- Tax on electric vehicles in South Australia and Victoria would slam brakes on sales
- Letter to the editor: Why electric vehicle owners should pay fuel tax
Articles:
- Think taxing electric-vehicle use is a backward step? An important policy advance
- Victoria and South Australia should think again about how they treat electric vehicles
- A great big new tax on not polluting
- Why EV drivers need to pay their fair share of tax
Should there be a road tax on electric vehicles?
The number of electric vehicles on Australian roads is growing. In response to this, last year both the South Australian and Victorian Governments announced plans to introduce a road tax on electric vehicles. Under the new proposal, electric vehicles would be taxed 2.5cents per km they travel - they would pay this at the same time as their annual car registration by self reporting the kms they have travelled during year.
The government has proposed this tax because they estimate that there will be a shortage of funds to pay for roads by 2030. This shortage of funds will be due to more people choosing to drive electric cars because, at the moment, owners of vehicles powered by conventional fuels (i.e unleaded or diesel petrol) pay a fuel tax (known as a fuel excise) for each litre of fuel they buy at a petrol station.
This fuel tax is used to maintain and build new roads. Critics of the electric vehicle tax argue that it will slow the uptake of electric vehicles and be a bad move for the environment. Supporters of the proposal argue that it’s only fair electric vehicles should pay for using the roads.
