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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#3406214 21-Aug-2025 16:54

wellygary:

smac:

The "do trucks pay enough" question is a really messy one.

But is that enough? I think you could make equally plausible arguments for either side of that...

Yip, and then there is the regional variations,

By a huge degree most of the Heavy traffic will be concentrated on the main SH trunk network, - Particularly around the Golden triangle. I doubt many of lesser travelled SHs have enough Heavy traffic to cover their ongoing up keep costs....

The big problem is where you have SHs though the centre of towns, and that is also their main road. It is often a rutted mess. IMO thye need more truck bypasses. Some towns do, but then business can lose business. But we really need to ask what has changed in the last 30 years.

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#3406215 21-Aug-2025 17:03

As a motorcyclist I’m a fan of RUC - it drops the fuel price a fair bit, and one can ride multiple bikes and just pay for km’s ridden.

what I’m not such a fan of is paying nearly $600 per year per bike for ACC. I don’t mind paying ACC, but I would prefer to pay it once.

I would also like to see the rates changed from engine capacity (cc) to power (kw).

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mudguard

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#3406218 21-Aug-2025 17:41

TwoSeven:

As a motorcyclist I’m a fan of RUC - it drops the fuel price a fair bit, and one can ride multiple bikes and just pay for km’s ridden.

what I’m not such a fan of is paying nearly $600 per year per bike for ACC. I don’t mind paying ACC, but I would prefer to pay it once.

I would also like to see the rates changed from engine capacity (cc) to power (kw).

Yeah I don't think RUCS will affect riders much, it's not the problem. As you point out, it's the rego. It seems ridiculous that a 50cc scooter pays $433 per year. You've got Surrons now punching out 8kW on the odd street (illegally).

My partner has put her rego on hold for the winter. I do feel like it's a dying method of transport, expensive rego and 99% of bikes are manual.

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#3406280 21-Aug-2025 19:38

mudguard:

As you point out, it's the rego. It seems ridiculous that a 50cc scooter pays $433 per year. You've got Surrons now punching out 8kW on the odd street (illegally).

My partner has put her rego on hold for the winter. I do feel like it's a dying method of transport, expensive rego and 99% of bikes are manual.

Hmm... As far as i know those 2000W e bikes that can go past the open road speed limit don't pay rego, need no license, and don't pay ACC levy... Albeit are also illegal...

mudguard

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#3406290 21-Aug-2025 20:35

Batman:

mudguard:

As you point out, it's the rego. It seems ridiculous that a 50cc scooter pays $433 per year. You've got Surrons now punching out 8kW on the odd street (illegally).

My partner has put her rego on hold for the winter. I do feel like it's a dying method of transport, expensive rego and 99% of bikes are manual.

Hmm... As far as i know those 2000W e bikes that can go past the open road speed limit don't pay rego, need no license, and don't pay ACC levy... Albeit are also illegal...

Most genuine ebikes are also technically illegal (IE Specialized Levo etc) on the street or footpath. But I suspect that's the law not catching up. There are probably some commuter ebikes with less than the legal 350W. Or it might be 300W. I can't remember.

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#3406305 21-Aug-2025 21:46

Batman:

Hmm... As far as i know those 2000W e bikes that can go past the open road speed limit don't pay rego, need no license, and don't pay ACC levy... Albeit are also illegal...

Well, you can operate any kind of vehicle, skipping out the compliance requirements if you are find with doing so illegally.

mudguard:

Most genuine ebikes are also technically illegal (IE Specialized Levo etc) on the street or footpath. But I suspect that's the law not catching up. There are probably some commuter ebikes with less than the legal 350W. Or it might be 300W. I can't remember.

Limit is 300W (and it needs to be set up for peddling, a motor scooter type setup where the peddles can be removed and stored under the seat is not acceptable).

While many of the most expensive off road bikes are over the limit, the bulk of e-bikes are either 250W or 300W. That sort of boost is enough to turn an average joe into a lance Armstrong.

e-scooters get the same 300W limit. Overpowered e-scooters are much more common than overpowered e-bikes.

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#3406307 21-Aug-2025 21:56

TwoSeven:

As a motorcyclist I’m a fan of RUC - it drops the fuel price a fair bit, and one can ride multiple bikes and just pay for km’s ridden.

what I’m not such a fan of is paying nearly $600 per year per bike for ACC. I don’t mind paying ACC, but I would prefer to pay it once.

I would also like to see the rates changed from engine capacity (cc) to power (kw).

Unclear what is going to happen with motorbikes.

Objectively it would be fair for motorcycles to pay the standard light vehicle rate (a light vehicle does negligible road damage, and I think it is fair that a motorcycle chips in similar to a car for upgrades, weather related damage, age based maintenance etc)

and I think most motorcyclists would be fine doing so.

But for some reason, All electric vehicles under 1000kg GVM (pretty much motorcycles), have been exempt from RUC. It was a late change in the roll out. Government never said why, and the exemption doesn't have an expiry date. Kinda sets a precedent for all motorcycles to be exempt.

HarmLessSolutions

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#3434143 13-Nov-2025 16:44

Moves on RUCs are happening:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/578768/bill-to-expand-road-user-charges-introduced

https://www.harmlesssolutions.co.nz/

gzt

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#3434162 13-Nov-2025 18:12

Nothing about rucs for ice in the article, or any changes to the EV/PHEV regime. Article mostly looks like the new legislation enables more toll roads.

HarmLessSolutions

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#3434164 13-Nov-2025 18:35

gzt: Nothing about rucs for ice in the article, or any changes to the EV/PHEV regime. Article mostly looks like the new legislation enables more toll roads.

That was in Bishop's August announcement (link on the RNZ page). This bill is setting in place the monitoring system in readiness.

"It won't happen overnight, but it will happen" as the saying goes.

Maybe time to invest in EROAD shares?

https://www.harmlesssolutions.co.nz/

scuwp

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#3434240 13-Nov-2025 21:57

gzt: Nothing about rucs for ice in the article, or any changes to the EV/PHEV regime. Article mostly looks like the new legislation enables more toll roads.

This is just the provisioning legislation enabling a retail market for RUC (separating the NZTA's dual responsibility as the seller and regulator), also getting ready to remove the paper labels.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

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HarmLessSolutions

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#3436019 19-Nov-2025 16:54

HarmLessSolutions:

Behodar:

Yeah, it looks like I'm going to end up paying more as well. I currently pay around $30/1000 km in FED, so going to anywhere near $76 is going to cost me more. And as someone else already pointed it, there's no way that the petrol stations will actually reduce prices by the full 70c/litre.

The National Land Transport Fund part of FET is 70c/L +GST so 80.5c/L for most of us.

That said I would be both surprised and disappointed if the petrol pump price dropped by that much. It would reduce the disincentive of running a high consumption vehicle so a windfall for V8s, DCUs, etc so an increase in carbon/ETS taxation needs to be part of this RUC system change to correct the balance in terms of emissions reduction.

So maybe the coalition government do have a conscience so far as disincentivising petrol consumption is concerned. Not described as a 'carbon tax' as such but an extra 50c/L of any tax will have the same effect none the less.

https://www.thepress.co.nz/politics/360891641/transport-minister-chris-bishop-says-funding-56-billion-roads-challenge

https://www.harmlesssolutions.co.nz/

gzt

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#3436040 19-Nov-2025 18:03

Doesn't the article say he ain't gonna do that?

"Transport Minister Chris Bishop says funding the $56 billion in roads promised by the Government would require a nearly 50c per litre lift in petrol taxes, on top of the coming 12 cents increase in 2027. Bishop has not proposed that petrol taxes be so substantially increased, and instead plans to phase out petrol taxes in the coming years"

HarmLessSolutions

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#3436044 19-Nov-2025 18:24

gzt: Doesn't the article say he ain't gonna do that?

"Transport Minister Chris Bishop says funding the $56 billion in roads promised by the Government would require a nearly 50c per litre lift in petrol taxes, on top of the coming 12 cents increase in 2027. Bishop has not proposed that petrol taxes be so substantially increased, and instead plans to phase out petrol taxes in the coming years"

Typical political double speak. They've got an expenditure blowout (surprise, surprise) and have to increase revenue to cover it. We're being softened up for either a petrol tax hike or RUC increase. As the RUC implementation across the whole fleet is going to have significant push-back my money is on a more opaque petrol tax hit despite what Bishop is saying.

https://www.harmlesssolutions.co.nz/

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#3436115 20-Nov-2025 08:55

HarmLessSolutions:

Typical political double speak. They've got an expenditure blowout (surprise, surprise) and have to increase revenue to cover it.

Imagine if that had happened under a Labour government. National would be cancelling that fe^H^Hroad to replace it with a cheaper (more expensive) (not even including all the penalty fees), windier road delivered several years later, after the existing road was more pothole than asphalt so fast your head would spin.

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