Here are 10 great cars that won't cost much in tax

Car tax is complicated and occasionally baffling. All tax tends to be that way, right? But broadly, the amount of tax you'll pay with your car depends on a combination of its CO2 emissions, how you're buying it, and how old it is when you do. A company car user, for example, pays 'benefit-in-kind' tax and Vehicle Excise Duty (VED, aka "road tax") every year, whereas a private buyer only pays the latter. Everyone pays an additional 'Expensive Car Supplement' every year if their car's list price is above £50,000. But only for the first five years of the car's life. Sigh. 

We've explained how car tax rules could affect you in this article, but ultimately, because car tax boils down to this combo of CO2 emissions and list price, any electric car (zero emissions) with a list price lower than £50,000 when new will be cheapest to tax. So, to avoid making this list simply a list of the cheapest new electric vehicles (you can find that list here if you like), we've thrown in a few plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), and picked a variety of cars that we like, not necessarily those with the lowest list prices. For those who don't feel ready to go fully electric, PHEVs are the most tax-efficient way to stick with a petrol engine, because their ability to do some zero-emissions electric-only miles leads to very low CO2 emissions overall.
All that said, it's worth mentioning that because electric cars and PHEVs are generally bigger, more complex cars, they tend to be more expensive to buy and run generally, once you account for things like insurance, fuel and depreciation. If you're just looking for the cheapest new cars to buy and run in general, you'll find those here. Anyways, here are some EVs and some PHEVs that we really like, all of which attract low tax...

Dacia Spring EV

Geely EX2

Toyota Prius PHEV

Citroen e-C4

Kia EV3

BYD Seal U

MG4 EV

Peugeot 308 PHEV