EV Pay-Per-Mile Tax Calculator (2028)

What is the EV pay-per-mile tax?

Electric Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED) is a planned new charge on each mile driven by electric and plug-in hybrid cars. It would be run by the DVLA alongside ordinary vehicle tax (VED), and you would pay it as well as vehicle tax, not instead of it.

The government announced it at Budget 2025. Electric cars use no petrol or diesel, so they pay none of the fuel duty that petrol and diesel drivers pay on every litre. eVED applies to cars only: vans, buses, coaches and lorries are outside it when it starts.

Is eVED law yet?

No. As at 3 November 2026, eVED is a government proposal and has not become law. A consultation closed on 18 March 2026, and the government published its response on 13 July 2026 with draft legislation for technical consultation. The government intends to introduce the measure through Finance Bill 2026-27, as set out in its Budget 2026 overview of tax legislation. HMRC's policy paper, last updated on 28 October 2026, says the legislation will amend the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994.

Until that legislation is passed, the rates and the way eVED works could still change. The figures on this page use the rates announced so far.

How much will eVED cost per mile?

• Battery electric cars: 3p a mile.
• Hydrogen fuel cell cars: 3p a mile, the same as battery electric cars.
• Plug-in hybrids: 1.5p a mile.
• Range extender electric cars: 1.5p a mile, the plug-in hybrid rate.

These are the planned rates from April 2028. From 2029-30 the government intends to raise them each year in line with CPI inflation. At the 2028-29 rates, 5,000 miles a year would cost £150 in a battery electric car, 10,000 miles £300 and 15,000 miles £450. A plug-in hybrid would pay half those amounts.

The estimate at the top of the page covers all three rates. The running-cost comparison models battery electric cars only: a plug-in hybrid's running costs depend on how much of its driving is on electricity and how much on petrol, so a fair comparison needs more than one cost per mile.

How would you pay eVED?

Under the government's consultation response, eVED would be paid through the vehicle tax system:

• Each time you renew vehicle tax, the registered keeper gives a mileage reading and estimates the miles for the year ahead.
• You pay for the estimate upfront or spread the cost, monthly or every six months.
• At the end of the period, the actual mileage is compared with the estimate. If you expect to drive more, you can top up at the rate that applies at the time; if you drive less, the credit is normally carried forward to the next period.
• MOT mileage records will be used to check the readings. Cars under three years old (four in Northern Ireland) are checked at their first MOT.
• Miles driven abroad in a UK-registered car count.

The consultation response's examples leave out the 5% surcharge on paying by Direct Debit, and so does this calculator.

How is eVED different from vehicle tax?

Ordinary vehicle tax (VED) is a yearly amount that depends on when the car was first registered, and for newer cars on its emissions and list price. It is the same whether you drive 2,000 miles or 20,000. eVED depends only on how far you drive.

Electric cars have paid vehicle tax since 1 April 2025. For 2026/27, one registered from that date pays £10 in its first tax year and then the standard rate of £200 a year, the same rate as one registered from April 2017 to March 2025. One registered from March 2001 to March 2017 pays £20 a year.

An electric car registered from 1 April 2025 with a list price over £50,000 also pays the £440 expensive car supplement each year for five years, starting with its second tax payment. Petrol and diesel cars pay the supplement above £40,000, and their first-year rate depends on CO2 emissions. These are 2026/27 rates, not forecasts for 2028.

The comparison covers one year. For the electric car you can choose the standard £200, £640 with the supplement, the £10 first-year rate, the £20 older-car rate or another amount. The £10 rate covers one tax year only, so it is not the cost of every year of a longer lease. If your finance or lease payments already include vehicle tax, choose "Yes" for that car so it is not counted twice.

Why is fuel duty not added for petrol and diesel cars?

Petrol and diesel drivers already pay fuel duty in the pump price, with VAT on top. The calculator uses the pump price you enter, so fuel duty is already included and is never added again.

For comparison only: fuel duty on petrol and diesel is currently 52.95p a litre. In a car doing 40 mpg that is about 6p a mile, before VAT. A petrol or diesel car would have to do about 80 mpg before the duty it pays each mile fell to 3p, the planned eVED rate.

At Budget 2026 on 28 October 2026, the government announced that the 5p cut and freeze in fuel duty will be extended to 1 July 2027, with the increase planned for January 2027 cancelled. That is an announcement, and fuel duty rates can change at future Budgets. None of this changes the calculator, which uses the pump price you enter.

Is an electric car still cheaper to run with eVED?

Per mile, usually yes if you charge mostly at home on a low tariff. Where you charge matters more than the tax. Against a 40 mpg petrol car at 174p a litre (the UK average in the week of 26 October 2026), which costs 19.78p a mile in fuel:

• Charging 80% at home on an illustrative cheap overnight tariff of 7.5p/kWh and 20% in public at an illustrative 65p/kWh, a car doing 4 mi/kWh costs 4.75p a mile in electricity, or 7.75p with eVED.
• Charging only in public at 65p/kWh, the same car costs 16.25p a mile, or 19.25p with eVED: only just below the petrol car.

eVED narrows the gap for every electric car by 3p a mile. If your electric car's cost per mile is less than 3p below the petrol or diesel car's, eVED reverses it, and each extra mile then costs more in the electric car. Home electricity tariffs and public charging prices vary widely, so use your own.

How does eVED change the break-even mileage?

When an electric car costs more each year before you drive anywhere, for example because its lease payments are higher, but less for each mile, there is a mileage at which the two cars cost the same. Below it the petrol or diesel car is cheaper; above it the electric car is.

That break-even mileage is the gap in fixed yearly costs divided by the gap in cost per mile. eVED adds 3p a mile to the electric car, so the gap per mile shrinks and the break-even mileage rises. In the worked example above, a £1,067 gap in fixed costs gives about 7,100 miles without eVED and about 8,900 miles with it: you would need to drive about 1,800 more miles a year before the electric car came out ahead. At the example's 10,000 miles it stays cheaper either way, by £436 a year without eVED and £136 with it.

If the electric car is cheaper both before you drive and per mile, there is no break-even point: it is cheaper at any mileage. The comparison says so rather than showing a figure that does not exist.

What if your car is leased or a company car?

Under the consultation response, the registered keeper is legally responsible for giving mileage readings and paying eVED. Leasing and fleet companies will be able to estimate their cars' mileage, which the government expects in most cases to reflect the mileage allowance in the contract, and to pay in bulk.

The eVED figures on this page are the planned charge itself, at the planned rate for each mile. They are not necessarily what a leasing company would pass on to you. Whether and how it is passed on depends on your agreement, and we cannot predict how individual finance providers will bill it. The consultation response says that where eVED costs are passed through leasing arrangements, the existing VAT treatment of lease payments will apply.

If a future lease payment already includes eVED, do not add it again: compare the figures without eVED instead.

The comparison keeps vehicle payments the same at every mileage when it works out the break-even point. In practice a lease with a higher mileage allowance usually has a higher monthly rental, so check quotes at the mileage you actually expect to drive.

What does the comparison include?

• Running costs: electricity or fuel at the prices you enter, plus servicing if you enter it.
• Ordinary vehicle tax (VED): the yearly amount you enter for each car, or nothing extra if it is already in your vehicle payments.
• Planned eVED: 3p a mile for the electric car only, shown separately. The figures with and without eVED use exactly the same inputs apart from this charge.
• Vehicle payments (optional): spread evenly over each agreement. Without them, the result compares running costs and taxes only. With them, it is still not the full cost of owning either car.
• Not included: insurance, depreciation, the purchase price, a refundable deposit, an optional final (balloon) payment, excess mileage and end-of-contract charges, home charger installation, standing charges and charging losses.