Electric Vehicle Council wants NSW Road User Charge scrapped after ‘absurd’ Victorian tax

The Road User Charge (RUC) set to be introduced in New South Wales in 2027 should not go ahead, according to the Electric Vehicle Council of Australia (EVC), which is calling for a national road-user charge instead. As part of its State of EVs 2026 report, the EVC says the proposed RUC for NSW isn’t the best approach to taxing EV drivers, following the debacle in Victoria after it introduced a similar scheme in 2021. “New South Wales is introducing a road-user charge on the first of July, 2027, and that's certainly something that we do not want to see happen,” EVC CEO Julie Delvecchio told CarExpert during a media briefing. “Our view is it needs to be a national road-user charge, not done on a state-by-state basis.” 🚘

Don’t just read about your next car. Find a great deal with CarExpert. Current NSW Government legislation has committed to a RUC from July next year, or when battery-electric vehicle sales reach 30 per cent of all new vehicle sales in NSW – whichever comes first. The proposed charges will see EV owners pay 3.095 cents per kilometre travelled, with plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) users paying 2.476 cents per kilometre, equivalent to 80 per cent of the EV rate. In its report, the EVC said the NSW RUC would see EV drivers pay up to 62 per cent more for road use compared to petrol-hybrid drivers, as hybrid drivers would still be paying fuel excise at the same time.

“We have always supported a road-user charge, believing it is the equitable approach to tax reform for this country's needs. However, it really needs to be dependent on the timing and the design of that,” said Aman Gaur, the EVC’s head of legal, policy and advocacy. The EVC said the federal government’s work on a RUC, which was confirmed by federal treasurer Jim Chalmers in 2025, was more appropriate. Federal, state and territory treasurers agreed in September 2025 that further work on road-user charging should not deter EV uptake and should minimise compliance burdens. “We’ll be closely scrutinising what the federal government puts forward, knowing that the treasurer himself has said they will not design a road-user charge that discourages EV uptake.

“We’ve said consistently that we really should be having a road-user charge that applies to all vehicles. That is really the most sensible way of doing so. But nonetheless, they [the federal government] are saying they are only progressing with an EV-only road-user charge. “On that point, in that term, what we’re arguing for is a road-user charge that is appropriately designed, so one that is not difficult for people to comply with.” On that front, the NSW Government has said it is assessing the implications for its proposed RUC following the High Court of Australia’s 2023 ruling that Victoria’s similar scheme was invalid.

The High Court ruling resulted in Victorian EV drivers who had paid the charge becoming eligible for a full refund. “We saw the one in Victoria was just absurd in its compliance, and so that kind of thing actually stops people from adopting EVs,” said Mr Gaur. “Practical application of this is that we want a roa- user charge for EVs that reduces our dependence on petrol and gets us off things that make our environment worse, and therefore the pricing of it should factor that in. “We definitely support pricing of EVs so they contribute to our health and hospitals and our roads, but that pricing needs to encourage Australians to spend or to get into EVs.”

While a national RUC was not included in the federal budget last May, national transport minister Catherine King told the ABC Insiders program in April 2026: “It’s obviously going to have to be legislated through the parliament, and I’m not clear that there’s a pathway for it through the parliament at this stage. We’ll wait and see. MORE: Australia delays EV road user charge slammed as 'thinly veiled tax'