Vehicle tax 2026: With these electric cars you don’t pay for the battery
Electric cars are currently exempt from vehicle tax, but that will change from 2025. However, it is not yet entirely clear what will happen with the vehicle tax for electric vehicles. In any case, you don’t pay for the weight of the battery for one type of vehicle.
Electric cars are heavier than comparable cars with gasoline engines. This is due to the battery pack. If the regulations are not adjusted, this means that you will have to pay a high vehicle tax for electric cars. You can read exactly how this works here.
Vehicle tax 2025 and 2026
Electric cars are currently exempt from vehicle tax, but that will change from 2025. This doesn’t just apply to cars. “No exception will be made,” the Treasury Department tells Autovisie. In the future, vehicle tax will also have to be paid for electric motorcycles, quads and trikes.
It is not yet entirely clear what will happen to the vehicle tax for electric vehicles. In one type of vehicle you certainly don’t pay for the weight of the battery: the L7e category.
The L7e category also includes quads, buggies and some small logistics vehicles.
With these electric cars you don’t pay for the battery
It’s important to know that road tax is based on a car’s curb weight, more commonly known as the “curb weight of the vehicle.” When it comes to small cars, there is something strange about both the curb weight and the ready-to-drive mass. Let’s take the Microlino as an example.
According to the L7e rules, a small car like the Microlino can weigh a maximum of 450 kilograms. The values registered with the RDW are: 335 kilograms as the unladen mass of the vehicle and 435 kilograms as the ready-to-drive mass (in the case of the middle class).
If we look at the specifications of the Microlino itself, we see that the medium range weighs 613 kilograms including the battery. Significantly more than the permitted 450 kilograms.
Nevertheless, the Microlino has an L7e license plate. This is because an L7e vehicle is weighed without batteries. Without the battery, the Microlino weighs 435 kilograms. Therefore, vehicle tax is also charged for the car without a battery.
The Microlino is not allowed to transport an unlimited number of kilos of batteries. For example, the RDW Autovisie states: “When registering the vehicle, the technically permissible maximum mass is checked and not the mass in running condition.”
“This technically permissible maximum mass of the Microlino is significantly higher than the mass when ready to drive, namely 750 kilograms. This means that the weight of the small electric car including the drive battery(s) must not exceed the technically permissible maximum mass.”
L7e an example of how it should be done?
If the regulations remain unchanged for 2025 and 2026, you will definitely not pay for the battery pack for small cars. It would make sense if electric cars also received corresponding regulations. Perhaps the government can take the self-created L7e category as an example.