FACT: It’s not accurate to say that EVs owners are not paying their fair share. In fact, a report commissioned by the Electric Vehicle Council showed that over their lifetime EVs are currently paying more tax than comparable internal combustion engine vehicles. 

Australia may soon become the first place in the world to slam electric vehicle owners with a new tax – making it even harder for everyday Australians to afford to drive cleaner vehicles. This EV tax is being pushed as a necessary replacement to the fuel excise tax to pay for road maintenance but the revenue collected from fuel excise does not go directly to roads; it goes into general revenue for the federal government. Moreover, it's not fair to charge a fuel tax on clean drivers who are taking the necessary steps for healthy air and less fossil fuels when they don’t use petrol or diesel. They don’t pay fuel excise in the same way non-smokers don’t pay for taxes imposed on cigarettes.

It's true a road user tax will be required in the future as electric vehicle uptake grows, however the reason this tax is bad is because of the timing. This is a technology that we want to thrive; we want the uptake to grow and the prices to come down, so all Australians can afford to drive EVs. Just like rooftop solar was once out of reach for the majority of Australians, with government incentives the cost came down and now millions of people are driving down their electricity bills.

The uptake of EVs is still so small that we should be incentivising the uptake now, bringing down the price, and then introducing a road use tax later.