- Proposed new EV tax won't apply to vans
- 3p per mile plan set to be announced in Autumn budget
- Report says van drivers won't be clobbered
- Doesn't mean vans are out of the firing line forever...
Electric vans look set to escape the government’s new pay-per-mile tax on zero-emission vehicles, according to a report in The Times.
The scheme, expected to be confirmed in the Budget later this month, would see electric cars and plug-in hybrids charged a few pence for every mile from 2028, but vans are currently “out of scope.”
The planned levy, forecast at around 3p per mile, is designed to replace falling fuel-duty revenues as the UK shifts away from petrol and diesel. For private motorists, the Treasury believes the change is about fairness: electric cars avoid paying fuel duty, saving around £600 a year, and the government wants road users to contribute more evenly.
However, the system being proposed raises eyebrows. EV owners may need to log in to a government portal each year, record their mileage, and upload photos of their odometer. Those figures would then be checked against MoT data, which will be awkward for vehicles that don’t need an MoT for their first three years.
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Vans excluded — for now
According to the report, electric vans will not be included in the scheme, meaning LCV drivers won’t face the new charge. Given the higher upfront costs of electric vans, limited charging infrastructure and the challenges facing trades and delivery firms, taxing mileage could have been a major setback. Excluding vans may simply reflect the government’s reluctance to increase business costs any further.
But the reprieve may not be permanent. Once the digital system for collecting mileage data is in place, adding commercial vehicles would be straightforward, especially as fuel-duty revenues continue to fall.
Unsurprisingly, the wider industry isn’t impressed.
Former Nissan COO Andy Palmer warned that taxing EVs too soon risks derailing the government’s Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate. With the industry needing to hit a 16% electric-van share in 2025 — and the market currently at just 8.4% — any additional running costs could push operators away from electrification.
Others were more direct.
Vertu Motors boss Robert Forrester called the proposal a “bureaucratic nightmare,” arguing that it further undermines confidence in the already-fragile EV market.
Excluding vans may provide a short-term lift in confidence, but the long-term picture is less certain. Once private EV drivers are taxed per mile, the Treasury may struggle to justify leaving business users out indefinitely. With fuel duty generating around £25 billion a year and shrinking, the temptation to include vans later is likely to grow.
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