If you want to understand how government really works, watch what happens when a tax base shrinks. For years, drivers were lectured, subsidised and pushed towards electric cars. Now that millions have made the switch, the government has discovered it misses the fuel duty — so it is coming back for the money. From April 2028, electric vehicles will be hit with a brand new pay-per-mile tax.
Told to Go Electric, Now Taxed for It
This is the betrayal at the heart of the policy. People who bought an electric car in good faith — often at considerable expense, often because the state told them it was the responsible thing to do — are now being told they will pay 3 pence for every mile they drive, with plug-in hybrids charged at 1.5 pence. They did what was asked of them, and the reward is a fresh bill.
It will be charged through the new electric vehicle excise duty, and crucially it comes on top of the standard road tax of around £190 a year that EV drivers already pay. So much for the idea that going green would save you money. The savings were always a loan, and now the government wants it back with interest.
£255 a Year and Climbing
For the average electric car driver covering around 8,500 miles a year, the new charge works out at roughly £255 a year from 2028. And does anyone seriously believe it will stay at 3 pence? No tax in British history has ever gone down once the Treasury got its hands on it. Today's modest rate is tomorrow's standard charge, and the year after that it climbs again.
This is how stealth taxation works. Introduce it low, call it fair, and ratchet it up once people have stopped paying attention. The motorist is always the easiest target, because the motorist cannot escape the road.
The Net Zero Bill Always Comes Due
The deeper lesson here is about the whole net zero project. Voters were promised that the green transition would be painless, even profitable. The reality is a steady drip of new costs — on bills, on cars, on business — landing on ordinary working people who never voted for any of it. The elites set the targets. The working man pays for them.
What Reform UK Would Do
Reform UK would scrap this pay-per-mile raid before it starts. We would stop using motorists as a cash machine and we would be honest with the public about the true cost of net zero, rather than burying it in duty rates and price caps. Drivers are not a problem to be taxed out of existence. They are workers, parents and businesses keeping this country moving.
Labour will dress this up as fairness. There is nothing fair about telling people to go electric and then punishing them for it.