EV Road User Charge in Australia: What You'd Pay, and Whether It Will Happen

An EV road user charge in Australia does not exist today, but one is written into NSW law for 1 July 2027. It would cost a NSW battery EV owner 3.095 cents per kilometre, or about $464 a year at 15,000 km, as of November 2026. Whether it ever gets collected is another matter, because a NSW parliamentary committee found in September that the law would likely be struck down.

Nationally, there is still no rate, no start date and no published design. Tesla has now added a twist by asking for the charge to apply to every car, not only EVs. So you are looking at a small, uncertain cost that shouldn’t decide your next car, though it can tip a close call against a good hybrid.

Here is what is law, what is only talk, and what the numbers look like for your driving. Comparing models first? Our electric vehicle guide covers range, price and specs.

Where the EV Road User Charge Stands in Australia, State by State

Only NSW has a live law, and no state is collecting anything. A road user charge is a fee based on distance driven, usually set in cents per kilometre, meant to replace the fuel excise that EV drivers don’t pay at the bowser.

Jurisdiction	Status, November 2026	Rate on the books
Federal	Under discussion, no proposal published	None
NSW	Legislated, starts 1 July 2027 or earlier	3.095 c/km BEV, 2.476 c/km PHEV (2026-27)
Victoria	Struck down by the High Court, October 2023	Was 2.8 c/km BEV, 2.3 c/km PHEV when it ended
South Australia	Repealed in 2023 before it ever applied	None
Western Australia	Announced in 2022 for 1 July 2027. We could not find a Bill	2.5 c/km BEV, 2 c/km PHEV as announced
Tasmania	Floated in a January 2023 Treasury paper, no scheme found	None
Queensland	Ruled out in 2021, no newer statement found	None
ACT, NT	No charge found	None

Victoria’s rates confuse people, because you will see both 2.5 and 2.8 quoted. Both are correct. The charge launched in July 2021 at 2.5 c/km for battery EVs and 2.0 c/km for plug-in hybrids, then rose with indexation to 2.8 and 2.3 by July 2023. Victorians who paid it could claim a refund with interest until 30 June 2024, and that window has closed.

What the NSW Charge Would Cost You

Budget $310 to $620 a year if you drive a typical distance in a NSW-registered battery EV. The NSW Government lists the 2026-27 rates at 3.095 c/km for battery and hydrogen cars and 2.476 c/km for plug-in hybrids. The base rate was 2.5 c/km in 2021-22 and it rises with CPI each financial year, so the figure on 1 July 2027 will probably be a little higher.

Older articles still quote 2.974 c/km. That looks like last year’s rate, so don’t plan around it.

Annual distance	BEV at 3.095 c/km	PHEV at 2.476 c/km (plus excise on fuel)
5,000 km	$155	$124
10,000 km	$310	$248
15,000 km	$464	$371
20,000 km	$619	$495
30,000 km	$929	$743

Distance is what bites. Flat per-kilometre charges treat the retiree doing 5,000 km very differently from a rideshare driver. The NSW inquiry heard about rideshare cars covering around 60,000 km a year, which works out at $1,857.

Three scope details get missed. Heavy vehicles are excluded, and so are vehicles registered in another state. Your kilometres count on public roads in NSW and interstate, so a Sydney car on a Queensland holiday still pays. Kilometres on private land, such as a farm, don’t count.

Payment is also less settled than the law suggests. The Act allows prepaying in blocks of 1,000 km, with any excess due within 21 days of a notice, or paying afterwards. Distance gets reported at registration, renewal or disposal. The committee found many practical details are still unresolved and left to regulations.

Why the NSW Charge May Never Be Collected

The legal problem is serious, and the state’s own parliament has said so. In Vanderstock v Victoria (18 October 2023), the High Court ruled 4:3 that Victoria’s charge was a duty of excise. Under section 90 of the Constitution, only the Commonwealth can impose those.

NSW’s law is built the same way. The Legislative Council committee’s Report 9, published on 30 September 2026, found the Act most likely unconstitutional. It also expected a legal challenge, and judged that the charge would probably lose on the balance of probabilities. The Electric Vehicle Council told the inquiry that industry players were already considering one.

The committee didn’t recommend scrapping the idea, though. It suggested reframing the charge as a licence fee or fee for service, setting rates by vehicle size, weight and emissions, and folding it into registration. Absent a national scheme, it said NSW should proceed on those terms.

Treasurer Daniel Mookhey told the inquiry in July that NSW intends to go ahead without a national system and would drop its own if one arrives. He also said the government has legal advice, without saying what it found, and floated the Commonwealth referring power to the state. We found no formal government response to the September report yet.

One more trigger exists. The charge can start before July 2027 if the Minister is satisfied battery EVs will reach 30% of new vehicle sales in NSW. NSW battery EVs were at 12.3% for the year to April 2026, according to FCAI figures in the report. National share has climbed since, with EVs at 24.2% of new sales in September 2026, so check the NSW number if you are registering a car in mid-2027. With the fixed date so close, an early start wouldn’t change much.

Is a National EV Road User Charge Coming?

Probably, but not soon and not in any form you can price. The May 2026 federal Budget said only that work with the states continues. In April, Transport Minister Catherine King raised concerns about discouraging EV uptake and said she couldn’t see a clear pathway through parliament. By August, reporting described the push as stalled, though Energy Minister Chris Bowen told the National Press Club that Australia should work towards a charge if it is done properly.

The AAA wants a charge in the 2027 federal Budget. Other groups have tried putting numbers on it. The McKell Institute’s 2026 paper, backed by the Electric Vehicle Council, proposed a target of 6.44 c/km in 2024-25 dollars, starting once EVs hit 30% of the fleet. EVs are only around 2% of the fleet now, so that would be years away. Treat all of these as proposals. None is government policy.

New Zealand shows what a blunt version looks like. Since 1 April 2024, light EVs there have paid NZ$76 per 1,000 km, and plug-in hybrids NZ$38. That is more than double the NSW rate before exchange rates, and NZ EV sales fell sharply over the same period. The Electric Vehicle Council cites a drop from about 26,000 in 2023 to about 9,000 in 2025, but NZ also removed its EV subsidy, so the charge isn’t the only cause.

What Tesla Wants, and Why Weight Keeps Coming Up

Tesla wants a universal charge on all cars, phased in, with fuel excise kept. In its submission to the Senate Select Committee on Productivity in Australia, reported by CarExpert in late October 2026, Tesla argued an EV-only levy penalises drivers who go electric and distorts the price signal. The committee reports by 31 March 2027.

Read that with its commercial interest in mind. A carmaker selling only EVs gains if rivals’ customers pay too. It is also an unusual version of universal, because new petrol, diesel and hybrid cars would eventually pay both the excise and the charge. Plenty of owners would rather see the opposite swap: a charge on everyone, with excise cut or removed.

Weight is the other live argument. Many owners would accept a mass-based charge, because they see trucks rather than passenger cars as the main cause of road wear. The Australian Electric Vehicle Association has proposed a universal 3 cents per tonne-kilometre, and the NSW committee wants rates to reflect size and weight.

A weight-based system wouldn’t automatically punish EVs, either. Owners point out that a dual-cab diesel ute weighs about as much as a Model Y, so it could end up paying a similar charge on top of a bigger excise bill. Odometer honesty is a fair objection too. Self-reported readings are cheap to run and easy to fudge, while car telematics can record time and location. The Electric Vehicle Council told the inquiry that only 20% of drivers prefer automatic reporting.

How It Compares With the Excise Petrol Drivers Pay

The NSW charge equals the excise on a car burning about 5.8 L/100 km, so it is fair against an average car and harsh against a hybrid. Fuel excise is 53.7 c/L from 3 August 2026, after a temporary cut ended. That money goes to general revenue and isn’t a dedicated road fund, which is a common misconception.

Vehicle	Road tax per km	At 10,000 km	At 15,000 km
Toyota Yaris Cross Hybrid, 3.8 L/100 km	2.04 c (excise)	$204	$306
MG3, 6.0 L/100 km	3.22 c (excise)	$322	$483
Fleet average, 10.8 L/100 km (ABS, 2018 release)	5.80 c (excise)	$580	$870
NSW battery EV	3.095 c (road user charge)	$310	$464

That’s why the hybrid comparison matters. Under the NSW rate, a battery EV would pay roughly 50% more per kilometre than an efficient hybrid, and the Electric Vehicle Council’s 2026 report makes a similar point. Whether this deters buyers is disputed, and each survey comes from an interested party. An Electric Vehicle Council survey of more than 3,600 drivers found 28% of likely EV buyers deterred. A dealer association survey of about 2,000 consumers found 73% said it wouldn’t affect their decision.

Does an EV Still Save Money With the Charge?

Against a petrol car, comfortably. Against a hybrid, only if your electricity is cheap or petrol stays high. This table uses a small EV at 16 kWh/100 km, a Yaris Cross Hybrid at 3.8 L/100 km and an MG3 at 6.0 L/100 km, at 15,000 km a year. Petrol is the ACCC’s five-city average of 236.2 c/L on 21 October 2026, alongside a calmer $2.00/L. Grid power is NRMA’s blended 32.5 c/kWh from August 2026.

Running on	Energy per year	With NSW charge
EV on solar, 5 c/kWh	$120	$584
EV on off-peak, 18 c/kWh	$432	$896
EV on grid, 32.5 c/kWh	$780	$1,244
Hybrid at $2.00/L	$1,140	Not applicable
Hybrid at 236.2 c/L	$1,346	Not applicable
Small petrol at $2.00/L	$1,800	Not applicable
Small petrol at 236.2 c/L	$2,126	Not applicable

So charge at home off-peak or from solar, and an EV still beats the hybrid at either petrol price. Rely on standard grid power when petrol is $2 a litre, and the hybrid edges ahead by about $100 a year. Run your own tariff and distance through our EV charging cost calculator, then add the charge from the table above.

We looked at how this plays out for light drivers in whether an EV is worth it at low km, and the wider picture sits in our EV vs hybrid comparison. State costs you pay today, including stamp duty and registration, are in our EV stamp duty and rego guide.

For a car you plan to keep eight years, the honest approach is to assume a charge of roughly 3 to 6 c/km will arrive at some point. On 15,000 km, that is $450 to $900 a year. If an EV only wins your sums with the charge at zero, it wasn’t much of a win to begin with.