EV Road User Charges in Australia: What Is Planned, What Is Law and What You Pay Today

As of September 2026, no Australian EV owner pays a per-kilometre road user charge. Victoria collected one from July 2021, the High Court struck it down in October 2023, and the state refunded every dollar with interest. NSW has a charge in legislation that is due to start on 1 July 2027 at about 3 cents a kilometre, Western Australia has announced one for the same date, and the federal government has talked about a national scheme without putting a bill to Parliament. The distinction between announced, legislated and actually in force matters here, so this page keeps them separate.

Why do governments want EVs to pay a road charge?

Because EVs pay no fuel excise. Every litre of petrol or diesel carries a federal excise of 53.7 cents from 3 August 2026, according to the ATO’s excise rates. A petrol car using 7 litres per 100 kilometres pays about 3.8 cents a kilometre in excise without noticing. An EV pays none of it, and the ABC puts fuel excise revenue at about $15 billion a year.

Two points complicate the pitch. Excise goes into general revenue, not a road fund, so “paying for the roads” is a political description rather than an accounting one. And 2026 has made the politics harder: the government cut the excise by 60.9 per cent from 1 April to 30 June 2026 and by 30.4 per cent in July, as fuel prices spiked, and EV sales rose sharply while it did.

What happened to Victoria’s charge?

Victoria’s Zero and Low Emission Vehicle charge started on 1 July 2021. For 2021-22 it was 2.5 cents a kilometre for battery EVs and hydrogen cars and 2 cents for plug-in hybrids, billed from odometer readings at registration renewal. Two owners, Christopher Vanderstock and Kathleen Davies, challenged it.

On 18 October 2023 a majority of the High Court held, in Vanderstock v Victoria, that the charge was a duty of excise. Section 90 of the Constitution gives the Commonwealth the exclusive power to impose excise, so a state cannot. The Court overruled a 1974 precedent that had let states tax the consumption of goods, and found the charge was a tax on goods because it was closely tied to using an EV and tended to affect demand for them.

VicRoads says that owners stopped receiving invoices after the ruling, and that everyone who had paid was refunded in full, including card fees and interest, by cheque. Refunds closed on 30 June 2024. If you paid and never received yours, VicRoads lists an email contact on that page.

Is the NSW road user charge going ahead?

On paper, yes. NSW legislated the charge in the Electric Vehicles (Revenue Arrangements) Act 2021, the same law that created its EV stamp duty exemption. The NSW Government’s road user charge page says it “will apply to eligible EVs from 1 July 2027 or when EVs make up 30 per cent of all new vehicle sales, whichever comes first”, and sets the 2026-27 rates:

The rate is indexed to inflation each financial year, so the figure in July 2027 will be a little higher.

The same page also says the Vanderstock decision found Victoria’s law invalid and that “the NSW Government is working to assess the potential implications of the decision for NSW’s electric vehicle road user charge.” The NSW scheme works much like Victoria’s, so it is reasonable to expect a legal challenge if it starts. The NSW Treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, told ABC’s 7.30 in August 2026 that NSW prefers a national system and “would look to remove the system here in New South Wales, should there be one established nationally.”

Our reading: legislated, not yet in force, and legally exposed. If you live in NSW, budget for it from mid-2027 and watch for either a court challenge or a national deal.

What about South Australia and Western Australia?

South Australia passed its Motor Vehicles (Electric Vehicle Levy) Amendment Act 2021 with a 2.5 cents a kilometre levy from July 2027. The Labor government elected in 2022 introduced a repeal bill that May, and it cleared the upper house in early 2023, as WhichCar reported. SA’s EV levy is dead.

Western Australia announced a charge of 2.5 cents a kilometre for battery EVs and 2 cents for plug-in hybrids from 1 July 2027, as part of its 2022 rebate package. We could not find a bill, and the WA Government’s EV policy page does not mention a charge. Treat it as announced only.

Where is the national road user charge?

On 5 September 2025 the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, released a joint statement from Treasurers saying reform of road user charging for EVs could “ensure fair and sustainable funding for road investment and maintenance”, should be “designed to not deter the continued take-up of electric vehicles”, and that any changes would be phased. That followed his remark at the August 2025 economic roundtable that it was “an idea whose time has come.”

Since then it has slowed. On ABC’s Insiders on 12 April 2026, the Transport Minister, Catherine King, said “it may not be the time for it right now” and that she was “not clear that there’s a pathway for it through the parliament at this stage.” Her department was developing a model at the time. The Greens have said they will not support a charge aimed at EVs.

A national charge should avoid the constitutional problem, because the Commonwealth holds the excise power. It would still need a bill, a Senate majority and a way of reading odometers or tracking distance. None of those exist yet.

What does an EV driver actually pay today?

No per-kilometre charge, in any state. You pay registration and stamp duty like any other car, which in a few places is cheaper for an EV (our EV rebates and incentives page lists them), and you pay for electricity, which at home works out to between about 1.3 and 4.8 cents a kilometre depending on your tariff, as our guide to what it costs to charge an electric car shows.

Put the NSW rate against that and the proposed charge is about the same size as the energy cost of charging at home on a standard tariff. Against a petrol car, it is still cheaper than the excise alone, before the fuel itself.

Should a future charge change what you buy?

For most people, no. At the NSW rate, a typical 12,000 kilometre year adds about $370, and a national charge, if it comes, would almost certainly be phased in. If you are weighing an EV on a novated lease, the tax saving from the FBT exemption is several times that each year, at least until the 2027 phase-down starts for dearer cars. Build a charge of around 3 cents a kilometre into your running-cost sums from 2027 if you are in NSW, and treat anything beyond that as unannounced.

We check this page whenever a state or the Commonwealth moves. Everything above was checked against the linked sources in September 2026.