New Zealand has lived with pay-per-mile road user charges for years, and it's a terrible idea that UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves should study closely before forcing EVs into her own version of the mess.
Petrol tax works seamlessly here because it's deducted incrementally with every fill-up, letting drivers budget as they go despite the grumble over rising levies. Diesel's Road User Charges (RUC), branded as MILE, force a brutal upfront payment, $76 per 1,000 km for light diesels demanding drivers front-load thousands at once for high-mileage utes and trucks. Tradies and farmers, already stretched thin on razor margins, often scramble post-payment, facing cashflow crises when repair bills or slow jobs hit, unlike the steady drip of petrol excise.
Late payers face even steeper pain: NZTA slaps a 20% penalty on overdue RUC within 28 days, ballooning to 40% after six weeks, plus $50 admin fees and potential vehicle impoundment or licence suspension. Thousands of diesel drivers cop these hits yearly, turning a routine tax into a debt spiral that buries the vulnerable deeper.
Reeves obsesses over "potholes," pushing pay-per-mile for EVs under the guise of fairness for road users, but EVs here already face per-kWh levies since July 2024—proving her scheme has nothing to do with equity and everything to do with revenue grabs. NZ's diesel pain shows the lump-sum model breeds evasion, odometer fraud, and resentment; extending it to UK EVs ignores the lesson.
Diesel miles crush Kiwi workers daily. UK, don't repeat our mistake ... fair roads need fair billing, not punitive traps.
