Electric car owners 'impacted' by new car tax changes in days - £640 bills

Electric car owners will feel the "impact" of a swathe of new car tax changes set to come into effect in just days, with some drivers paying up to £640 per year. Although Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) changes will mostly affect petrol and diesel vehicles, especially those with high emissions, EV owners are not completely safe.

Electric cars used to be fully exempt from VED tax charges, but this was changed by Labour this time last year. EVs registered after 2017 are now charged the standard VED rate of £195 per year, with fees to rise an extra £5 to £200 from April 1.

Owners also face the threat of costly Expensive Car Supplement charges, an additional £440 charge from April 1 for all models listed over £50,000. It means EV owners face paying annual bills of a whopping £640 per year, a far cry from their tax-exempt status just 12 months ago.

Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk, Matt Crole-Rees, motoring expert at Confused.com car insurance, said: "The impact will be noticed mainly by EV drivers as April 1st marks one year since the end of their £0 road tax. Now, costs will increase to the standard rate of up to £200 annually. And the many with EVs worth over £50,000 will see an increase in car tax through the Expensive Car Supplement.

"This means drivers of these vehicles will incur an additional annual charge of £440 from their second year of use for up to 5 years, on top of their existing annual fees."

VED tax bands face inflationary fee rises every year with this year's series of higher rates coming into effect from April 1. However, it's not all bad news for EV drivers, with a major update coming into effect specifically set to target owners of battery vehicles.

The Expensive Car Supplement used to impact drivers with cars over £40,000, but the threshold has been expanded to £50,000 for EVs. This is due to concerns that many mid-range family EVs were being dragged in and paying the fee.

Meanwhile, older electric vehicles registered before April 2017 are still benefitting from exceptional tax breaks.

Vehicles over eight years old producing 0g/km of CO2 will still pay absolutely nothing to use the roads, with the £0 fee retained for another year.