Tax coming for EV’s

VED, apart from NOT being 'road tax' is completely different from fuel tax as it is based on the car's emissions. Vehicles with lower emissions are taxed at a lower rate. It's meant as an incentive to buy a low emissions vehicle.

I'm not sure where you are getting your figures from, Mamie, because I only pay £26 pa on my car. Whereas the VED on my ancient Land Rover (which we no longer use on the road because of the high VED) was over £200 pa. It was more than the VED on our 7.5 tonne horsebox!

If VEDs are indeed to pay £195 pa then the link between VED rates and emissions must have been severed. Most unfairly IMO.

MaizieD

VED, apart from NOT being 'road tax' is completely different from fuel tax as it is based on the car's emissions. Vehicles with lower emissions are taxed at a lower rate. It's meant as an incentive to buy a low emissions vehicle.

I'm not sure where you are getting your figures from, Mamie, because I only pay £26 pa on my car. Whereas the VED on my ancient Land Rover (which we no longer use on the road because of the high VED) was over £200 pa. It was more than the VED on our 7.5 tonne horsebox!

If VEDs are indeed to pay £195 pa then the link between VED rates and emissions must have been severed. Most unfairly IMO.

www.drive-electric.co.uk/guides/general/understanding-ev-vehicle-excise-duty-or-road-tax/

petra

It was always on the cards that this would happen. They ( that’s any government) have left a decent amount of time before they announced the inevitable.

True. The easy ride so far - no pun intended- was just the sweetener to encourage people to change to EVs, but it was a given that this would not be permanent.

My new last year hybrid costs us £195 VED. Its emissions evidently have nothing to do with the cost. DDs much older car costs £10pa.

Mollygo

My new last year hybrid costs us £195 VED. Its emissions evidently have nothing to do with the cost. DDs much older car costs £10pa.

Mine, which is a bit older than yours, is also £195 pa.

The emissions are very low, according to what it tells me after each journey.

Allira

Mollygo

My new last year hybrid costs us £195 VED. Its emissions evidently have nothing to do with the cost. DDs much older car costs £10pa.

Mine, which is a bit older than yours, is also £195 pa.

The emissions are very low, according to what it tells me after each journey.

That's what I was querying. A measure, VED, based on emissions to encourage people to buy low emissions cars has been divorced from its purpose by applying it at a high rate to cars with minimal emissions. It doesn't make sense.

Maybe it’s acknowledging the wear and tear on roads caused by all vehicles.
VED isn’t specifically used for road maintenance as we well know.
It is spread thinly across

Public Services: Essential services like healthcare (NHS), education, and law enforcement.
Infrastructure Development:
A portion of government spending, which VED contributes to, supports major transport infrastructure projects, including new roads, smart motorways, and railway improvements.
And, looking at the state of the roads near us, even more thinly on
Local Projects: Funds are allocated to local councils for a variety of local services, including road resurfacing, pothole repairs, and maintaining public parks and street lighting.

“That's what I was querying. A measure, VED, based on emissions to encourage people to buy low emissions cars has been divorced from its purpose by applying it at a high rate to cars with minimal emissions. It doesn't make sense.”

The government has to make up for the fuel tax lost, it’s one way of doing that, collects it with annual taxation is an efficient way to do it
So there is an element of emissions plus luxury car tax, plus milage charge, if you buy a petrol or diesel car of equivalent performance the taxation is much higher.

Maybe it’s acknowledging the wear and tear on roads caused by all vehicles.
VED isn’t specifically used for road maintenance as we well know.

Yes, all vehicles cause erosion of road services.
We'd have the best roads in Europe if all the VED was spent on the roads.

Lorries cause a huge amount of damage compared to cars. Which was one reason for HS2.

“A single heavy goods vehicle (HGV) can do tens of thousands of times more damage to a road than a car. This is because road damage is proportional to the fourth power of the axle weight; an increase in weight causes a disproportionately larger amount of damage. For example, a standard 44-tonne HGV can do over 136,000 times more damage than a car like a Ford Focus”.

Calendargirl

Martin Lewis did a budget special tonight, he said he has no idea how the government are going to implement this, and neither do they (still a work in progress)!

He often doesn't.

Jane43 (Thu 27-Nov-25 20:29:38) and Mamie (Fri 28-Nov-25 04:19:14) seem to see a more positive way forward.

Astitchintime

It would be far simpler to tax ALL vehicles regardless. They all cause wear to the roads after all.

I’d like to see double road tax for the enormous cars like tanks, which must cause more wear and tear on the roads.
There are a lot of them around here.

Witzend VED is already more expensive for bigger cars. DH has a 4 wheel drive beast he pays £760 a year.

GrannyGravy13

Witzend VED is already more expensive for bigger cars. DH has a 4 wheel drive beast he pays £760 a year.

Same here DH has a F pace which has a VED of around £650 a year but quite frankly a small car would be of no use whatsoever he is well over 6ft with legs that really don’t bend as well as they used to.
My son has a huge Ford Ranger that is massive but he uses it for work where a small car really would not work.
And quite frankly the roads around here are appalling even the A road is falling apart as is pretty unsafe to drive on

rosie1959
And quite frankly the roads around here are appalling even the A road is falling apart as is pretty unsafe to drive on.

True for many places. The road I drive along to get to work, which is also a bus route is a mass of potholes. Cars swerve to avoid them. Dangerous, additionally since this road passes two school entrances.

With the state of the roads it would make sense to anyone, except the government, to use more of the VED gained from vehicles, to repair the damage caused by vehicles.
Cynically I suspect that if that was ever to happen, the roads in London would be the first to benefit.

rosie59, I drove a mini countryman hybrid. My husband was 6’ 6” and travelled comfortably in it.
I’d have bought a mini but need a big boot for my dogs. I agree with you about the state of our roads, like everything else I need of investment

Whichever government we had was always going to tax ev and hybrids.

DH has a medium sized, very popular make of car.

It's fine in the front but the back is not at all suitable for adults, especially those with even slight mobility problems, to get in or out, as I found myself recently!

Iam64

rosie59, I drove a mini countryman hybrid. My husband was 6’ 6” and travelled comfortably in it.
I’d have bought a mini but need a big boot for my dogs. I agree with you about the state of our roads, like everything else I need of investment

Whichever government we had was always going to tax ev and hybrids.

My DH also had a mini but he was a teenager then now at 67 with chronic lymphadema in his legs i can guarantee he would no longer be able to get in one and if he did he wouldn't get out !
I think he now prefers his present car he won't admit it but he is a bit of a car snob wouldn't entertain the electric version.

Our family regularly drive abroad for several hundreds of miles at a time as part of their annual holiday plus visiting relatives who live abroad. How will that mileage be calculated. It is the worst plan I have seen for taxing cars.

Absolutely. No need for a whole new office of civil servants to monitor this either . all cars pay a new rate of annual road tax to replace fuel duty on petrol and diesel.simple to administer.

Why don’t they think things through before making great announcements. At the moment it sounds as the administration of the scheme is going to cost more than they collect (as usual). Why didn’t they just charge car tax on evs. So much simpler.
If it is going to be that complicated my ev will not be renewed and I will go back to petrol. So much for net zero.

A vehicle excise duty would seem simpler to administer. How they would collet on the "pay per mile" system on a car like ours is difficult to imagine. We bought a new car (not EV) in April and have just clocked up 2000 miles last week.

Just a way to enforce black boxes.

If you drive for business and clock up a lot of miles it will cost you a fair bit probably more than normal road tax.