Electric car owners will now have to pay twice to drive abroad under Labour’s new pay-per-mile scheme

Electric vehicle (EV) drivers face paying a double road charge while on holiday under Labour’s new pay-per-mile scheme.

Motorists with EVs will also have to organise annual MOT-style checks on brand-new cars under plans announced by the Chancellor.

EV drivers will have to pay a tariff of 3p per mile from April 2028 – meaning a motorist covering 10,000 miles a year would be looking at an additional annual bill of £300.

The Government has ruled out charging the tax based on when or where people drive in order to ‘protect motorists’ privacy’ – but this means miles driven abroad would still be subject to the levy.

Britons going on holiday in their EV will therefore effectively be charged twice, as they also face duties or tolls for driving on foreign roads.

A family driving to France would have to pay the new tax in addition to ‘peage’ tolls on French motorways – with a 1,530-mile round-trip from Calais to Nice costing an extra £45.90.

This is likely to face a backlash from motoring groups, who argue that taxing EV owners for driving their green cars outside of the UK is ‘unfair and a huge flaw’.

AA president Edmund King said he does not see ‘any practical way around’ not charging EV owners by the mile overseas.

Electric vehicle (EV) drivers face paying a double road charge while on holiday under Labour’s new pay-per-mile scheme

‘It would be pretty bureaucratic to have to check your mileage at Dover and have it stamped on some kind of certificate to say you’re leaving the country for two weeks,’ he explained.

‘There are already concerns about the extra checks at the borders, so I think it would be a nightmare. It seems EV drivers would have to pay double taxation.’

Meanwhile, EV drivers will also have to ‘self-report’ their mileage and pay a fee based on that prediction after the Government ruled out fitting mileage-tracking black boxes.

They will have to submit an estimate to the DVLA and pay the levy at the end of the year based on their actual mileage – with an underestimate requiring a top-up payment. For motorists with older EVs, their mileage would be checked at an annual MOT.

Current laws state brand-new vehicles – both petrol and electric – do not require an MOT until they are three years old.

But a Treasury spokesman said new EVs would be required to have ‘additional light-touch checks’ on the first and second anniversaries of their purchase to have their mileage recorded.

Motorists with EVs will also have to organise annual MOT-style checks on brand-new cars under plans announced by the Chancellor

Officials confirmed that owners’ self-made reports in the years before the new vehicles are inspected will be verified by an ‘accredited provider’ – likely to be an MOT centre.

The Treasury said there would be ‘no motorist charge’ for the service. However, officials were unable to reveal how many garages would be accredited or how far owners may have to drive to get their mileage examined.

The Treasury’s pay-per-mile consultation acknowledges that the mileage readings will be based on in-vehicle odometers – which can be tampered with to reduce the mileage (known as ‘clocking’).

It adds that the introduction of the tax ‘may increase the likelihood of motorists choosing to clock their vehicles’ and said it was looking at ways to mitigate this – including by using electric vehicles’ internal computers, which is likely to ignite privacy fears.

Shadow transport secretary Richard Holden said: ‘On top of raising fuel duty by 5p per litre, Rachel Reeves is ramming through a half-baked extra driving tax that’s riddled with holes.

‘Labour promised no pay-per-mile tax, then slipped one out to kick in from 2028 and hoped nobody would notice.

‘It’s rushed, it’s sloppy and it’s nothing more than a raid on working people to pay for their welfare bonanza.’