Five winners in new car tax bands

Vehicle excise duty will be changed in 2009, though the big increases have been put on hold until 2010, with 'gas guzzlers' hit hard. Greener cars should benefit, though, so here's our list of the top five VED winners. Alistair Darling has confirmed what we already knew in this week's pre budget speech - that Vehicle Excise Duty bands will change in 2009 to penalise the most carbon inefficient cars. Though the tariffs will only increase modestly for 2009, some drivers will be hit hard from 2010 on. There are currently seven bands (from A-G), with cars emitting less than 100g/km of CO₂ charged nothing, up to those emitting over 225g/km, charged £400 per year. Initially the Government intended to include all cars built after 2001, but with the credit crunch biting hard it has scrapped plans to drag existing motors into the new bands. Generally speaking, new cars that emit more than 151g/km of CO₂ will be charged more under the changes. Still, there's never been a better time to choose a greener car, so we pick our top five VED eco winners here - and there's not a hybrid in sight.