If you do then remember to Sorn for a few days during this month if you can to get up to an extra year (depends when existing road fund licence runs out) of tax for free.

Apparently if you do it all online there's a hiatus of 5 working days between when you SORN & when you can re tax, if you can't be without the car that long then you can re tax at the Post Office immediately with a V62 form

the max it can save you is £20, so may not be worth the hassle.

also remember the car should/must be off the public highway during the time it is sorn/re taxed.

quote:

---

Originally posted by gremlin1234
the max it can save you is £20, so may not be worth the hassle.

also remember the car should/must be off the public highway during the time it is sorn/re taxed.

---

I renewed mine last March, and therefore only had to pay £0 this year as well, as the old one expired before the price rise.

I feel sorry for those who bought an EV with a list price of over £40k (easily done in the past, as cheap EVs were scarce). Next year their road tax will be horrendous...

[Edited on 10/3/25 by David Jenkins]

quote:

---

Originally posted by russbost
he new tax is £195 a year, if you retax now from March 1st you'll save 11 months of that so, £195 ,less whenever your current road tax expires, it's a substantial saving & I don't like giving my hard earned away, particularly when the road fund licence most certainly doesn't fund the roads which are in an atrocious state & no doubt Labour will be introducing road charging soon too ......

---

My understanding of the £40k+ charge is that it's £196 a year with an additional £425 from years two to six, a total of £620 a year, or £3100 over six years.

When I leased my new Ioniq 6 I should have paid more attention as I thought the lease co. included road tax, which was free at the time of purchase, but I now understand they'll pass on the £195 for this year & as it's a 2 year lease I'll get stung for £620 next year, which wipes out an awful lot of what you save on paying just a couple of hundred quid a year for "fuel" charging at home

Needless to say tis is the last lease EV I'll be getting as buying anything decent with a sensible range is obviously going to cost in excess of £40k in a couple of years time, so I'll be buying something a couple of years old which it won't apply to, unless of course they decide to intriduce something else retrospective ..........

I would imagine there would be a reasonable legal challenge for retrospective taxes like this. People make these purchases with the info they have at the time, all tax changes previously have been forward-going only.

quote:

---

Originally posted by coyoteboy
I would imagine there would be a reasonable legal challenge for retrospective taxes like this. People make these purchases with the info they have at the time, all tax changes previously have been forward-going only.

---

Fair point

Not being up on these things (and not driving anything (certainly not electric)) does this apply to Hybrib vehicles too?

Been in several hybrid taxis recently and a couple of work colleagues and changed to hybribs in recent years as well.

I could be wrong but one article I read suggested you don't even need to SORN and retax, you can just retax even if your tax hasn't run out. I will test this theory when I can remember where the V5C is.

Here's where I read that -

"Get FREE tax for an extra year on your EV
If your EV was first registered on or after 1 April 2017, make sure you re-tax it BEFORE 1 April 2025. Doing this means you'll push back the deadline for paying tax on your EV to when it's next due for renewal in March 2026 (assuming you renew in March 2025).

It doesn't matter what month your EV expires, you can re-tax it anytime using your car's registration number and the reference number on your V5C Registration certificate (logbook) printed in your name. The Government website will ask "Are you sure?" to which you just click to accept."

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/electric-vehicles/#need-9

What Stuart put above is correct. I've just retaxed at £0

It says something like only proceed if DVLA have told you to but just keep going.

OK, some of this isn't quite accurate:

You don't need to SORN to re-tax - you can re-tax at any time with the code off the registration document and therefore avoid the delays where the car can't be used - you just get a warning saying you will be charged twice for the month - but at £0.

Good news - the expensive car supplement will only apply to EVs registered after 1 April 2025:

"Additional rate (expensive car supplement)
New electric and zero emission vehicles registered on or after 1 April 2025 with the list price exceeding £40,000 will attract the standard rate, plus the expensive car supplement for the first 5 years from the start of the second licence."

from here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vehicle-tax-for-electric-and-low-emissions-vehicles

and

"As announced in the Autumn Statement 2022, new zero-emission cars registered on or after 1 April 2025 will be liable to pay the lowest first-year rate of VED. If the car has a list price exceeding £40,000, it will be subject to pay the Expensive Car Supplement from year 2 (for 5 years). The Expensive Car Supplement will not be applied to zero-emission cars registered before 1 April 2025.

Any EV registered prior to 1 April will not have to pay the Expensive Car Supplement
BUT they will pay tax on renewal. (e.g EV registered 1 Feb 2025 from 1 Feb 2026 will pay the standard rate of tax)
Any EV registered after 1 April will pay the first year rate of tax AND if over £40K list price the Expensive Car Supplement."

from here: https://www.bvrla.co.uk/resource/clarity-on-the-expensive-car-supplement.html

hope that helps

I hope the above is correct as if so, I don't get caught for the supplement on the 2nd year!

Not an E.V. but I run a 2016 plug in hybrid which is bizarrely free road tax for the life of the vehicle. I don't think that's changed. Though it might have. Which will be annoying!!!!

[Edited on 15/3/25 by BenB]

quote:

---

Originally posted by BenB
Not an E.V. but I run a 2016 plug in hybrid which is bizarrely free road tax for the life of the vehicle. I don't think that's changed. Though it might have. Which will be annoying!!!!

[Edited on 15/3/25 by BenB]

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by russbost

I believe everything pre 2017 is unaffected

---