Drivers in rural Norfolk are set to be disproportionately affected by the chancellor’s pay-per-mile tax on electric cars, facing some of the highest costs in the country.
From April 2028, Rachel Reeves plans to charge electric vehicle (EV) owners 3p for every mile they drive.
Plug-in hybrid (PHEV) drivers will also be taxed 1.5p per mile on top of fuel duty under the government’s mileage-based electric vehicle excise duty (eVED) raid on motorists.
The tax is designed to plug a hole in the Treasury's finances caused by a fall in fuel duty receipts and new petrol and diesel car sales, which are set to be banned in the UK from 2030.
EV drivers in rural areas with poor public transport, and often with lower incomes, face the steepest rise in bills, with some paying up to £267 on top of the standard £200-a-year they currently pay in road tax, according to new analysis by the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA).
Motorists in South West Norfolk - including areas like Thetford, Swaffham, and Downham Market - face some of the highest costs in the country with EV drivers expected to pay more than £250 a year and PHEV owners facing annual bills of more than £125.
Most areas in Norfolk were above the UK average annual pay-per-mile EV charge of £218 and £109 a year for PHEV owners. Only north Norfolk and Great Yarmouth, where EV and PHEV drivers face costs of £214 and £212 respectively, fell below the national average.
The BVRLA said its findings expose a concerning “EV postcode penalty”.
Toby Poston, BVRLA chief executive, said Reeves’ policy “may appear fair on paper” but in reality “falls hardest on the drivers least able to avoid it" in rural areas where fewer public transport options mean annual mileage is higher.
He said under the chancellor's proposals: “A driver in rural Norfolk will pay three times the annual road tax of someone in central London - not because of how much they earn or how much they pollute, but simply because of where they live.
"That is not a fair system."
In its research, the BVRLA calculated the eVED cost for each area of the UK by analysing average annual mileage using MOT data for every parliamentary constituency.
It gathered EV and PHEV ownership data for each constituency and estimated how many more electric cars will be on the road by April 1, 2028 – when the tax comes into effect – using the current adoption rate.
The total eVED cost per constituency was divided by the number of drivers to get an average pay-per-mile cost for EV and PHEV owners in 632 locations.
The BVRLA added: "[It is] a system structurally weighted against drivers least able to reduce their mileage and least likely to have access to public transport, charging infrastructure or the household income that would make EV ownership straightforward.
“At 3p per mile - the proposed pay-per-mile eVED rate - annual bills will vary enormously, depending not on how much a driver earns, or how much they pollute, but simply on where they live.”
Mr Poston added: "People who live in less connected areas don't drive more because they want to; they drive more because they have no choice.
“Their towns don't have the luxury of networks of trains, tubes and cycle lanes that make car-free living possible in cities."
Steve Nash, the former CEO of the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) said any policy that makes cars more expensive "disproportionately disbenefits rural communities like Norfolk because people have no alternatives".
Mr Nash, a former BMW director who spent over 26 years at the car manufacturer, said living in Norfolk is not like cities like London, where there is better access to public transport.
"Where I live out in Reepham, there are two buses a day - one into Norwich and one back again," he said.
"You have got to have a car, so you are, by virtue of that, disproportionately affected because you haven't got other choices."
He added: "They're trying to raid every pot.
"Having moved here from London, I do see the inequities - particularly in rural areas of the county."
There are currently 1,473 public EV charging points across Norfolk.
Compared to other counties in the UK, Norfolk sits around mid-table for access to public chargers. It is better supplied than many rural shires, but far behind large urban areas in London, the South East and West Midlands.
Norfolk County Council has said the county currently leads East Anglia for both the total number of public chargers and the number per 100,000 of the population.
However, Mr Nash said “there remains a lack of charging points and accessibility for an awful lot of people in Norfolk, with a significant number of people who don't have off-street parking".
The Treasury expects eVED to raise £1.1 billion in its first year (2028/29), which is projected to grow to £1.9 billion by 2030/31.
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