How much does car tax cost in 2026?

For cars first registered after April 2017, the standard rate is £200 a year (2026/27 tables, checked August 2026). The first year is different: a CO2-based showroom rate from £10 (zero emission) up to £5,690 (over 255g/km), with non-RDE2 diesels charged one band higher. Cars registered March 2001–March 2017 pay CO2 bands A–M instead: £20 to £790 a year. Cars with a list price over £40,000 new (£50,000 for EVs) pay an extra £440 a year in years 2–6.

Do electric cars pay road tax now?

Yes. Since April 2025, zero-emission cars pay VED: £10 in the first year, then the £200 standard rate. EVs also face the expensive car supplement — an extra £440 a year in years 2–6 — though their threshold is a list price over £50,000, against £40,000 for petrol and diesel cars.

What is the expensive car supplement?

An extra £440 a year of VED, on top of the £200 standard rate, charged in years 2–6 of a car's life if its list price when new was over £40,000 (£50,000 for EVs). It follows the car, not the buyer — a three-year-old car that listed at £42,000 new still owes it even if you paid £25,000 used, and it adds up to £2,200 over the five years it applies.

How much per mile does a petrol car cost?

Cash costs first: at around 160p/litre and a real-world 40–55mpg, fuel is roughly 13–18p per mile. Add £200 road tax and typical age-banded upkeep and a petrol car doing 8,000 miles a year costs about 20–30p per mile out of pocket. Include depreciation and an 8-year-old hatchback lands around 26–40p per mile all-in — while a nearly new car can pass 60p, because year-one depreciation alone can exceed every other cost combined.

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What does it really cost to run a car in 2026?

By the team behind the Car Cost Checker. Updated 26 August 2026.

Ask someone what their car costs and they'll tell you the fuel and maybe the tax. Ask a spreadsheet and it tells you something ruder: for most cars under eight years old, the biggest single running cost is one that never leaves your bank account as a payment — depreciation. Here's the whole picture, with the 2026/27 numbers, and no rounding in the optimistic direction.

The per-mile maths, honestly

Fuel. At roughly 160p/litre for E10 petrol (checked Aug 2026) and a real-world 40–55mpg — official figures flatter almost every car — petrol works out at 13–18p per mile. Diesel sits near 181p/litre but goes further per gallon, so lands in a similar band for most drivers.

Road tax. The £200 standard rate is 2.5p per mile at 8,000 miles a year. The £440 expensive-car supplement, where it applies, adds another 5.5p.

Upkeep. This is age-banded, not flat. Typical UK figures for MOT, servicing and wear: £150–300 a year for a car under three (no MOT due yet), £300–550 at 3–8 years, £450–900 at 8–15 years, and £550–1,200 beyond that, with repair risk priced in. The MOT itself is capped at £54.85 by law; it's the brakes, tyres and suspension around it that cost the money.

Depreciation. The quiet one. Broad UK curves: 15–30% of value lost in year one, 10–18% a year in years 2–3, 7–12% to year eight, then 3–8% as the curve flattens. On a £30,000 hatchback, year one is £4,500–9,000 — more than fuel, tax and servicing combined, often doubled.

Put together: an 8-year-old petrol hatchback doing 8,000 miles a year costs roughly £2,100–£3,200 all-in — 26–40p per mile — before insurance and finance. A nearly new car doing the same miles can clear 60p per mile, and the difference is almost entirely depreciation.

Road tax in 2026/27 — including EVs now

For cars registered after April 2017 (checked Aug 2026 against the gov.uk tables): first-year "showroom" rates run from £10 at zero emissions to £5,690 above 255g/km, with non-RDE2 diesels charged one band up. From year two, everything pays the £200 standard rate. Older cars (March 2001–March 2017) stay on CO2 bands A–M at £20–£790 — which is why a 2015 diesel Golf at 109g/km pays £20 a year while a 2018 one pays £200. Since April 2025, EVs pay too: £10 in year one, then the standard £200.

The catch is the expensive car supplement: an extra £440 a year in years 2–6 for anything that listed above £40,000 new — £50,000 for EVs. It follows the car's original list price, not what you paid, so a used premium car can carry a £640 annual tax bill you didn't see coming. Over the five years it applies, that's £2,200.

Fuel: the spread nobody shops

We pull live prices from the retailer open-data feeds that still update daily — around 2,250 fresh-priced stations. One Manchester postcode returned 40 live-priced stations, cheapest E10 at 155.9p against a 159.8p area average (our own data, checked Aug 2026) — a 4p/litre saving just for picking the right forecourt. At 8,000 miles and real-world 40–55mpg that's worth roughly £25–£35 a year, and a 10p/litre gap, where one opens up near you, is worth £65–£90. Not life-changing, but it's the one cost you can cut this week without changing anything else.

For EVs the spread is wilder. Charging overnight on an EV tariff at ~7p/kWh, 8,000 miles at 3.5 mi/kWh costs about £160 a year — 2p a mile. The same miles at a standard price-cap-level rate of ~26p/kWh cost about £590, and public rapid charging runs 3–10× the overnight price, which can push an EV's per-mile fuel cost past a petrol car's. An EV without home charging is a very different financial product to one with a driveway.

When an old car beats a new one

The two curves move in opposite directions: upkeep climbs perhaps £300–600 a year as a car ages from nearly-new to twelve years old, while depreciation falls by thousands. That £30,000 hatchback is worth roughly £14,000 at five years old and now sheds £1,000–1,700 a year, not £4,500–9,000. So a well-kept 6–10-year-old car usually wins per mile even after pricing in repair risk — the flat part of the depreciation curve saves more than any fuel-saving habit ever will.

Who shouldn't buy old: very-high-mileage drivers, for whom fuel economy and warranty cover start to outweigh depreciation savings — at 20,000+ miles a year the maths shifts. Who shouldn't buy new: honestly, most private buyers doing average miles. And the caveat on our upkeep bands cuts both ways — they're typical ranges, and one gearbox can blow past them. That risk is real; it's just usually smaller than the depreciation you'd pay to avoid it.

Run your own numbers: the Car Cost Checker pulls the cheapest live-priced forecourts near your postcode and builds your honest annual range — fuel for your mileage, VED from the official tables, and age-banded upkeep. Free, no signup.

Estimates, not quotes: fuel economy, upkeep and depreciation are typical UK bands, not vehicle-specific valuations, and VED comes from the gov.uk 2026/27 tables (checked Aug 2026). Factual information, not financial advice. Warranty links on our tool are affiliate links; the best option always ranks first even when it pays us less, or nothing.