You may or may not be aware of the new road tax regime that comes into force with effect from the 1st April 2025. In real terms this means that most new cars registered after the 31st March will have their first year’s road tax doubled from the current rate and even EVs (electric vehicles) will now be charged £10 rather than zero. Most PHEV (plug ins) go up from £10 to £110.

So a Ford Puma 1.0/Kia 1.5 Ceed/VW 1.0 Polo (Band G) goes up from £220 to £440, a BMW 3 Series 2.0 petrol/Audi A5 1.5 and 2.0 petrol (Band I) goes up from £680 to £1360 and cars from Ferrari, Lamborghini, Rolls Royce etc (Band M) go up from £2745 to £5490!

In addition all new EVs with a list price over £40k (inc options) will fall foul of the ECS (expensive car supplement) resulting in the 5 years from a car’s first birthday onwards, these cars will now be liable for the £410 extra tax, so over £600pa RFL! EVs have been zero road tax irrespective of their price up until now.

I have attached a table showing the new bands that come into force for your information.

So this means that March is likely to be an even busier month for new car sales than normal and we are seeing that now happening as customers try to buy cars at the current rates. This is already beginning to have an effect on availability so if you are thinking about changing your car soon (within the next few months) it would be worth having a chat now.

Please don’t hesitate to pick up the phone for a no obligation chat as we would be delighted to help you navigate the new tax rules minefield!