FIRST-year car tax rates are set to go up from April this year. Diesel buyers face an average increase of £1,114 - more than double the £503 rise for petrol drivers. Hybrid owners will pay between £135 and £327 extra, depending on the specific model they buy.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves made some adjustments to the VED tax bands in her Autumn Budget. Ms Reeves said she was making the changes to "strengthen incentives to purchase zero-emission and electric cars " by making it more expensive to drive petrol or diesel models. Under the bands, cars are categorised based on their C02 emissions, measured in grams per kilometre.
With the new rates, the most polluting vehicles producing over 255g/km will see a whopping £2,745 increase from £2,745 to £5,490 - a hike of 100 per cent. Here are some of the nation's best-selling new cars set to be impacted: A firm favourite among Brits, the Polo - first released in 1975 - is now in its sixth generation, on sale since 2018. Green-thinking drivers can get their hands on the 1.
0-litre TSI petrol version, with a manual transmission, in Life trim, for £22,150. But with CO2 emissions of 116g/km, buyers will see the cost of first-year VED increase from £220 to £440 from April 1. However, the Polo GTI, with its 2.
0-litre turbo petrol engine and seven-speed automatic gearbox, puts out 149g/km CO2. This means buyers will have to fork out an extra £270 in first year VED from next year when the rate doubles to £540. As mentioned, from April .
