EV owners have only hours left to register for RUCs

Owners of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles have until tomorrow to buy their first road user charges (RUCs) licence.

EVs and PHEVs became subject to road user charges on 1 April 2024. However, owners have been given a grace period until 31 May 2024 to buy their first licence.

Anyone who hasn’t bought their first RUC licence by 31 May 2024 will be subject to a roadside police infringement. They will also receive an invoice from NZTA that’s backdated to 1 April 2024, along with penalties for late payment.

NZTA’s head of regulatory programmes, Tara Macmillan, said “We’re encouraging people not to leave it until the last minute as there will be penalties. If you haven’t already bought your licence, now’s the time to do it,” she added. Buying RUCs online is straightforward and only takes a few minutes.

“Just go to the NZTA website and click on Online Services, and then ‘Buy a road user charges licence’. You can also buy RUC licences over the counter at an NZTA agent.

Either way, you will need to have your vehicle’s plate number on hand and also its current odometer reading before paying. Once you’ve purchased your RUC the NZTA will send out a pouch to put the licence in. You will need to display this on your windscreen in the same way as you do for your vehicle rego or diesel RUCs.

When you buy RUCs, you pre-pay for distance in units of 1000km. The RUC rate for EVs is the same as that for diesel-powered passenger vehicles, i.e., $76 per 1000km. It is $38 per 1000km for PHEVs because they also pay petrol tax at the pump. There is an administration fee of $12.44 if you buy online, or $13.71 if you buy through an agent.

Over two-thirds of New Zealand’s 105,000 electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids already have an RUC licence. NZTA is expecting a surge before tomorrow.

Electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles have been exempt from RUC since 2009 but this exemption ended on 31 March 2024. NZTA says that everyone who uses the roading network must pay their fair share towards the cost of its maintenance.