Rachel Reeves is under pressure to scrap her new pay-per-mile plan, which kicks in from 2028. Toby Poston, chief executive of the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA), has called on the Labour Party Chancellor to reconsider the EV tax charge.
Poston stressed that the move from Ms Reeves would make owning an EV “more expensive”. Toby explained: “Freezing fuel duty is the right call at a time when rising global tensions are already pushing up costs for households and businesses. Drivers and fleets need stability, not more financial pressure. The Government should take the same approach with electric vehicles. The new eVED road pricing charge on EVs risks slowing the transition just as more drivers are motivated to make the switch. This is the moment to back affordable zero-emission motoring, not make it more expensive.”
From April 2028, Ms Reeves plans to charge electric vehicle (EV) owners 3p for every mile driven. Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), capable of up to 70 miles on electric power, will face a 1.5p-per-mile levy on top of fuel duty under her electric vehicle excise duty (eVED) raid.
The data shows rural drivers will have the highest per-driver annual cost at around £260, since they are further away from key amenities and typically travel more often. This would be based on rural drivers doing the average 8,666 miles a year. Doing 6,000 miles would bring this down to £180.
Tanya Sinclair, CEO of Electric Vehicles UK, added: “The geography of this data is damning. Rural drivers, fewer chargers, longer journeys, highest bills. That is the opposite of a fair transition. And this week the Government quietly confirmed it won't raise fuel duty either. So petrol gets cheaper in real terms while EV drivers are punished. If there is a coherent strategy here, it is not visible from the outside.”
A recent Electrifying.com poll of 13,000 non-EV drivers found that 55 per cent of motorists reported that PPM chargers would make them less likely to switch away from petrol and diesel.
