These used car owners could be hit with tax charges in 2025 under new proposals

Used car owners could face new tax charges in 2025 if campaigners successfully change Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) rules. The Expensive Car Supplement (ECS) is an additional £425 annual tax charge applied to any cars with a list price of over £40,000 between the second and sixth years on the road. The charge used to be paid by luxury car owners but there are fears almost all electric vehicles could be affected with upfront price tags so high.

A new Parliament petition has called for the luxury ECS fee to be increased from its current £40,000 to at least £53,000 with annual rises based on inflation. However, the campaigners have also suggested "all used cars" should be affected by a major overhaul. Petition creator Edward Gibson said: "We think leaving this frozen at £40,000 has been another increased and unfair cost to the general public.



We believe it should be applied to all used cars under five years old in a fair backdated scheme." He added: “A backdated/sliding scale should be applied to used cars under five years old to allow for this adjustment.” The extra £425 fee is paid alongside the standard VED rate which currently sits at £195 per year for models registered after 2017.

It means owners of any cars affected are forced to pay an eye-watering £620 per year to use the roads. Electric vehicles had been exempt from paying any Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) fees until this Spring. VED charges for zero-emission models came into effect from April 1, with fees almost brought into line with petrol and diesel machines.

WhatCar? explained : "The expensive car supplement is an additional fee that’s payable in years two to six of the car’s life for vehicles with a list price of £40,000 or more. "It’s important to note that it applies to the total list price of the car, so it will include any optional extras added to a sub-£40k car, and won’t be removed if you get a discount on a £40k-plus vehicle." The latest petition is set to run until September 2025 with 10,000 signatures needed for the motion to receive an official Government response.

A staggering 100,000 signatures are required for the issue to be debated by politicians in the House of Commons..