car pays £10 for its first year, then £200. An electric car first registered between 2001 and March 2017 pays £20. The figures are on the GOV.UK page for electric and low emission vehicles.

Two things sit on top of that. An electric car registered on or after 1 April 2025 with a list price of more than £50,000 also pays the additional rate, £440 a year for five years. And from 1 April 2028 every electric and plug-in hybrid car will pay a mileage charge, confirmed in the Budget on 28 October 2026: 3p a mile for battery electric cars, 1.5p a mile for plug-in hybrids.

What an electric car pays in 2026/27

Paying monthly by Direct Debit costs a little more: £210 a year at the standard rate, £672 with the additional rate. A single six-month payment is £110, or £352 with the additional rate, according to the GOV.UK rate tables.

The £50,000 rule for used electric cars

The additional rate, often called the expensive car supplement, used to catch any car with a list price over £40,000. For zero-emission cars the threshold rose to £50,000 from 1 April 2026, and GOV.UK says the change applies to most electric cars registered from 1 April 2025, so a used electric car listed between £40,000 and £50,000 should no longer carry it when its tax is next renewed. Petrol, diesel and hybrid cars keep the £40,000 threshold.

Two details matter when buying used. The list price is the published price before the car was first registered and before any discount, so what the first owner actually paid is irrelevant. And an electric car registered before 1 April 2025 never pays the additional rate at all. The DVLA vehicle enquiry service shows the current tax rate for any registration, so you can see what the car in front of you is paying now.

The mileage charge from April 2028

The HMRC policy paper on electric vehicle excise duty, updated on Budget day, sets it out. From 1 April 2028 battery electric, plug-in hybrid and hydrogen cars pay a per-mile charge as an extension of the existing vehicle excise duty system: 3 pence a mile for battery electric and hydrogen cars, 1.5 pence a mile for plug-in hybrids, with the rate rising in line with inflation from 2029 to 2030.

At each renewal the keeper gives an odometer reading and an estimate of the miles they expect to drive in the coming year. They can pay upfront on the estimate or spread the payment across the year, and the next reading triggers a reconciliation. The paper notes that mileage is already collected at every MOT, so for a car that has an MOT there will typically be no extra checks. That makes the MOT history, with its recorded mileage at each test, the record the charge will lean on.

What else changed on Budget day

Two smaller items affect how much an electric car costs to run. From 1 November 2026, electricity bought at public and workplace charge points is treated as not for domestic use for VAT, so it does not get the relief that applies to home electricity. Separately, the Budget extended the temporary 0% VAT rate on domestic electricity until July 2027, and set aside £100 million over two years to reduce the cost of using local, lower-powered public chargers. The detail is in the Budget 2026 document on GOV.UK.

What this does not mean

This article describes the GOV.UK pages as they read on 29 October 2026. Vehicle tax rates change each April and the mileage charge is still seventeen months away; read the official pages before you rely on a figure. Nothing here is tax or financial advice, and this site does not know your car's list price or mileage. To tax a car, use GOV.UK vehicle tax.

Sources and method

This article contains no MOT statistics. Every rate, threshold and date is quoted from the GOV.UK pages listed under Sources as they read on 29 October 2026. The MOT reliance notice below applies to the MOT history this article refers to.

• GOV.UK: Vehicle tax for electric, zero and low emission vehicles
• GOV.UK: Vehicle tax rate tables
• GOV.UK: Expensive car supplement threshold increase for zero emission cars
• GOV.UK: Electric Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED) policy paper
• GOV.UK: VAT on public EV charging
• GOV.UK: Budget 2026 document

This article is general information drawn from published test records. It is not professional, mechanical or legal advice, and an MOT pass or a clean MOT history does not guarantee that a car is roadworthy today. If you are unsure about a car, have it inspected by a qualified mechanic. You can check any vehicle's MOT history free on the official GOV.UK MOT history service.