The mileage allowance for electric cars, from the driver's seat, is one of two figures. In your own electric car, business miles earn the approved mileage allowance: 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year and 25p a mile after, tax free from your employer up to that amount, and mileage allowance relief from HMRC on any shortfall. In a company electric car you are reimbursed for electricity only, at 7p a mile for miles charged at home and 15p for miles charged in public, and there is no allowance to claim. This page is written for the driver: what to claim, what to keep, what to do when the employer pays less, and where the worksheet on this site works your own figures.
In your own electric car
Claim business miles from your employer with a log; whatever it pays up to the approved amount is tax free. At the year end, if it paid less than the approved amount, the difference is relief: claim it through self assessment if you file, or through a tax relief claim to HMRC if you do not, and the tax saved is the shortfall times your marginal rate. Home charging is not claimed separately; the allowance already stands for it.
In a company electric car
You claim electricity for business miles at the advisory rate, split between home and public charging, and nothing else; the employer owns the car and its costs. If the employer pays for all your charging you have no fuel benefit, because electricity is not fuel for that charge, though your employer may ask you to repay private miles at the rate as policy. There is no mileage allowance relief for a company car driver.
When the employer pays a flat rate
A flat rate below the approved rate on your own car leaves you a relief claim; a flat rate above it gives you taxable pay for the excess. A flat rate on a company car above the electricity rate is taxable pay for the excess unless the employer shows the true cost; below it, you are simply underpaid and have no claim. Ask which figure your employer's rate was set against.
What to keep
A log of every business journey with the date, the route, the purpose and the miles, and for a company EV where each journey's charge came from. Keep the year's running total of business miles so you know when the approved rate drops. Your employer's year-end statement of miles and payments, if it issues one, is the evidence for the relief claim.
Questions people ask about mileage allowance for electric cars
My employer pays me the electricity rate for my own EV. Is that right?
No. Your own car earns the approved mileage allowance; the electricity rate is for company cars. Claim mileage allowance relief on the shortfall between what you were paid and the approved amount.
Can I claim the cost of a home charger?
Not through the mileage allowance for your own car. For a company car, a home charger provided by the employer is exempt from a benefit charge.
Is the allowance different if I take a car allowance?
No. A cash car allowance is taxed as pay and the car stays yours, so the approved rate applies to your business miles in full.