SA Electric Vehicle Tax Bill Looms

Victoria and New South Wales have played their cards on “road user charges” for electric vehicles – and South Australia will soon do the same.

Last year, the South Australian government announced its intentions to introduce a road user charge for plug-in electric and zero emission vehicles. At that point, SA Treasurer Rob Lucas said the proposed charge was to include a fixed component and a variable charge based on distance travelled.

The news met with mixed reactions, but the backlash against it was strong enough for the Marshall Government to go pretty quiet on it – for a while. In February this year, a state parliamentary committee was told Victoria’s new user-charge model was being considered for South Australia.

On Tuesday, in what was Rob Lucas’s last budget before he drives off into the sunset (vehicle type unknown) and towards the end of his 11-page Budget speech, he mentioned:

“Consistent with the commitment in last year’s budget and now that legislation has passed in Victoria the government will introduce in the coming weeks its promised bill for a road user charge for electric vehicles.”

So, it won’t be long before we get to see what has been cooked up.

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UPDATE 11.15 AM: According to an article from March on The Driven, Rob Lucas said the scheduled start date for whatever the Marshall Government intends attempting to implement is July 2022.
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Here’s what’s happening in other states that the Marshall Government has been scrutinising.

Victoria – ZLEV Road User Charge

On the take side, Victoria’s Andrews Government has introduced a 2.5 cents per-kilometre Zero And Low-Emissions Vehicles (ZLEV) road user charge for fully electric cars and 2 cents for plug-in hybrids. The tax was described as “the worst EV policy in the world.”

The ZLEV Road User Charge information page notes:

“In the 12 months from 1 July 2021, electric vehicle registered operators could expect to pay $337.50 and plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles registered operators to pay $270 in ZLEV road-user charges.”

On the give side, electric vehicles are exempt from the luxury vehicle rate of stamp duty and also benefit from a $100 annual discount on vehicle registration. More recently, a $3,000 rebate for electric cars and other zero emissions vehicles has been introduced.

New South Wales – EV RUC

The NSW government’s recently released Electric Vehicle Strategy notes a distance-based road user charge (RUC) for eligible EVs of 2.5c/km will be introduced on 1 July 2027 or when electric vehicles reach 30 per cent of new vehicle sales; whichever occurs first.

Tax cuts and incentives for electric vehicles over the next four years were also announced, which start in September.

• stamp duty will no longer apply for eligible EVs under $78,000
• 25,000 rebates of $3,000 each will be available for battery and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles under $68,750.

While it remains to be seen how much carrot, if any, will accompany the stick the Marshall Government wants to beat South Australian electric car owners with, it may be Rob Lucas’s role in implementing an EV tax (should it succeed) is what he is most remembered for by them.

“Economically, it’s nuts to start taxing EVs before you make conventional cars pay for all the damage they do – air pollution, climate, human health,” says SolarQuotes founder (and EV owner) Finn Peacock.

Original Source: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/sa-ev-tax-mb2049/