It would seem the eyes of the world, or at least those across the Tasman, are taking an active interest in the lay of the EV land in Aotearoa.
A news item appeared recently from the Australasian Fleet Management Association (AfMa) on the mildly warm topic of the anticipated Road User Charge tax for electric vehicles, set to be introduced March 31 in 2024.
We’re not too unfamiliar with RUCs in this country, which are supposedly in place to recover revenue from non-petrol-powered vehicles to fund ahem, road upgrades and ahem ahem maintenance – sorry, diesel soot in my throat.
At a time before electric vehicles were a thing, diesel vehicles were the only ones required to pay RUCs as diesel is not taxed at the pump, this to make it easier for farmers to power their utes and tractors which spend a lot of time in the paddocks and for transport operators using trucks to offset their running costs and yes, the heavy trucks do take a toll on our roads – pun intended – due to their weight.
Then we saw a rise in diesel passenger cars as bargain-hunting Kiwis found that even with RUCs, diesel at half the price of petrol from the pump was an attractive consideration, along with the advantages of engine longevity.
The demise of light diesels is well documented, but now with the rise of the EV, the New Zealand Government (Labour at this point) has established that EVs and plug-in hybrids under 3500kg will be required to pay a tax based on the distance they travel, and this is likely to be around the same price as applied to diesels, so around 76 cents per kilometre.
The tax does not apply to EVs over 3500kg nor does it apply to self-charging hybrid or mild hybrids, which will remain tax-exempt until 2026.
Those driving petrol vehicles won’t exactly be dancing in the streets either, with the next three years expecting to see petrol excise tax due to rise by 12 cents from its current 70 cents a litre, all of which should see a $5 billion contribution to the transport fund.
The endgame plan is to remove all excise tax and convert all road users to the RUC tax regime.
August figures from the Motor Industry Association suggest electric vehicles make up around 11 per cent of all vehicles sold in New Zealand.
