RUCs to apply to all vehicles (incl EVs), replacing road user tax on petrol

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › RUCs to apply to all vehicles (incl EVs), replacing road user tax on petrol

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#3400680 7-Aug-2025 13:13

waikariboy:

does anyone know how often RUC rates go up?

Since 2012, they go up when petrol taxes go. Such that a light RUC vehicle pays the same as a petrol vehicle consuming 9.5L/100k. That number is the key issue here. An old previa uses quite a bit more than that, but a Yaris hybrid uses three point something L/100km...

On petrol tax increases, current administration has replaced the a series of gradual increases starting in mid-2026 proposed by the prior administration, with a single 12c increase all at once in 2027. One would hope there are not increases for a few years after that, given that increase is around 17%.

Recent history of RUC rates (AI generated):

Effective Date

RUC Rate (NZD)

Notes

Pre-2012

Varies

Rates were not aligned with petrol excise equivalents.

July 2012

$62

First alignment with petrol excise duty (FED) equivalent.

July 2013

$68

Annual adjustment.

July 2014

$72

Continued alignment with FED.

July 2015–2019

$76

Rate stabilized at $76 per 1,000 km.

July 2020

$76

Confirmed as standard rate

April 2022–June 2023

$49 (approx.)

Temporary 36% discount during cost-of-living relief

July 2023

$76

Discount ended; standard rate reinstated.

April 2024

$76

EVs and PHEVs begin paying RUC at this rate

tweake

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#3400782 7-Aug-2025 17:32

PolicyGuy:

mattwnz:

As they said it was going to be based on weight, I wonder if EVs may end up paying more due to them being heavier.
But they do need to get people moving away from these fuel hungry old vehicles and this move doesn’t help with that. Whereas the status quo does help

Not unless they make a major change to the RUC system.
At the moment the bottom tier is "less than 3.5 tonnes", so current BEVs will continue to be in that.

it used to be a lot less. eg we used to get 2 ton ruc for the utes instead of the 3 ton you actually need if you carry any load. if i remember right you could go as low as 1 ton. they can bring that back, based off manufactures GVM. a lot easier to do that these days.

HarmLessSolutions

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#3400784 7-Aug-2025 17:42

tweake:

PolicyGuy:

Not unless they make a major change to the RUC system.
At the moment the bottom tier is "less than 3.5 tonnes", so current BEVs will continue to be in that.

it used to be a lot less. eg we used to get 2 ton ruc for the utes instead of the 3 ton you actually need if you carry any load. if i remember right you could go as low as 1 ton. they can bring that back, based off manufactures GVM. a lot easier to do that these days.

The magnitude of road wear between 2 or 3T is negligible so hardly worth differentiating RUCs between lesser weights. Besides which the proportion of RUCs that actually relates to weight is not as much as many would assume so the effect would be minimal in any case.

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olivernz

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#3400785 7-Aug-2025 17:51

Truck does 30-40x the damage. are they going to pay accordingly? Sure think not. That would ruin trade. But that does mean transport subsidises industry. Or do we tax vehicles the actual amount and make rail finally an attractive alternative?

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#3400786 7-Aug-2025 17:52

Weight is said to be a factor in the charges, yes.

HarmLessSolutions

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#3400787 7-Aug-2025 18:19

olivernz:

Truck does 30-40x the damage. are they going to pay accordingly? Sure think not. That would ruin trade. But that does mean transport subsidises industry. Or do we tax vehicles the actual amount and make rail finally an attractive alternative?

Love to see rail being used more. We have a rail line feeding Port Taranaki on our boundary and the lack of logs being carried on it is as disappointing as the appalling state of SH3 that the log trucks use. Log trains were a thing for a while but apparently economics changed and most of them were transported by road after that.

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#3400788 7-Aug-2025 18:25

HarmLessSolutions:

Love to see rail being used more. We have a rail line feeding Port Taranaki on our boundary and the lack of logs being carried on it is as disappointing as the appalling state of SH3 that the log trucks use. Log trains were a thing for a while but apparently economics changed and most of them were transported by road after that.

I'm not sure there's railway lines into the forests where those truck get loaded with logs. I think that might be the flaw in your argument.

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HarmLessSolutions

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#3400790 7-Aug-2025 18:32

Technofreak:

HarmLessSolutions:

Love to see rail being used more. We have a rail line feeding Port Taranaki on our boundary and the lack of logs being carried on it is as disappointing as the appalling state of SH3 that the log trucks use. Log trains were a thing for a while but apparently economics changed and most of them were transported by road after that.

I'm not sure there's railway lines into the forests where those truck get loaded with logs. I think that might be the flaw in your argument.

Considering those logs are being transported from well beyond Wanganui the economics of using a railhead nearer the harvesting area can be overcome by way of beneficial pricing to incentivise rail was having the desired effect initially so why not now. And before you criticise the idea of incentives perhaps view them as preventative maintenance of the roading that is otherwise used.

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MadEngineer

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#3400791 7-Aug-2025 18:42

I imagine it should be simple to implement this in an EFTPOS terminal. You can already be prompted to enter your milage when paying with a fuel card, surely they could extend that to record your milage and automatically ask if you'd also like to buy some more miles.

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mattwnz

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#3400803 7-Aug-2025 19:04

some people with smaller less polluting cars are going to end up paying a lot more it seems. Eg if you have a small hybrid with a 50 litre tank and it can do almost 1000km on a single fill, then the lower fuel price isn’t going to come close to making up the cost difference of the additional RUCs. It actually makes it more attractive to have an inefficient polluting car than the status quo. I imagine it also makes getting an EV even less attractive as electricity charges are increasing a lot.

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#3400806 7-Aug-2025 19:09

HarmLessSolutions:

Considering those logs are being transported from well beyond Wanganui the economics of using a railhead nearer the harvesting area can be overcome by way of beneficial pricing to incentivise rail was having the desired effect initially so why not now. And before you criticise the idea of incentives perhaps view them as preventative maintenance of the roading that is otherwise used.

On the face of it some sort of incentive could be worth thinking about. Quite often though such incentives can create unintended consequences and or create a distortion to the transport market. The bigger issue is likely the handling cost involved in transferring from trucks to rail. I would hesitate to guess there is a distance at which these costs aren't a barrier and the current distances don't meet this threshold.

I'd love to see heavy loads like logs off the road and onto rail but I don't know what the solution is.

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#3400811 7-Aug-2025 19:34

mattwnz:

some people with smaller less polluting cars are going to end up paying a lot more it seems. Eg if you have a small hybrid with a 50 litre tank and it can do almost 1000km on a single fill, then the lower fuel price isn’t going to come close to making up the cost difference of the additional RUCs. It actually makes it more attractive to have an inefficient polluting car than the status quo. I imagine it also makes getting an EV even less attractive as electricity charges are increasing a lot.

Basically, what you are describing is why this needs to happen, more fuel efficient cars on the road means less feul excise and tax to make and repair roads, this makes it a level playing field for all cars.

I support this, yes some people will be paying more but it is a much fairer system.

EVs are not less attractive because of rising electricity costs; in many households, solar panels were put on the roof to charge the car for free. The reason they are less attractive is that they have gone from zero mileage tax to RUCs.
PHEV are going to be the winner here, they pay petrol tax and RUC.

This is just levelling the playing field, if you want petrol / diesel / hydrogen / electric power, you just pay the same per KM.

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#3400816 7-Aug-2025 19:46

SATTV:

mattwnz:

some people with smaller less polluting cars are going to end up paying a lot more it seems. Eg if you have a small hybrid with a 50 litre tank and it can do almost 1000km on a single fill, then the lower fuel price isn’t going to come close to making up the cost difference of the additional RUCs. It actually makes it more attractive to have an inefficient polluting car than the status quo. I imagine it also makes getting an EV even less attractive as electricity charges are increasing a lot.

Basically, what you are describing is why this needs to happen, more fuel efficient cars on the road means less feul excise and tax to make and repair roads, this makes it a level playing field for all cars.

I support this, yes some people will be paying more but it is a much fairer system.

EVs are not less attractive because of rising electricity costs; in many households, solar panels were put on the roof to charge the car for free. The reason they are less attractive is that they have gone from zero mileage tax to RUCs.
PHEV are going to be the winner here, they pay petrol tax and RUC.

This is just levelling the playing field, if you want petrol / diesel / hydrogen / electric power, you just pay the same per KM.

John

I really have a problem with claims that those of us who charge our EVs from solar do so for free. It insinuates that the generation from our PV has no value. It's cost when used to charge an EV is whatever your FIT is because consuming it denies you that income. Universal RUCs will serve to reset the balance.

Our FIT is close to our night rate of 18c/kWh and based on that our EVs' 'fuel' costs us about 3.5c/km. Paying 7.6c/km of RUC isn't great but it is fair for our using the roads and bringing all other vehicles up to the same RUC rate was always going to happen at some stage so best Chris Bishop and his mates get their A into G to make it happen for everybody.

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johno1234

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#3400817 7-Aug-2025 19:47

Dingbatt:

In the interim, maybe some admin and the postage costs could be alleviated by having kiosks to dispense RUC certificates?

They are eliminating the window cards. It will be all digital.

johno1234

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#3400819 7-Aug-2025 19:51

mattwnz:

some people with smaller less polluting cars are going to end up paying a lot more it seems. Eg if you have a small hybrid with a 50 litre tank and it can do almost 1000km on a single fill, then the lower fuel price isn’t going to come close to making up the cost difference of the additional RUCs. It actually makes it more attractive to have an inefficient polluting car than the status quo. I imagine it also makes getting an EV even less attractive as electricity charges are increasing a lot.

RUC has nothing to do with emissions. It is for road works only.

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