'I should have bought a petrol car': Hybrid drivers rage at Rachel Reeves' pay-per-mile double tax sting
Plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) owners are fuming at the Chancellor's threat of a double tax sting on their cars via her controversial plans to impose pay-per-mile charges from 2028.
Rachel Reeves used her Budget last week to announce a divisive electric Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED) to claw back lost fuel duty revenue as a result of drivers switching to greener cars.
While fully electric vehicles (EVs) will be charged at a rate of 3p per mile under the scheme, plug-in hybrid owners will too be stung 1.5p for every mile they drive.
But because PHEVs have a combustion engine - typically petrol - and a supplementary battery and electric motor, the pay-per-mile charge will be levied on top of fuel duties they pay when they fill up at the pumps.
With the latest plug-in models capable of covering around just 50 miles in EV-only mode, drivers covering longer journeys are set to be taxed per mile even when they're unable to use electric power, effectively turning it into a double tax.
This has caused uproar among the near-one million PHEV drivers in Britain, many of whom made the switch following the government promoting them as greener alternatives to conventional petrol and diesel cars.
Readers have told Daily Mail and This is Money that the eVED tax is a 'robbery' and that they feel they were 'conned' into buying plug-in hybrids by the government, with many planning to ditch them and return to petrol models ahead of 2028 to avoid the pay-per-mile tax grab.
Rev Michael Beaumont, 75, a retired church pastor from Teesside, said he is 'absolutely outraged' at facing a 1.5p-a-mile charge to drive his VW Tiguan from 2028
Michael Beaumont, 75, a retired church pastor from Teesside, said he is 'absolutely outraged' at the proposed double taxation to drive his PHEV after buying a £43,000 car.
He told us: 'My wife and I (both pensioners) invested in a new VW Tiguan e-hybrid in September 2024, to both save on running costs - the car can do up to 70 miles on electric so is ideal for local runs - and to do our bit towards combatting climate change.
'Now we wished we hadn't bothered. Because the proposed changes mean we would pay double tax on every mile we drive, whether on electric or petrol. This cannot be just.
'Double taxation is always egregious, by its very nature; but this proposal is also foolish, introduced at a time when the government is trying to get people to switch away from ICE cars towards electric; and for many of us, the PHEV is a brilliant stepping stone.
'But not any longer.
'So, the inevitable result will be that people will hold onto their petrol cars for longer – the very opposite of what the government is looking for.'
Michael acknowledges that EV and PHEV drivers should pay 'their share of road maintenance' but said the proposed system would leave him contributing an 'unfair share'.
He added: 'The most equitable way of dealing with the shortfall in revenues would have been to simply scrap both vehicle excise duty and fuel duty and substitute them with a pay per mile system for everyone, whatever kind of vehicle they drive.
'I urge every driver of a PHEV to respond to the Government' consultation right now.'
Loraine Davison, 73, from Swindon said she now wishes she had bought a petrol car as her efforts to help the environment has 'well and truly shafted her'
Loraine Davison, 73, a retired former HR business partner, and her husband Steve, also 73, a former department operations manager in a national retailer warehouse, live in Swindon and purchased their BMW X1 PHEV three years ago.
She said as they were entering their 70s, they wanted this to be their last new car.
Loraine told the Daily Mail and This is Money that 'range anxiety' put paid to them buying an EV and they instead chose a PHEV because they 'wanted to do the right thing' by opting for a greener car.
'I can't tell you how angry this has made me and my husband,' she told us.
'After seven hours of charge, our BMW only provides 23 miles of electric charge, which is swiftly used in urban driving.
'It cost £42,000, so we also have five years of paying the Expensive Car Supplement on top of the standard rate of VED, which amounts to £620 a year currently.
'Needless to say, we now wish we'd gone for full petrol as our efforts to help the environment has well and truly shafted us.
'Most of our mileage is done using petrol and a minuscule amount of electric is used.
'Now we have to pay 1.5p per mile for all our mileage. This is robbery.'
Loraine presented an example to 'demonstrate the ridiculousness' of eVED on PHEVs using the couple's holiday in Northumberland earlier this year.
'We completed circa 800 miles in total - we estimate at least 750 miles were petrol driven on which we paid fuel duty.
'We didn't charge the car at all while we were away, though there would have been a minuscule amount of self-generated electric from the regenerative brakes.
'However, under this scheme we would have paid an additional £12 on no more than 50 electric miles.
'That works out at us paying 24p per mile, which is four times fuel duty [6p a mile]. That's outrageous.'
In an addition blow, she said 'politicians meddling' had previously cost them thousands of pounds when their previous diesel car - which the couple bought at the time because it was heavily promoted by the Government with lower car tax - plummeted in value when ministers turned their back on the fuel following the 2015 diesel emissions cheating scandal.
'The resulting plummeting values of diesel cars meant we were left with a reduced residual value of our Audi Q3 at the end of the PCP term. That cost us £5,000.
'Now politicians are meddling again with no thought to the consequences for the consumers who are being punished for trying to do the "right thing" that we were asked to do.
'Our hybrid will now also plummet in value - good job we were intending to keep it as we will have no choice now.'
Elizabeth Francis, 68, says her major concern is that demand for PHEVs will now dwindle and the value will fall out of her Vauxhall Grandland
Elizabeth Francis, 68, who is retired and living in Oxfordshire, owns a £34,000 Vauxhall Grandland PHEV and said pay-per-mile tax is 'unfair' and will make selling her car 'almost impossible' in the future.
'While the value of my Vauxhall will fall, the price and demand for petrol cars will go up,' she said.
Graeme Steele, 68, owns a Mercedes-Benz C300e PHEV, which starts from £45,000. He is retired and lives in Bettws, near Newport in South Wales.
He said the 1.5p-per-mile figure is an unfair reflection of the electric capabilities of his car.
'The petrol only range is approximately 500 miles, and on battery alone it will go for around 50 miles. Therefore, the EV capacity is just a tenth of how far I can drive on a single journey.
'Whilst I understand that the Treasury need to be compensated for the lack of petrol tax revenue, when I'm using battery only driving, surely it should be a tenth of the 3p-per-mile charge for full electric vehicles, meaning 0.3p.'
Graeme said with the addition of VED and the Expensive Car Supplement he is coughing up annually due to his Mercedes costing over £50,000 new, he said he is now facing a 'tax triple whammy'.
Graeme Steele, 68, said the 1.5p-per-mile figure is an unfair reflection of the electric capabilities of his plug-in hybrid Mercedes C-Class (pictured)
Michael Yue, 57, told us he bought a Lexus PHEV because he doesn't have off-street parking so cannot have a homecharger installed at his property
Michael Yue, 57, lives in London and is retired. He tells us he's recently taken delivery of his fourth new PHEV model - a £52,000 Lexus NX450.
He said he has been choosing PHEV over EVs for years because he doesn't have off-street parking, so is unable to benefit from cheaper home charging using a domestic energy tariff.
This makes a plug-in hybrid his best green solution, as he isn't reliant on always having the battery charged.
Michael says the Chancellor's claim that the Exchequer will be losing out on fuel duties over the coming decade is 'bonkers'.
He told us: 'It's not as if we don't pay VAT on electricity for charging the cars.
'Okay, it's less than fuel duty, but if we want carbon neutral, then that's the price for it.'
He said road pricing without capturing real-time electric driving data is 'totally wrong', adding: 'It's so much simpler to increase VED and be done with it.'
Chris Mogford, 80, told us he 'simply cannot afford any more car running costs' after learning that he will be charged 1.5p for every mile he covers in his Ford Kuga PHEV
Chris Mogford, 80, is retired and living in Finchampstead, Berkshire.
He bought his second £40,000 Ford Kuga PHEV in February and covers 4,000 miles a year, meaning an annual increase in running costs of £60 per annum.
He told the Daily Mail and This is Money that the combination of escalating fuel and charging bills, high VED charges and increasing insurance premiums means he 'simply cannot afford any more car running costs'.
Chris said: 'I'm absolutely gutted and furious regarding this extra cost.'
Geoffrey Bell, 66, living near Dartmouth in Devon, said he bought a new £51,000 Land Rover Discovery Sport PHEV earlier this year - not for its electric-only driving capability but its low CO2 emissions and roomy boot for his two dogs.
He says the car does only 30 miles in EV mode, so, out of a 400-mile range, that's 7.5 per cent using electricity. He points out that he already pays 5 per cent VAT on his domestic charging.
Geoffrey Bell, 66, said he only bought a PHEV Land Rover Discovery Sport because it had impressively low CO2 emissions and a big boot for his dog. 'Why would I buy a new hybrid again? I may as well go back to diesel - way cheaper to buy and run,' he told us
Tony Trenam from Leeds has only just purchased his Jaguar F-Pace PHEV but said: 'My car will have to go in 2028 if pay-per-mile comes in'
'I regularly drive over 200 miles on single trips, so the idea of stopping every 30 miles to recharge is a joke. I therefore recharge the battery each time I get home after having filled up. So, I truly do 30 EV miles per 400.
'This being the case, how on earth can I expect to be charged 1.5p for every mile that I travel? That's £6 in additional tax when I have already paid tax on 92.5 per cent of the fuel that I have used via fuel duty at the pump. What is fair about that?
'To add insult, I already also pay the premium rate £620 road tax due to the Expensive Car Supplement and will do for the next five years - that's no reward for environmental decisions.'
'Why would I buy a new hybrid again? I may as well go back to diesel - way cheaper to buy and run.'
Other readers told us they had been 'conned into buying hybrid cars by the government', while those living in rural parts of the country said it was an unfair sting on them, given they typically have to drive longer distances to reach amenities.
Tony Trenam, a retiree who was formerly a sales rep and lives in Leeds, has only just purchased his £70,000 Jaguar F-Pace PHEV. He said: 'My car will have to go in 2028 if pay-per-mile comes in.'
Another, Andrea Ali, said they were already 'seriously considering a change back to petrol' before their PHEV value falls further due to a rush of 'like-minded owners' wanting rid of their cars ahead of the 2028 charges.
Lindsey Painter, 64, a company secretary from Monmouthshire, Wales, bought her Lexus NX PHEV in February. She said: 'If I had known I was going to be taxed by the mile before I purchased the car, I would have gone for full petrol or even diesel and not bothered with a hybrid.'
The Treasury has defended the decision to include PHEVs in its eVED plans due to their ' capacity to drive in either electric or petrol mode'
A 1.5p-per-mile charge for PHEVs 'strikes the right balance', says Treasury
Government consultation papers propose that both EV and PHEV owners will likely have to report to an MOT testing centre every year to have their mileage audited and the tax imposed - despite new cars not requiring an MOT for their first three years.
New car owners will be offered the option of estimating their first year's mileage in order to set their initial rate.
The Treasury has defended the decision to include PHEVs in its eVED plans due to their 'capacity to drive in either electric or petrol mode'.
It said: 'In recognition of this, they will be subject to a reduced eVED rate of 1.5 pence per mile upon its introduction in April 2028 – half the rate that will apply to fully electric cars.'
It also said the move is to prevent the need for PHEVs to be tracked in order to measure their journeys in electric mode and to reduce admin for drivers.
'The government recognises that PHEV driving habits vary and that some motorists will drive more or less than 50 per cent in electric mode,' the consultation paper says.
'However, alternative options would require motorists to report their exact mileage driven in petrol versus electric mode, which is not considered a practical or proportionate approach.
'A reduced rate for PHEVs strikes the right balance between fairness, protecting motorists' privacy and minimising administrative burdens on motorists.'
Minsters believe a 1.5p-per-mile flat rate on PHEVs prevent the need for cars to be tracked in order to measure their journeys in electric mode - and to reduce admin for drivers
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According to charging mapping company Zapmap, there are currently over 948,000 PHEVs on Britain's roads today.
They remain popular in 2025, accounting for more than one in 10 of all cars sold (11 per cent) so far this year.
In total, 190,240 new PHEVs have been registered in 2025 - an increase of 37 per cent on the same period a year earlier, according to The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
Sales are around half the volume of electric vehicle registrations and a quarter of new petrol car deliveries.
Official registration figures for the year to the end of October shows the Chinese BYD Seal U is the best-selling PHEV of 2025 so far, with 17,469 deliveries in 2025.
This is closely followed by Chinese rival Jaecoo and its 7 SHS - which has been dubbed the Temu Range Rover by owners - with 13,550 registrations.
Other popular PHEV models include the Volkswagen Tiguan (13,717 sales), Ford Kuga (8,967) and MG HS (6,121).
According to charging mapping company Zapmap, there are currently over 948,000 PHEVs on Britain's roads today. They remain popular in 2025, accounting for more than one in 10 of all cars sold (11 %) so far this year (pictured, the fuel breakdown for new car sales in 2025)
The two most popular new PHEV models of 2025 so far are both Chinese newcomers. The BYD Seal U is the best-seller, with 17,469 deliveries in 2025
Second in the PHEV sales charts is the Jaecoo 7 SHS, a car that's been dubbed the Temu Range Rover by owners. Some 13,550 units have been delivered in the UK in 2025
'Punitive' tax system will see PHEV sales shrink, industry warns
Chief executive of the SMMT Mike Hawes has described the double tax on PHEVs as 'punitive' and predicts it will 'dissuade' buyers from choosing these greener models.
He told The Times some drivers are 'understandably anxious, especially those with concerns over charging availability or those who regularly do long journeys'.
Mr Hawes also explained how hybrids are a 'crucial step' towards full EV, so slapping them with a double tax for fuel and eVED will deter many from investing in this 'beneficial technology'.
AA president Edmund King told This is Money that the Treasury's sums on the 1.5p per mile tax on PHEVs is 'more questionable' in an exclusive in-depth look at the Government's new road pricing scheme.
He said: 'The rate for plug-in hybrid is 1.5p per mile. Many PHEVs will do around 50 miles on electric and the rest on petrol.
'Take someone doing a journey of 150 miles: you will only get the benefit of electric for 50 miles but you will pay 1.5p for 150 miles and you will pay fuel duty for 100 of those miles.
'Many people will question whether it is worth opting for a plug-in hybrid when this comes in - yet we've always said they are a good stepping stone into electric.
'The Treasury told the AA that they aren't trying to put people off PHEVs, but one can question that.'
