The Kākā by Bernard Hickey
Choruses
EVs to be taxed twice as hard as petrol cars
0:00
-7:52

Paid episode

The full episode is only available to paid subscribers of The Kākā by Bernard Hickey

EVs to be taxed twice as hard as petrol cars

New Govt repealed 'ute tax' to level tax playing field, but new RUCs regime means electric cars will pay twice as much tax as efficient cars and the same as utes doing twice as much road damage
82
A Ford Ranger in Foxton. Photo by Lynn Grieveson for The Kākā

TL;DR: The new ‘level playing field’ designed to ensure electric car owners also pay to maintain the roads has turned into a punishment regime for those who bought electric cars, who will end up paying twice as much per kilometre as owners of efficient petrol cars.

Also, owners of the likes of a Nissan Leaf or Tesla Y will pay the same tax per kilometre as owners of Ford Rangers, even though the utes do twice as much road damage because they’re twice as heavy. A Road User Charge (RUCs) system designed to be fairer has ended up being used to punish buyers of electric cars who benefited from the ‘ute tax’ system repealed by the National-ACT-NZ First Government as unfair.

Full paying subscribers can read and hear more detail in my Dawn Chorus podcast above and below the paywall fold. Join our community of paying subscribers to get access to ‘Hoon’ webinars, our private chat system and be able to comment on articles. Paying subscribers also support the public interest journalism we do at The Kākā on housing affordability, climate emissions and poverty.

RUCs punishment regime doubles the pain for EV buyers

Listen to this episode with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to The Kākā by Bernard Hickey to listen to this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey
Choruses
The latest daily snapshot of the news, detail, insight and analysis on geo-politics, the global economy, business, markets and the local political economy for citizens and decision-makers of Aotearoa-NZ.