In the UK, Vauxhall has reduced the list prices of all its EVs - after the recent changes to the Expensive Car Supplement. The change means that EVs now must pay Vehicle Excise Duty (road tax), where previously they were exempt. However, for EVs costing less than £40,000 - the VED cost for the first year is only £10, then the year after it will increase to £195 per year, which is the same cost as petrol and diesel cars.

The big change however, is to electric vehicles that cost more than £40,000 - as these will now be subject to the Expensive Car Supplement, something usually only applied to luxury vehicles. Any new electric vehicle (or hydrogen) that has a list price over £40,000 (including options) will now have an additional charge of £425 on top of the VED. So if you purchase a new EV and it is registered on the 1st April, the first year of VED will be £10 and then £620 per year for five years, when it'll go back down to £195 per year.

To combat this, Vauxhall is lowering the price of all its EVs in the UK to cost less than £40,000. The company has said that:

"The average price of an EV in the UK at around £48,000, this new tax means that customers buying some of the more attainable electric cars on the market are now being penalised whilst at the same time we are trying to move as many British motorists to electric as quickly as possible.”

While the change in rules is designed to bring some money back into the government where fuel duty isn't, the knock on effect of it is that car manufacturers in the UK are also lowering the new prices of new EVs to keep them cost effective to purchase and making sure that drivers don't pay any additional VED.