<
https://thedriven.io/2020/11/21/shameful-victoria-follows-south-australia-and-imposes-electric-car-road-tax/>
"The Victorian Labor government has followed the example of the South
Australia Liberal government and announced the imposition of an electric
vehicle road tax from July next year.
The tax – to be imposed on a cents per kilometre basis, was annouced by
Victoria treasurer Tim Pallas on Saturday afternoon, ahead of the
state’s 2020/2021 budget on Tuesday. Victoria and South Australia are
the only jurisdictions in the world to impose such a tax on EVs, without
providing any meaningful incentive.
Victoria will impose the tax of 2.5c a kilometre for full electric
vehicles, and 2 cents a kilometre for plug in hybrid vehicles. That
translates to an annual tax of $500 for an electric car that travels
20,000kms a year, or an extra $400 a year tax for a plug in like the
Mitsubishi Outlander. Victoria expects to raise around $30 million a year.
The move has been seen by some within the EV industry as a tax grab by
the states, hoping to seize some direct revenue resources as the federal
fuel excise tax depletes in future years if, and when, the uptake of EVs
becomes a major part of the market.
Behyad Jafari, CEO of the Electric Vehicle Council, described the
announcement as “shameful” and said he had repeatedly tried to obtain
meetings with the Victoria government without success.
The announcements come in the same week that the UK announced it would
ban the sale of new diesel and petrol cars by 2030, bringing the move
forward from 2035 and 2040, with California following suit and the EU
possibly bringing forward its proposed ban to 2025, as Norway is doing."
I am one of the people mentioned in the article who bought a second hand
Nissan Leaf. The tax won’t even cost me much because I now work from
home and even after there is a COVID vaccine my employer intends to
maintain that arrangement with the IT staff. But I’m angry because it’s
bad policy that will continue to discourage people in Australia from
switching to EVs and make the IPA’s jibe that “only millionaires drive
EVs” a self-fulfilling prophecy. We’re becoming the last holdout fossil
fuel nation.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
