From 1 April 2026 the standard rate of car tax (Vehicle Excise Duty, or VED) is £200 a year for most cars registered after April 2017 — up from £195. The big shift is that electric cars now pay too: a token £10 in the first year, then the full £200 standard rate from year two. Worse, EVs registered from April 2025 costing over the “expensive car” threshold also pay a supplement of £440 a year for five years, pushing their annual bill to £640. Petrol and diesel first-year “showroom tax” still ranges from £10 to £5,690 depending on emissions.
How car tax works in 2026
Vehicle Excise Duty is the tax you pay to keep a car on the road. How much you pay depends almost entirely on when your car was first registered, and there are three separate systems running side by side. Get the date right and the rest falls into place.
- Registered on or after 1 April 2017: a one-off, emissions-based first-year rate (often called “showroom tax”), then a flat standard rate from year two — £200 for 2026/27 — regardless of emissions.
- Registered 1 March 2001 to 31 March 2017: an annual rate set by 13 CO2 bands (A to M), from around £20 to about £760 a year.
- Registered before 1 March 2001: a simple rate based on engine size — one price for engines up to 1,549cc and a higher one above that.
Most people buying new or nearly-new cars are in the first group, so that is where the 2026 changes bite hardest.
The standard rate: £200 for 2026/27
If your car was registered after April 2017, from its second year onwards you pay the standard rate. For the 2026/27 tax year (from 1 April 2026) that is £200 a year, an RPI-linked rise of £5 on the £195 charged in 2025/26. Pay monthly or in two instalments and you pay a small surcharge, so annual payment is always cheapest. This flat rate applies to petrol, diesel and hybrid cars alike — and, for the first time in a full tax year, to electric cars as well.
First-year “showroom tax”: the emissions penalty
The first year is where the government uses tax to nudge buyers away from higher-polluting cars. The rate you pay in year one is set by your car’s official CO2 figure, and from 1 April 2025 many of these first-year rates were doubled, so a thirsty new car can cost thousands before you have driven it off the forecourt. Diesels that do not meet the RDE2 emissions standard are pushed up one band, effectively paying more. Here are the 2026/27 first-year rates.
| CO2 emissions (g/km) | First-year rate 2026/27 |
|---|---|
| 0 (electric) | £10 |
| 1–50 | £115 |
| 51–75 | £135 |
| 76–90 | £280 |
| 91–100 | £365 |
| 101–110 | £405 |
| 111–130 | £455 |
| 131–150 | £560 |
| 151–170 | £1,410 |
| 171–190 | £2,270 |
| 191–225 | £3,420 |
| 226–255 | £4,850 |
| Over 255 | £5,690 |
The message is blunt: choose a low-emission car and your first-year bill is a rounding error; choose a big-engined performance car and you could hand over more than £5,000 in tax alone in year one.
Electric cars now pay road tax — and the £40k trap
For years, going electric meant paying nothing in VED. That ended on 1 April 2025. Since then, new electric cars pay a £10 first-year rate, then the full £200 standard rate every year after. EVs registered between 2017 and 2025 skipped the token first year but now pay the £200 standard rate too, and even older EVs (2001–2017) moved into the lowest CO2 band rather than paying nothing.
The nastier surprise is the expensive car supplement — sometimes called the “luxury car tax”. Any car with a list price over the threshold when new pays an extra charge on top of the standard rate for five years, covering years two to six of the car’s life. For 2026/27 that supplement is £440 a year (up from £425 in 2025/26). For a petrol or diesel car the threshold is a list price above £40,000; combined with the standard rate, that means £640 a year in tax for five years.
Here is the trap for EV buyers. When EVs were first brought into VED, they were also caught by this supplement — so a fairly ordinary family EV priced just over £40,000 and registered from April 2025 got landed with the full £640 annual bill. Recognising that many mainstream electric cars sail past £40,000, the government raised the EV threshold to £50,000 from 1 April 2026, and that higher ceiling applies to EVs registered from April 2025 onwards. So a £44,000 electric SUV that would have been stung now slips under the bar. But an EV over £50,000 still pays the supplement in full: £10 in year one, then £640 a year for years two to six. Check the list price, including options, not what you actually paid after discount — that is the figure the DVLA uses.
Older cars: the CO2 band and engine-size systems
If your car was registered between March 2001 and March 2017, you are on the older CO2 band system, where your annual rate depends on which of 13 bands (A to M) your emissions fall into. The cleanest cars in band A historically paid nothing, though low bands now carry a small charge, while the most polluting cars in band M pay around £760 a year for 2026/27. There is no standard flat rate here and no expensive car supplement — your emissions figure sets the bill for the life of the car.
Cars registered before March 2001 use the simplest system of all: engine size. If your engine is 1,549cc or smaller you pay one lower rate; above that, a higher rate. Both are modest by modern standards, which is one reason classic and older runabouts can be cheap to tax.
How to check, tax and SORN your car
Checking what you owe is quick. Head to the vehicle tax section on GOV.UK, enter your registration and you can see your car’s tax status and rate. To tax the car you need the reference number from a recent V11 reminder, your V5C logbook, or the green “new keeper” slip if you have just bought it. You can pay in one go, or by monthly or six-monthly Direct Debit — just remember the instalment options cost a little more overall.
Tax no longer transfers with the car when you sell it, so a buyer must tax it before driving away and the seller gets an automatic refund on full remaining months. If a car is off the road — parked on a drive or in a garage and not used — you can declare a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) and pay no tax at all until you bring it back into use. Just don’t drive or park it on a public road while it is SORN, or you risk a fine.
How to keep your car tax down
Car tax is one of the more predictable running costs, and a bit of thought at the buying stage saves you money for years. The biggest levers:
- Watch the price thresholds. Keep a petrol or diesel car’s list price under £40,000, or an EV’s under £50,000, and you dodge the £440-a-year supplement — a £2,200 saving over five years.
- Mind the options list. It is the total list price, including factory extras, that counts — a cheap trim nudged over the threshold by a £1,500 option still gets caught.
- Go low-emission for a cheap first year. A car under 100 g/km keeps showroom tax to a few hundred pounds; a high-emitter can cost thousands.
- Consider a nearly-new car. Buy a car that is already past its pricey first year and someone else has absorbed the showroom tax.
- SORN it if it is off the road. Not using a car for months? Declare SORN and stop paying entirely until you need it.
- Pay annually. A single yearly payment avoids the Direct Debit surcharge on monthly and six-monthly plans.
Tax is only one slice of the cost of motoring, and insurance is often the bigger one. It is worth reading our guides to the best car insurance in the UK for 2026 and our practical tips on how to cut your car insurance premium alongside this. And because VED, insurance and fuel all come out of your take-home pay, it helps to know exactly what you have to work with — our free take-home pay calculator shows your real monthly figure so you can budget the whole cost of running a car with confidence.
Cut the cost of running a car
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Explore GetSmartSaver →Frequently Asked Questions
How much is car tax in 2026?
For cars registered after April 2017, the standard rate from 1 April 2026 is £200 a year, up from £195. The first year is set by CO2 emissions and ranges from £10 for electric cars to £5,690 for the most polluting. Older cars pay by CO2 band or engine size instead.
Do electric cars pay road tax now?
Yes. Since 1 April 2025, new electric cars pay a £10 first-year rate and then the £200 standard rate every year after. EVs registered earlier also now pay the standard rate rather than nothing. The days of tax-free electric motoring are over.
What is the expensive car supplement in 2026/27?
It is an extra £440 a year, on top of the standard rate, paid for five years (years two to six) on cars with a high list price when new. The threshold is £40,000 for petrol and diesel cars and £50,000 for electric cars from 1 April 2026. That takes the annual bill to £640.
Does my electric car have to pay the £40,000 supplement?
Only if its list price is over £50,000. From 1 April 2026 the EV threshold rose from £40,000 to £50,000, and this applies to electric cars registered from April 2025 onwards, so many family EVs just over £40,000 now avoid it. Above £50,000, an EV pays the full £640 a year for years two to six.
How do I check what car tax I owe?
Use the vehicle tax checker on GOV.UK: enter your registration and it shows your tax status and rate. To pay, you will need the reference from a V11 reminder, your V5C logbook, or the new-keeper slip. You can pay annually, six-monthly or monthly, though instalments cost slightly more.
Can I avoid paying car tax if I’m not using the car?
Yes, by declaring a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN). While a car is SORN you pay no tax, but you must keep it off public roads — on a drive, in a garage or on private land. Drive or park it on a public road while SORN and you risk a fine.
Last reviewed: July 2026. This article is for general information only and does not constitute financial or motoring advice. VED rates and thresholds can change at fiscal events — always check the official vehicle tax rates on GOV.UK for the figures that apply to your car.
