For a decade the electric car was the vehicle that drove into British city centres for free. That is no longer quite true. London's Congestion Charge rose to £18 a day on 2 January 2026 and, on the same day, the full exemption for electric cars ended. The ULEZ still costs an electric car nothing, most English Clean Air Zones still wave it through, and the Scottish Low Emission Zones do not charge anyone at all, but the map is now complicated enough that an EV driver needs to know which rule applies in which city. This guide lists every UK zone, what it charges, what it does with electric vehicles, and the tax and charging costs that go with them in 2026.
- London Congestion Charge: £18 a day, 07:00 to 18:00 Monday to Friday and 12:00 to 18:00 at weekends and bank holidays, no charge between Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Since 2 January 2026 electric cars pay too, with a 25 per cent discount if the car is registered for Auto Pay; electric vans and lorries get 50 per cent.
- London ULEZ: £12.50 a day, every day except Christmas Day, across all 32 boroughs and the City. Electric vehicles meet the emissions standard and pay nothing.
- English Clean Air Zones that charge private cars: Birmingham (£8 a day) and Bristol (£9 a day). Bath, Bradford, Portsmouth, Sheffield and Tyneside charge commercial vehicles only. Electric cars are compliant in every zone and pay nothing.
- Scottish Low Emission Zones in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee do not charge; non-compliant vehicles are banned and fined £60, doubling for repeat breaches. Electric cars are compliant.
- Electric cars have paid Vehicle Excise Duty since 1 April 2025, including the expensive car supplement for cars over £40,000 registered from that date.
London: the Congestion Charge after January 2026
The Congestion Charge covers the central zone inside the inner ring road, roughly from Marylebone and King's Cross down to Elephant and Castle and from Hyde Park across to Tower Bridge. The charge is £18 for each day a vehicle is driven inside the zone during charging hours. It is paid in advance or by midnight of the third day after; drivers who register for Auto Pay are billed automatically. The penalty for not paying is £180, reduced to £90 if paid within 14 days.
Until 24 December 2025 a battery electric car qualified for the Cleaner Vehicle Discount and paid nothing. Transport for London ended that discount and replaced it, from 2 January 2026, with a discount that only applies to vehicles registered for Auto Pay: 25 per cent for electric cars, which makes the daily charge £13.50, and 50 per cent for electric vans, lorries and quadricycles. TfL has said the discounts will reduce again from March 2030. There is no discount at all for an electric car that pays day by day rather than through Auto Pay, so registration is now worth £4.50 a day. The 90 per cent residents' discount continues for people living inside the zone, and the exemptions for motorcycles, taxis, blue badge holders and certain other groups are unchanged.
London: the ULEZ
The Ultra Low Emission Zone is a different scheme with a different purpose. It covers the whole of Greater London since its expansion on 29 August 2023, runs 24 hours a day every day except Christmas Day, and charges £12.50 a day to vehicles that do not meet its emissions standard: Euro 4 for petrol cars, which in practice means most petrol cars registered from about 2006, Euro 6 for diesel cars, roughly those registered from September 2015, and Euro 3 for motorcycles. A car that meets the standard pays nothing and does not need to register. Every battery electric car meets it. The penalty for a non-compliant vehicle that does not pay is £180, or £90 within 14 days. TfL's online vehicle checker gives a definitive answer for a specific registration, and it is worth using even for a compliant car, because the standard is judged on the vehicle's certified emissions rather than its age.
Clean Air Zones in England
Seven English cities run charging Clean Air Zones under the government's framework. They are graded by class: a Class B zone charges buses, coaches, taxis and heavy goods vehicles; Class C adds vans and minibuses; Class D adds private cars. The zones and what they charge a non-compliant vehicle in 2026 are:
| Zone | Class | Non-compliant car | Van | Electric car |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Birmingham | D | £8 a day | £8 | No charge |
| Bristol | D | £9 a day | £9 | No charge |
| Bath | C | Not charged | £9 | No charge |
| Bradford | C | Not charged | £9 | No charge |
| Sheffield | C | Not charged | £10 | No charge |
| Tyneside (Newcastle and Gateshead) | C | Not charged | £12.50 | No charge |
| Portsmouth | B | Not charged | Not charged | No charge |
The compliance standards are the same as London's: Euro 4 petrol and Euro 6 diesel. Charges are paid through the single GOV.UK "drive in a Clean Air Zone" service, which covers all seven cities, and must be paid within six days after the day of travel. Greater Manchester's planned zone was abandoned in favour of an investment-led plan and does not charge. Oxford's Zero Emission Zone in the city centre is a separate, stricter pilot that charges even Euro 6 diesels and petrols between £2 and £10 a day; a zero-emission vehicle pays nothing.
Low Emission Zones in Scotland
Scotland took a different route. Its Low Emission Zones in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee are not charging schemes: a vehicle either meets the standard, again Euro 4 petrol and Euro 6 diesel, or it is not allowed in. A non-compliant vehicle that enters is issued a £60 penalty, halved if paid within 14 days, and the penalty doubles with each further breach within 90 days, up to £480 for a car. Glasgow's enforcement began in June 2023 and the other three cities followed in 2024. Electric vehicles are compliant everywhere. Blue badge holders can register for an exemption, and the zones operate 24 hours a day.
What an electric car now pays in tax
The other free ride that ended was road tax. From 1 April 2025 electric cars pay Vehicle Excise Duty: a new EV pays the lowest first-year rate, £10, then the standard annual rate that every car registered since April 2017 pays, which was £195 in the 2025 to 2026 tax year and rises with inflation each April. An electric car with a list price over £40,000 that was first registered on or after 1 April 2025 also pays the expensive car supplement, £425 a year in 2025 to 2026, for five years from the second year. EVs registered before that date escape the supplement. Company car drivers keep a real advantage: the benefit-in-kind rate for a zero-emission car is 4 per cent of list price in the 2026 to 2027 tax year, against 25 per cent and upwards for most petrol cars, rising by one point a year to 2028. Our road tax guide has the full tables.
The cost that matters more than any zone: where you charge
A daily zone charge is a rounding error next to the difference between home and public charging. Charging at home on an overnight EV tariff can cost as little as 7p to 9p per kilowatt-hour, and VAT on domestic electricity is 5 per cent. A public rapid charger on a motorway can cost 70p to 90p per kilowatt-hour with VAT at 20 per cent. For a typical family EV using around 3.5 miles per kilowatt-hour, that is roughly 2.5p a mile at home against 22p a mile on the motorway, which is more than a petrol car. The practical consequence is that an EV without a home or workplace charger has running costs closer to a petrol car than the headline figures suggest, and the first question for anyone considering one is not the zone map but the driveway. Renters and flat owners without off-street parking can apply for the government's EV chargepoint grant, which contributes up to £350 towards installing a charger where the landlord or freeholder agrees.
Frequently asked questions
Do electric cars still get free entry to the London Congestion Charge zone?
No. The full exemption ended on 24 December 2025. From 2 January 2026 an electric car registered for Auto Pay pays £13.50 a day, a 25 per cent discount on the standard £18. An electric car that is not registered for Auto Pay pays the full £18.
Does the ULEZ charge electric cars?
No. The ULEZ charges vehicles that fail its emissions standard, and every battery electric vehicle meets it. There is no need to register or pay, though checking your registration on TfL's vehicle checker takes a minute and removes any doubt.
Which Clean Air Zones charge private cars?
In England only Birmingham and Bristol charge non-compliant private cars, at £8 and £9 a day. The other five zones charge vans, taxis, buses and lorries only. No English zone charges an electric car.
Can I drive a non-compliant car into a Scottish Low Emission Zone if I pay?
No. The Scottish zones have no daily charge to pay. A non-compliant vehicle that enters is fined £60, and the fine doubles for repeat breaches within 90 days. A compliant or electric car enters freely.
Is a plug-in hybrid treated like an electric car?
Not in London's Congestion Charge, where the new discount is for battery electric vehicles only. For the ULEZ and the Clean Air Zones a plug-in hybrid is judged on its petrol or diesel engine's Euro standard, which almost every hybrid sold in the UK meets, so it pays nothing.