AFP reaffirms opposition to 2028 eVED pay-per-mile duty at 2026 AGM
In its Chairman's Address, the Association of Fleet Professionals restated its Fleet Manifesto case against the government's planned electric vehicle duty, including the Manifesto's call to delay it to 2030, alongside updates on membership growth and its shared charging network.
The chair of the Association of Fleet Professionals used the Chairman's Address at the organisation's 2026 Annual General Meeting on 14 October to set out the association's year, with the government's planned eVED pay-per-mile duty on electric vehicles described as the issue that had defined the AFP's dealings with Westminster.
eVED is due to be introduced from April 2028. The AFP said it accepts the Treasury needs to replace fuel duty revenue as the vehicle parc electrifies, but objects to what it called a tax designed around the individual private motorist and then applied, almost as an afterthought, to company cars, pool vehicles and vans. Introduced on the current timetable, the association warned, eVED risks damaging new and used EV values, raising operating costs and slowing the transition.
The eVED campaign sits at the top of the fourth edition of the AFP Fleet Manifesto, published in June 2026 and the association's first since the 2024 General Election. The Manifesto describes eVED as the wrong tax at the wrong time and calls for its introduction to be postponed until 2030, to allow continued growth in EV uptake and give industry time to adjust systems and processes. It also flags that the proposed structure requires upfront payment with adjustments made twelve months later following mileage verification, raising questions over recording, reporting and validation of mileage and the administrative burden on operators and drivers. The Manifesto further notes that eVED currently applies exclusively to electric cars, with the government's stance on electric vans still unclear, something the AFP says could be detrimental to businesses already contending with van electrification challenges.
On van electrification, the Manifesto's Zero Emission Van Plan campaign sets out three asks: increased fiscal support through grants for new and used electric vans, improved and affordable charging infrastructure, and removal of regulatory barriers to achieve full alignment between 4.25-tonne zero-emission vans and equivalent petrol and diesel vans.
The Manifesto also calls for an enhanced EV labelling system, including a WLTP grid showing range at no, medium and full loads in warm, normal and cold conditions plus towing capacity, kWh-per-mile efficiency ratings for all EVs, and visible AC/DC charging speeds at the charging flap.
On charging infrastructure, the AFP wants a dedicated chargepoint regulator to oversee pricing, enable contactless and corporate billing, and ensure advertised charger output is actually delivered, alongside a cut in VAT on public charging from 20% to 5% to match home charging, and a national kerbside charging strategy. The association's own shared charging network, run with partner Evata and allowing operators to open their chargers to other fleets, has reached ultra-rapid coverage in 15 of London's 33 boroughs in just over a year, with potential to scale to around 11,000 sites nationally.
The Manifesto separately welcomes the government's new Road Safety Strategy, which targets a 65% reduction in fatalities and serious injuries on Britain's roads by 2035, saying member feedback indicates the measures are prudent and well-constructed.
The AFP also reported continued membership growth, now standing at over 2,000 following 28% growth in 2025, and said FleetCheck has funded 50 bursary memberships for operators that would otherwise not be able to join, to be awarded before the end of 2026, alongside FleetCheck's move to Platinum membership.
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