Expensive Car Supplement: who pays it and how much

Threshold and amount by tax year

The threshold applies to a car’s original list price when new (before any discount), not its current market value. 73 Auto’s rate table only carries the 2025/26 figures it has verified, so the 2025/26 petrol, diesel and hybrid threshold is not shown rather than borrowed from another year.

Who pays it

The supplement amount is the same for every fuel type, but the threshold is not. In 2026/27 a petrol, diesel or hybrid car pays it above £40,000; a zero-emission car pays it above £50,000. Zero-emission cars only became liable for it from 2025-04-01, as part of the wider end of EV VED exemption. See Electric car tax. It is never charged on a car’s first licence: only from the second licence onward, and only within the 5-year window described below.

The 5-year window, exactly

The supplement runs for 5 years starting from the date the car’s second vehicle licence takes effect, not from first registration, and not from the car’s first anniversary. Because a first licence can run for as little as 6 months, the second licence (and so the ECS window) can start well before the car turns one year old. As a backstop, the window can never run later than 6 years after first registration, regardless of when the second licence started. In practice this means:

• An early second licence shortens how long the 5-year window can run in total, since the 6-year-from-registration backstop still applies.
• A late second licence (for example after a SORN gap) is still capped at 6 years from first registration; the window cannot be pushed out indefinitely.
• Once a car is on its 6th or later licence year from first registration, ECS stops applying entirely, however expensive it was when new.

Worked examples

Both examples are for an electric car first registered 2025-04-01, taking out its second licence on 1 October 2025 (inside the 5-year ECS window in both tax years):

A list price at or below the threshold in either year pays the standard rate only. See EV road tax 2026/27 for that comparison.

Which models pay it

List prices differ by version and by year, so whether a model pays depends on the exact car. See Expensive Car Supplement by model for how many versions of each model were priced over the threshold, year by year.

More on UK car tax

• Electric car tax: do EVs pay road tax?
• EV road tax 2026/27: what changed on 1 April 2026
• UK VED rates 2026/27

For how 73 Auto sources and calculates these figures, see Methodology and Data Sources. For the VED line inside a full ownership-cost figure, browse real car cost examples, including electric vehicles. For how electric, petrol and diesel ownership costs compare overall, see 73 Auto's electric vs petrol and diesel cost study.