In short: HM Treasury has confirmed the Budget will be on 28 October 2026. For EV drivers, the main things to watch are the final shape of the Electric Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED) legislation, any news on the temporary zero rate of VAT on household electricity, and what happens to home chargepoint grants after March 2027. We will update this page after the Budget.
HM Treasury announced on 31 July 2026 that the Budget will take place on 28 October 2026. This is not a preview of what the Chancellor will announce. It is a list of the open questions that matter to our readers, based on what the government has already published.
1. eVED legislation
eVED, the pay-per-mile charge on electric and plug-in hybrid cars, is due to start on 1 April 2028: 3p a mile for battery electric and hydrogen cars, and 1.5p a mile for plug-in hybrids and range extenders, according to HM Treasury’s policy paper.
Draft legislation was published on 13 July 2026 as part of Finance Bill 2026-27, and the technical consultation closed on 7 September. What to watch:
- whether the Finance Bill that follows the Budget includes eVED as drafted
- whether the rates or the start date change
- whether the law sets out how rates will rise with inflation. The government’s policy is that rates rise with CPI from 2029 to 2030. The accountancy body ICAEW said in September that the draft sets fixed rates with no indexation mechanism.
The government has also promised updates by the end of 2026 on more refund situations and an optional connected-car route for reporting mileage. See our eVED explainer.
2. VAT on household electricity
Household electricity in Great Britain is charged at 0% VAT from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027, according to HMRC. Ofgem said that without this change, the October price cap rise would have been around £45 higher.
The measure is temporary. Watch for any statement on whether it ends as planned. If it does, the 5% reduced rate would apply again from April 2027. See our VAT explainer.
3. Home chargepoint grants after March 2027
The OZEV grants for renters and flat owners and for households with on-street parking pay up to £500 per socket, and are funded until 31 March 2027. GOV.UK describes 2026 to 2027 as a final year for these grants. Any successor support would be news.
4. The Electric Car Grant
The Electric Car Grant, worth up to £3,750 off eligible new cars, runs until 31 March 2030. The government says total funding has been increased to £2 billion and that the grant had supported over 140,000 sales by July 2026. Watch for any change to funding or the rules.
5. The energy price cap
The Budget does not set the price cap; Ofgem does. Ofgem will announce the cap for January to March 2027 by 25 November 2026. See our price cap explainer.
What we will do
We will check the Budget documents on the day and update our explainers where anything changes. Every page shows when it was last checked.
Sources
- Budget date announcement, HM Treasury, 31 July 2026
- Electric Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED) policy paper, HM Treasury
- Finance Bill 2026-27: draft legislation and technical tax documents, HMRC
- ICAEW responds to draft Finance Bill provisions, ICAEW
- Revenue and Customs Brief 10 (2026), HMRC
- Changes to electric vehicle chargepoint grant schemes from 1 April 2026, OZEV
- Energy price cap will rise by 4% from October 2026, Ofgem
- Changes to energy price cap between 1 October and 31 December 2026, Ofgem
Last checked: 19 October 2026
Image credit: Robert Lamb via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.
