Pay-per-mile road tax adds to compliance burden
Significant issues around the government’s pay-per-mile road tax for electric vehicles have been exposed by Shoreham Vehicle Auctions.
The government announced plans to introduce the new tax from April 2028.
However, Shoreham Vehicle Auctions managing director Alex Wright has warned that this will place a significant new administrative and compliance burden on the motor trade.
He said that accurately attributing vehicle mileage will be difficult as used cars are regularly collected by fleets, franchised dealers and independent retailers and moved between sites, while extra miles will also be racked up if a car is taken to a bodyshop and then taken on a test drive by technicians.
Meanwhile, Wright also warned the new pay-per-mile tax will ramp up the risk of mileage tampering.
Wright said: “The new eVED system immediately presents challenges for the motor trade which haven’t been fully thought through by the government. As the motor trade knows the DVLA currently does not facilitate the process of tracking the ‘in trade’ ownership of a used vehicle which allows traders to use trade plates for movement and test drives without registering the vehicle to themselves.
“If that changes and the DVLA is able to facilitate the ownership of a vehicle at all times through dynamic API feeds, then perhaps the system would be less arduous for the trade to monitor and manage.”
