Re: [EVDL] EV road taxes (was No ICE in 10 Years)
Lee Hart wrote:
> If the goal of the system is to have people pay in proportion to how
> much they use the roads, then the fee should be based on vehicle weight
> and miles driven. These are both fairly easy to measure. They could
> simply weigh the vehicle and check the odometer at each yearly
> registration.
We have this system in New Zealand. We call it Road User Charges. The law
is written such that every vehicle running on fuel not taxed at source
must pay road user charges. Petrol is taxed at source but diesel isn't.
The RUC system is generally only talked about in the context of diesel but
it also applies to electric vehicles. Electric vehicles were recently
granted an exemption until 2013 (with the option to extend).
See http://www.transport.govt.nz/ourwork/Land/RoadUserCharges/
You have to declare your maximum weight, and if you're caught on the road
overweight there are large fines. Generally, only heavy goods vehicles are
stopped at weigh bridges. There are no scales used at the safety
inspections.
This system has been in use for many many years. Recently owners of light
diesel vehicles have started complaining that the petrol equivalent of
their car pays less tax. This is a result of the increasing fuel economy
of small cars -- they burn less petrol per km and so pay less petrol tax
per km.
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