Overview
- Vehicle Excise Duty changes, which began April 1, lift the standard annual rate for most cars to £200 and raise first-year CO2 bands up to £5,690.
- Owners of higher-value cars face a £440 yearly supplement for five years, with the threshold kept at £40,000 for petrol and diesel but lifted to £50,000 for electric models.
- A new electric vehicle excise duty, due in April 2028, will charge 3p per mile for battery-electric cars and 1.5p for plug-in hybrids, which would add about £300 a year at 10,000 miles.
- The BVRLA says the pay-per-mile system would cost fleets about £260 million a year by 2028 in admin and downtime, and calls the approach hostile to businesses.
- EV groups urge a redesign to protect lower-income drivers and those without driveways, as a petition to cut tax on 20–39-year-old cars nears 50,000 signatures and older high-emission bands rise to as much as £790.