EV owners may be hit with high ACC levies

Proposed ACC levy rises will see EV owners paying up to $40 more than owners of hybrids or small petrol cars, says Drive Electric.

Its submission to the ACC says EV owners will pay $109.60 a year while owners of fuel-efficient hybrid petrol vehicles could pay $69 and efficient petrol cars $93.

Drive Electric chair Kirsten Corson says the proposal is “really poor timing” after the government ditched cash incentives for EVs, imposed EV road user charges (RUC) and weakened tailpipe emissions standards for car imports, RNZ reports.

“BEVs (battery electric vehicles) will pay higher ACC levies than efficient petrol vehicles if they are driving the average number of kilometres, when they are likely to be safer vehicles,” says Drive Electric. 

“For example, EVs will pay the same total levy ($109.60) as a petrol car that consumes 967 litres of petrol per year. A 4.5 L/100 km petrol vehicle would have to drive 21,489 km to pay the same total levy $109.60 as a BEV. Most drivers are driving between 10k-14k km. 

“The ACC proposal doesn’t appear to take into account that BEVs are on the whole newer and safer than the average petrol fleet.”

Most BEVs were bought in the last four years and the average light vehicle fleet is 15 years old, says Drive Elecric, adding the fuel efficiency distortion is also at play in RUCs with BEVs paying higher RUC rates than comparable petrol and petrol hybrid vehicles, according to industry analysis. 

“The question is why would we want to send a negative signal to the market about BEVs, relative to some petrol cars, through RUCs and ACC levy?” says Drive Electric.

“EVs are a superior technology that bring drivers enhanced running costs overall, less imported fossil fuels, and fewer emissions from our transport fleet.”

ACC minister Matt Doocey wants to remove discounted levies for EVs on July 1, 2025, which ACC says totalled $9.8 million in subsidies during the past three years, says RNZ.

The minister says owners of 75,000 EVs here were exposed to the same risk as drivers of petrol vehicles and should not be paying less than others into the accident fund, it adds.

ACC says it has no data to determine whether low-emission vehicles are safer or riskier than petrol vehicles, RNZ says.

Tesla New Zealand’s submission to the ACC levy proposal is similar to Drive Electrics and suggests ACC takes “a more sophisticated approach to motor vehicle levies, that is data-driven and more akin to its approach to the Work Account, as well as removing the fuel-efficiency distortion”.