Electric car tax UK: do EVs pay road tax?
Yes. Since 1 April 2025, electric and other zero-emission cars are no longer exempt from Vehicle Excise Duty (VED, commonly called road tax or car tax). How much an EV owner actually pays depends on when the car was first registered — this page breaks down the rules by registration date, with the exact current figures.
Last reviewed: 2026-08-13
When electric car tax started
Before 2025-04-01, zero-emission cars paid no VED at all. From 2025-04-01 (the start of the 2025/26 tax year), that blanket exemption ended. What an EV now pays depends on which of three registration-date bands it falls into.
How much EV road tax costs, by registration date
Registered 2001-03-01 to 2017-03-31
A flat £20 a year, every year — the same figure in the 2025/26 and 2026/27 tax years. The Expensive Car Supplement never applies to this band, regardless of the car’s original list price.
Registered 2017-04-01 to 2025-03-31
The standard rate only — £195 for 2025/26, rising to £200 from 1 April 2026. The Expensive Car Supplement never applies to this band either, however expensive the car was when new.
Registered on or after 2025-04-01 (the current regime)
A first-licence rate of just £10 for the car’s first tax payment, then the standard rate (£195 for 2025/26, £200 from 1 April 2026) from the second licence onward. Cars in this band are also the only ones that can attract the Expensive Car Supplement — see Expensive Car Supplement explained for exactly when that applies.
First-year rate vs standard rate
For an EV registered on or after 2025-04-01, the first-licence rate (£10) only applies to the car’s very first tax payment, taken out at the point of registration. Every licence after that — the car’s “second licence” onward — is charged at the standard rate instead, which is significantly higher. This first-year/standard-rate split mirrors the structure used for petrol, diesel and hybrid cars, where a CO2-banded first-year rate is also followed by a flat standard rate from year two; 73 Auto’s calculator does not currently return the exact CO2-banded first-year figure for non-electric cars, so for that figure see GOV.UK’s official vehicle tax rate tables.
Who pays what
The person or organisation that holds the vehicle’s tax at any given time pays whatever rate applies to that licence period — there is no separate “EV owner discount” beyond the rates above. A private buyer, a company car driver and a lease company are all charged on exactly the same registration-date and licence-number basis. For the exact figure on a specific car — including whether it falls inside an Expensive Car Supplement window — run a real check below rather than relying on a general rule of thumb.
More on UK car tax
- EV road tax 2026/27: what changed on 1 April 2026
- UK VED rates 2026/27
- Expensive Car Supplement explained
For how 73 Auto sources and calculates these figures, see Methodology and Data Sources.
Check the exact EV road tax on your car
Enter a UK registration to see the confirmed VED figure for that specific vehicle, based on its actual first-registration date and licence history.