No road user charges feature in govt's electric vehicles package

Thursday 5th May 2016

Drivers of electric vehicles won't have to pay road user charges and will be allowed to drive in bus lanes as part of a new government plan to double EV numbers annually to a target 64,000 by 2021.

Transport Minister Simon Bridges announced the long-awaited package, which he had always warned would be modest, which includes $5 million over five years to promote EV uptake, a $6 million contestable fund to encourage low emission vehicle projects, and will allow EVs to drive in bus and high-occupancy vehicle lanes. There are just over 1,000 EVs on New Zealand roads today, according to the EV lobby, Drive Electric.

There would be "work across government and the private sector to support the bulk purchase of EVs" but no explicit subsidies other than a saving of around $600 a year on RUCs until EVs reach 2 percent of the national fleet, Bridges announced. The exemption will relate to private passenger vehicles and heavy vehicles running on electricity.

The Green Party called the package "unfair and counterproductive."

Its transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter said the Greens would "exempt electric vehicles from fringe benefit tax, a move that would cut at least $8,000 off a $40,000 electric vehicle" and require that 20 percent of new government cars be electric within seven years.

The government package includes "a review of tax depreciation rates and the method of calculating fringe benefit tax to ensure electric vehicles are not being unfairly disadvantaged."

One of the main problems for EV uptake in New Zealand has been the limited range of affordable vehicle choices. While the all-electric Nissan Leaf started to find a market at around $40,000 a car, Nissan's supply at that price from Australia came to an end and new models have not been offered since last November.

Also on Bridges' agenda is a review of the ACC levies for plug-in hybrid EVs, establishment of Electric Vehicles Leadership Group from business, local and central government, and an instruction to the New Zealand Transport Agency to support the rollout of EV charging facilities around the country.

Elsewhere, the newly formed Electricity Retailers Association of New Zealand appointed communications professional Jennie Langley as its independent president.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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