When will EVs have to start paying VED?

If you own or have recently purchased an EV, you need to know that as of April 2025 you will need to start paying car tax. Of course, all electric vehicles were exempt because of their lack of emissions, but this is due to change once the new tax year begins. Your car tax goes towards maintaining and improving the infrastructure of the roads, like fixing potholes or creating new road layouts.

How much VED will I need to pay on a new electric car?

If you buy a brand-new EV on or after April 1st 2025, these models will still sit at the lowest first-year VED rate. This currently applies to vehicles with CO2 emissions of 1-50g/km, and amounts to just £10 a year. Although some EV car owners have not had to pay tax, you had to ensure that your car was still taxed by registering it.

What about VED for used electric cars?

You’ll notice the price of VED increases more once this year is over. That’s because the system will move to tax electric vehicles in the same way that petrol and diesel vehicles do currently, with a flat rate of £165 a year. This applies to all EVs registered after April 1, 2017.

For EVs with a list price of more than £40,000 when new, these will be subject to an ‘Expensive Car Supplement’ in the same way as petrol and diesels do. This is an additional £310 charge (on top of the £165 rate), that is paid for the first five years after initial registration, up to when the vehicle is six years old.

Electric cars registered up until the end of March 2017 will be charged in a slightly different way, as are other petrol and diesel models of this age, which was taxation based purely on emissions. So EVs will move from VED band A to B, and will pay £20 a year. This is still significantly cheaper than for those who own an ICE vehicle!

Swansway Blog - Electric Vehicle Costs

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Electric cars to pay VED from 2025: What you need to know