Drivers of electric or low emission vehicles can get an extra year of free car tax by following a simple trick.
Electric vehicles (EVs) will no longer be exempt from paying car tax from April 2025. If your EV was registered between April 1, 2017 and March 31, 2025, then you will pay the standard rate of road tax, which is £195 a year from April 2025. If you buy a new EV after April 2025, you’ll pay the lowest first year rate of vehicle tax of £10 – then from the second year onward, you’ll pay £195 road tax.
But online used car dealer Cinch has explained a way to put off the increase for another year and get 12 more months of paying no road tax at all. You can renew your road tax any time, so Cinch has recommended renewing before April 2025 to avoid having to pay £195 until March 2026.
Cinch said: “Simply go through the process online using your number plate and 11-digit reference number on your V5C log book, and you’re sorted. The government website will ask if you’re sure because technically, you’re taxing your car twice until your original road tax expires, but you didn’t pay then, and you won’t pay now, so it’s no big deal. And there you go – £195 saved for another year.”
This applies to drivers that already have an EV – if you’re buying one brand new from April, you’ll pay £10 for the first year, as mentioned above. Other car tax changes coming in April, will see EVs, zero or low emission cars that were registered between March 1, 2001 and March 31, 2017, and emit up to 100g/km of CO2, subject to road tax for the first time.
These vehicles currently don’t pay any road tax, although you still have to tax your car with the DVLA, even if you don’t have to make a payment. They will pay £20 a year from April 2025. If your car produces between 101-110g/km of CO2, or between 111-120g/km of CO2, you’re charged £20 or £35 a year in car tax, respectively.
These rates won’t be changing from this April – but for cars that produce more CO2 than these levels, car tax is going up. For example, if your car produces between 121-130g/km of CO2, the yearly rate for car tax is rising from £160 to £165, while a vehicle that produces over 255g/km of CO2 will be charged £760 from April, up from its current rate of £735.
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