Expensive Car Supplement: who pays it and how much
The Expensive Car Supplement (ECS) is an extra annual VED charge — currently £440 — on top of the standard rate, for cars with an original list price over £50,000. It runs for 5 years from the start of the car’s second licence, capped at no more than 6 years from first registration.
Last reviewed: 2026-08-13
Threshold and amount by tax year
| Tax year | List-price threshold | Supplement amount |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-04-01 to 2026-03-31 | £40,000 | £425 |
| 2026-04-01 to 2027-03-31 | £50,000 | £440 |
The threshold applies to a car’s original list price when new (before any discount) — not its current market value.
Who pays it
The Expensive Car Supplement threshold and amount apply regardless of fuel type — the same figures cover petrol, diesel, hybrid and electric cars over the price threshold. 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:
2025/26, list price £40,001
Standard rate £195 + supplement £425 = £620 for that licence year.
2026/27, list price £50,001
Standard rate £200 + supplement £440 = £640 for that licence year.
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.
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.
Find out if your car falls inside the ECS window
Enter a UK registration and its list price to see whether the Expensive Car Supplement applies, and for how long.