Car Tax (VED) Calculator

Vehicle Excise Duty (VED), commonly called car tax or road tax, is charged annually and collected by the DVLA. The amount you pay depends on when your vehicle was first registered, its fuel type and its CO2 emissions. From April 2025 electric vehicles are no longer exempt, so a new one now pays the lowest first-year rate and then the standard annual rate from year two, like a new petrol or diesel car.

For petrol and diesel cars registered on or after 1 April 2017, the first-year rate is set by CO2 emissions and runs from £10 at 0g/km up to £5,690 for the dirtiest models at over 255g/km in 2026/27 (226 to 255g/km pays £4,850), the result of rates doubling in April 2025 and being uprated afterwards. Diesel cars that do not meet the RDE2 emissions standard pay the first-year rate for the next band up, so a 120g/km diesel of that kind pays £560 rather than £455. From year two almost every car moves to the flat standard rate, £200 in 2026/27, because the £10 alternative-fuel discount was scrapped in April 2025. On top of that sits the expensive car supplement: £440 a year for the first five years of the standard rate, in other words years two to six, on any car with a list price above £40,000 (£50,000 for electric cars registered from 1 April 2025).

A worked case makes the two-stage structure clearer. A new petrol car emitting 120g/km with a list price of £28,000 pays £455 in its first year, then £200 a year from year two, and escapes the supplement because the list price sits under £40,000. Three years of motoring therefore costs £855 in tax, and the calculator applies the same sequence to whatever emissions figure and list price you enter.

Vehicles registered between 1 March 2001 and 31 March 2017 are taxed under the old banding system based on CO2 emissions, with the same table for petrol, diesel, alternative-fuel and electric cars. In 2026/27 Bands A (up to 100g/km) and B pay £20, C £35, D £170, E £200, F £225, G £275, H £325, I £360, J £410, K £445, L £760 and M (over 255g/km) £790, although cars over 225g/km registered before 23 March 2006 stay in Band K. Cars registered before 1 March 2001 are charged on engine size instead: £230 a year up to 1,549cc and £375 above that. Across the pre-2017 fleet the annual bill therefore runs from £20 to £790.

Electric cars registered from 1 April 2025 pay the £10 first-year rate and then the standard £200 from year two. An EV first registered between 1 April 2017 and 31 March 2025 paid nothing until April 2025 and now pays the standard £200 a year, with no expensive car supplement whatever its list price. EVs registered between 1 March 2001 and 31 March 2017 fall into Band A and have paid £20 a year since 1 April 2025. The expensive car supplement only reaches zero-emission cars registered on or after 1 April 2025, and for them the threshold is £50,000 rather than £40,000, so only premium models such as a Mercedes EQE attract the extra £440 a year for five years.

Payment is made online at gov.uk/vehicle-tax, either for 12 months in one go or by monthly or six-monthly Direct Debit, which adds 5%; a single six-month payment made any other way adds 10%. The DVLA posts a reminder about three weeks before the current period expires. A car on a £0 rate still has to be taxed each year so that the record reads as taxed, which is the step people most often skip. Anything untaxed seen on a public road risks an £80 fine or clamping, and ANPR cameras flag it within seconds.

Several categories sit at the £0 rate: vehicles for disabled drivers receiving the higher rate mobility component of Disability Living Allowance or PIP, vehicles used by disabled veterans on the war pension supplement, historic vehicles over 40 years old that are not used commercially, agricultural vehicles, and mobility scooters and powered wheelchairs. Electric vehicles are no longer on the list: since 1 April 2025 even those registered before April 2017 pay £20 a year. People on the standard rate mobility component of PIP get a 50% reduction instead. A Statutory Off-Road Notification (SORN) removes the requirement altogether, provided the vehicle never touches a public road.