Five Million Voices

Should light electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles be required to pay road user charges from 1 April 2024?

The bill ends the road user charges exemption for light electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, bringing them into the RUC system from 1 April 2024, with a reduced rate for plug-in hybrids and a transition period.

⚡ Taken under urgency

Parliament advanced this bill under urgency (first reading) — moving it through faster than usual, with less time than normal for public submissions.

MPs’ arguments for and against the bill

Why support it
  • Supporters argued the 2009 exemption was always meant to end once light electric vehicles reached around 2 percent of the fleet, a threshold now exceeded.
  • Supporters said the bill provides a fairer transition by setting a reduced rate for plug-in hybrids, which use both petrol and electricity, and a two-month window for over 100,000 vehicles to enter the system.
  • Supporters argued that without the bill, plug-in hybrid owners would have paid the full rate and then sought refunds on petrol used, creating administrative cost and fraud risk.
Why oppose it
  • Opponents said the rates set for electric vehicles would leave them paying more than comparable fossil-fuel vehicles for the same journey, which they argued was unfair.
  • Opponents argued the pricing would shift future purchasing toward fossil-fuel vehicles and increase emissions over coming years, against stated climate goals.
  • Opponents criticised the use of urgency and short submission timeframes, saying it affected people who had already invested in electric vehicles for households or businesses such as taxis.

These are claims MPs made in Parliament’s debate — not verified facts.

Full bill summary & link to official bill page

This bill brings light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrids into the road user charges (RUC) system, ending a long-standing exemption. RUC is a distance-based charge that helps fund building and maintaining roads. Because EV drivers buy little or no petrol, they largely avoid the fuel excise duty that petrol drivers pay at the pump, so this change makes them pay a charge per kilometre travelled instead. Owners of light EVs and plug-in hybrids are directly affected.

It is a government bill. The original RUC exemption was designed to encourage early EV uptake and was always intended to end once electric vehicles reached a set share of the fleet. The argument in favour is fairness: all road users should contribute to road funding, and EV drivers were effectively using roads paid for by others. The argument against is that adding costs discourages EV uptake and works against climate goals, and that plug-in hybrids can face both fuel tax and RUC, raising double-charging concerns.

See the Parliament.nz ↗ site for the full bill.

Oppose (No) Support (Yes)

Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill · Third Reading, 28 Mar 2024
Parliament voted 102–21 — it passed.