Vehicle tax — also known as Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) — has been a motoring staple since 1920. For years, the calculation was simple: the bigger the engine, the more you paid. Then came the rise of electric vehicles (EVs), zero-emission cars, and low-emission hybrids, and with them came a raft of tax exemptions designed to encourage greener motoring.
But the rules are changing. As of April 2025, the long-standing exemption from VED for electric vehicles ended, bringing EVs into the same vehicle tax framework as petrol and diesel cars. This blog post covers everything you need to know about vehicle tax for electric, zero, and low-emission vehicles in the UK for the 2025–26 tax year and beyond.
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## What Is Vehicle Tax (VED), and How Does It Work?
Vehicle Excise Duty is an annual tax you pay to keep a vehicle registered and legal to drive on UK roads. The amount you pay depends on:
– When the vehicle was first registered – What fuel type it uses – Its CO₂ emissions (g/km) – Its list price (for the expensive car supplement)
The system is divided into three main registration periods, each with its own rules:
1. **Vehicles registered before 1 March 2001** — taxed by engine size (cc) 2. **Vehicles registered between 1 March 2001 and 31 March 2017** — taxed by CO₂ emissions band 3. **Vehicles registered on or after 1 April 2017** — taxed by a flat-rate system with first-year rates based on emissions
For electric and low-emission vehicles, the third category is the most relevant, and it is the system we will focus on here.
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## The End of the EV VED Exemption (April 2025)
Until 31 March 2025, electric vehicles and zero-emission cars were exempt from paying VED. This was a significant financial incentive — saving owners roughly £190 per year compared to a standard petrol or diesel car.
However, from **1 April 2025**, that exemption ended. Electric cars, vans, and motorcycles now pay VED in the same way as their internal combustion engine counterparts. The government’s rationale is straightforward: as EV adoption grows, the tax base for motoring must be broadened to maintain road maintenance funding. With over 1.2 million battery-electric vehicles now on UK roads, continuing the tax exemption indefinitely would represent a growing hole in public finances.
It is worth noting that the end of the exemption was announced in the Autumn Budget 2022 and confirmed in subsequent fiscal events, giving owners and manufacturers several years of notice to prepare.
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## VED Rates for Electric Vehicles Registered After 1 April 2017 (April 2025 – March 2026)
For the most common category — EVs first registered on or after 1 April 2017 — the current rates are as follows:
| Tax Component | Electric Vehicle (Zero Emission) Rate | |—|—| | First-year rate (FYR) | £0 | | Standard annual rate | £195 | | Expensive car supplement (years 2–6) | £390 (if list price > £40,000) | | Total premium (years 2–6) | £585 per year |
Let us break these down in more detail.
### First-Year Rate (FYR)
The good news is that the first-year rate for zero-emission vehicles remains **£0**. This applies to any electric or hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle registered for the first time. So if you buy a brand-new EV today, you will not pay any VED in its first 12 months on the road. This gives new EV buyers a small but welcome reprieve while they adjust to the running costs of their new vehicle.
### Standard Annual Rate
From year two onwards, the standard rate for electric vehicles is **£195** — the same as the standard rate for petrol and diesel cars registered after April 2017. This is a flat-rate band no longer linked to CO₂ output. What this effectively means is that from the two-year mark, an EV owner pays exactly the same in standard VED as someone driving a petrol Ford Fiesta or a diesel Volkswagen Golf.
### The Expensive Car Supplement (ECS)
This is where costs can escalate quickly. If your EV had a **list price (including options and delivery fees) of more than £40,000**, you will pay an additional **£390 per year** on top of the standard rate for **years 2 through 6
