Expensive car supplement

About the expensive car supplement

The expensive car supplement (ECS) is an additional road tax (Vehicle Excise Duty) charge that applies to some vehicles when they are first registered.

If this cost applies to your vehicle, it's already included in your monthly lease payments.

What's changed?

In November 2025, the Government increased the ECS threshold from £40,000 to £50,000 for eligible vehicles.

The threshold is based on the vehicle’s list price when new, which is sometimes called the recommended retail price.  As a result, the ECS no longer applies to some vehicles that were previously affected.

If your vehicle is no longer subject to the ECS, we'll make sure you don't pay more than you should.

Getting a refund

You don't need to do anything - we'll refund you automatically. 

You'll typically get a refund shortly after your vehicle registration anniversary. 

You can find this date by logging into MMV and looking for your ‘contract start date’.

We'll check if you need a refund after your vehicle registration anniversary, which is the same as your contract start date. 

We need to do this check before we can refund you, so please don’t contact us for an earlier payment.

Some years you may need to pay for an annual increase in road tax (also known as RFL). If this increase happens in the same year as your ECS refund, rather than collect an extra RFL payment, we'll adjust your ECS refund and take the extra payment from there.

How we'll pay your refund

More expensive car supplement questions

  • We'll contact you to discuss what happens next.

    If you're worried about money, go to our money worries support page. 

  • If your vehicle registration anniversary has already passed, you might have already had a refund or credit for the ECS. 

    Log in to Manage My Vehicle (MMV) and check to see if a credit note has been added.

    If you can see a credit note, it means we have already processed your ECS refund for that period.

  • No. Your lease agreement and monthly payments will stay the same. We'll review your vehicle each year to check whether the ECS applies. If it doesn't, we'll continue to refund any ECS you've paid. 

    Your monthly payment will not go down because your lease agreement was set up using the ECS rules in place when your vehicle was ordered. If ECS no longer applies, we’ll refund any amount you have paid that you should not have paid.

  • If you have recently returned your vehicle, we’ll still check if you are due an ECS refund. If you are, we’ll process it for you.

    You don't need to contact us unless we ask you for more information.

We're here to help

Telling us about any accessibility needs or life events helps us support you in the best possible way. 

If you have any questions or would like some extra support, please visit our help centre. 

If you can’t find the answer you need, call us on 0344 879 6633. 

This is also the best phone number to use if you want to tell us about any extra support you might need from us. Lines are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. We close at weekends and on bank holidays.  

You can also tell us more about your situation in Manage My Vehicle.

 

Money worries

If you’re finding it hard to manage your monthly payments, call on 0344 241 5335.  Our lines are open Monday to Friday, 8am to 5.30pm. 

Go to money worries Link opens in same tab

 

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