Autumn Budget 2026 – What it means for fleets

The confirmation that benefit-in-kind tax for electric company cars will rise by just one percent to 10% in 2030/31 is welcome news and gives both employers and drivers some much-needed certainty.

Knowing the rates through to 2030/31 will help the industry work out the total cost of ownership and price four and five-year vehicle leases more accurately. It should also restore confidence in the long-term future of salary sacrifice schemes, which have a big part to play in encouraging EV take-up.

We’re disappointed, however, that the Chancellor hasn’t taken this opportunity to make used electric company cars more affordable. Drivers are still taxed on a vehicle’s original list price, even when it has depreciated significantly. Changing this could have opened up electric cars to more employees through salary sacrifice schemes, while also helping to boost demand in the second-hand market and support residual values.

The government may have claimed to remain ‘unshakably committed to net zero’, but the continued rise in electric company car tax and the introduction of pay-per-mile charging from 2028 will add to costs at a time when many businesses are already under pressure.

The extension of the fuel duty cut is obviously welcome, particularly for businesses running vans, and the increase in mileage allowance rates certainly reflects the cost of driving for work more accurately. But we need to be careful that higher allowances don’t encourage employers to move away from company cars in favour of employees using their own, potentially older and less safe vehicles.