# Pay-per-mile for electric cars, and the end of fuel duty url: https://whereyourmoneygoes.co.uk/ev-pay-per-mile-tax/ updated: 22 September 2026 licence: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) publisher: Tekstak Ltd [Where your money goes](/) › The future of motoring tax # Pay-per-mile for electric cars, and the end of fuel duty Last updated 22 September 2026. Figures refresh every night. [How each figure is worked out](/methodology/). From **1 April 2028**, Electric Vehicle Excise Duty charges **3p a mile** for fully electric cars and 1.5p a mile for plug-in hybrids — about £300 a year for a car doing 10,000 miles. It sits on top of normal vehicle tax of £200 a year. For comparison, a 40 mpg petrol car already pays about 7.2p a mile in fuel duty and the VAT charged on that duty. Rates checked by hand on 22 September 2026. Figure as of 22 September 2026. Source: [House of Commons Library](https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10607/). ## What are the eVED rates? 3p/mile Fully electric cars, from 1 April 2028 Figure as of 22 September 2026. Source: [House of Commons Library](https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10607/). Checked by hand 22 September 2026. 1.5p/mile Plug-in hybrids Figure as of 22 September 2026. Source: [House of Commons Library](https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10607/). Checked by hand 22 September 2026. £300 A year at 10,000 miles Figure as of 22 September 2026. Source: [House of Commons Library](https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10607/). Checked by hand 22 September 2026. 7.2p/mile Duty plus VAT on duty, 40 mpg petrol car Figure as of 22 September 2026. Source: [House of Commons Library](https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10607/), [Department for Energy Security and Net Zero](https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/weekly-road-fuel-prices). [Work out your own vehicle tax and pay-per-mile charge](https://howlongisit.co.uk) ## How will it be collected? You will estimate your mileage and pay alongside vehicle tax through the DVLA, then give an actual reading at the end of the year. The government chose this over GPS tracking, citing privacy and less paperwork. From 2029–30 the per-mile rate rises with inflation. Electric cars have paid the standard rate of vehicle tax, £200 a year, since April 2025; eVED is on top of that. ## Why is this happening now? The key date is not net zero in 2050. It is 2030, when sales of new pure petrol and diesel cars end; new hybrids can be sold until 2035. As the fleet turns over, fuel duty shrinks. It has already fallen from 1.7% of GDP in 2010/11 to 0.8% in 2024/25, partly because of electric cars and partly because the rate has been frozen since 2011. Fuel duty raised £24.6bn in the most recent financial year; the government expects receipts to roughly halve to about £12bn a year by the 2030s. **Road fuel tax revenue, now and in the 2030s** **The numbers behind this chart** | Period | Fuel duty | eVED | Total | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Today | £24bn | — | £24bn | | The 2030s | £12bn | £1.9bn | £13.9bn | Figure as of 22 September 2026. Source: [House of Commons Library](https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10607/), [HM Revenue and Customs](https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk). ## Does it fill the gap? Not yet. eVED is expected to raise £1.1bn to £1.9bn against a loss of around £12bn. Electric drivers also pay less VAT: 5% on home charging, currently 0% while the electricity VAT cut runs, against 20% on petrol and diesel. And the OBR expects fuel duty to fall to just 0.1% of GDP by 2050/51, though it calls that projection speculative. | Period | Fuel duty | eVED | Total | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Today | £24bn | — | £24bn | | The 2030s | £12bn | £1.9bn | £13.9bn | | Difference | −£12bn | +£1.9bn | −£10.1bn | ## What else could replace fuel duty? Nothing beyond eVED has been announced. The options most often discussed are: - raising the eVED rate towards the 7.2p a mile petrol drivers pay, which the 3p starting point leaves room for - a per-mile charge for all vehicles, replacing fuel duty entirely - road pricing that varies by time and place, such as city congestion charges - higher vehicle tax, or more of the gap filled from general taxation ### The case for charging electric cars more - Electric drivers use the same roads and cause the same congestion. - A petrol driver already pays about 7.2p a mile; 3p is well below that. - Without it, the lost revenue has to come from taxes that fall on people who do not drive. - Heavier electric cars do more damage to road surfaces. ### The case for keeping it low - Charging electric cars more slows the switch the climate targets depend on. - The OBR estimates eVED alone will dampen electric car sales by around 2%. - Electric cars have no tailpipe emissions, so the external cost is genuinely lower. - Self-reported mileage is easy to under-declare, so enforcement costs may eat the revenue. The tension runs through the whole subject. Charge electric cars too much and fewer people switch. Charge too little and the money has to come from somewhere else. ## Common questions How much is the electric car pay-per-mile tax? 3p a mile for fully electric cars and 1.5p for plug-in hybrids, from 1 April 2028.How much will pay-per-mile cost me a year? About £300 for 10,000 miles, on top of the £200 standard rate of vehicle tax.Do petrol drivers pay more per mile than electric drivers will? Yes. A 40 mpg petrol car pays about 7.2p a mile in fuel duty and the VAT on that duty, against 3p for an electric car under eVED. ## Use this data Everything on this page is published under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). You may republish it, including commercially, if you credit Tekstak Ltd and link back to this page. ### Download - [Fuel duty receipts by financial year (CSV)](/data/receipts-fuel.csv) [JSON](/data/receipts-fuel.json) - [All data and field definitions](/data/) ### Embed the live figure Paste this into your page. It updates itself every night and links back here. Embed code ## Sources for this page | Source | Publisher | Figures as of | Updated | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [House of Commons Library, electric vehicle excise duty](https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10607/) | House of Commons Library | 22 September 2026 | annual | | [HMRC tax receipts and National Insurance contributions for the UK](https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk) | HM Revenue and Customs | 6 April 2025 | annual | ## Related questions - [What is the UK fuel duty rate, and how did it get there?](/fuel-duty/) - [When does raising a tax rate stop raising money?](/when-tax-rises-lose-revenue/) - [How much tax is in petrol?](/tax-on-petrol/) - [What are UK petrol and diesel prices today?](/uk-fuel-prices/) ## Share this page - WhatsApp - X - Facebook - LinkedIn - Reddit - Email - ## Related pages - [What is the UK fuel duty rate, and how did it get there?](https://whereyourmoneygoes.co.uk/fuel-duty/) - [When does raising a tax rate stop raising money?](https://whereyourmoneygoes.co.uk/when-tax-rises-lose-revenue/) - [How much tax is in petrol?](https://whereyourmoneygoes.co.uk/tax-on-petrol/) - [What are UK petrol and diesel prices today?](https://whereyourmoneygoes.co.uk/uk-fuel-prices/) ## More from this publisher - [UK tax calculators](https://howlongisit.co.uk) - [Work out your own figure with our UK tax calculators](https://howlongisit.co.uk) Published by Tekstak Ltd under CC BY 4.0. Figures last updated 22 September 2026.