EV running costs after the RUC exemption: what owners are actually paying
The NZ Angle
From 1 April 2024, light electric vehicles lost their road user charge exemption and now pay RUCs at $76 per 1,000 kilometres, the same as any other light vehicle not paying fuel excise duty. For a Cantabrian doing 15,000km a year, that's $1,140 added to the annual running cost before you touch a charging cable. The change matters here more than in Auckland because Canterbury commuters are doing genuine distances: Rolleston to the CBD is 25km each way, Rangiora is further, and there's a decent contingent driving in from Darfield and West Melton. Those aren't short hops. The exemption ran from 2021 and was always meant to be temporary, a demand-stimulation measure that sat alongside the Clean Car Discount, which itself ended in December 2023. Both props are now gone. What remains is the EV itself, the electricity it uses, and the RUC bill that lands every time you buy a new block of licences. The question worth asking now, with the honeymoon over, is whether the case for running a used EV in this region still stacks up against a well-chosen petrol alternative at similar purchase price.
The RUC-free ride for light EVs ended in 2024. We've run the actual annual numbers for Leaf, Ioniq 5 and BYD Atto 3 owners commuting in Canterbury against a comparable petrol car.
The maths used to be simple. Charge at home, skip the petrol station, collect the Clean Car Discount, pay no RUCs. The EV pitch wrote itself. That picture has changed, and for anyone reassessing their current car or shopping in the $20,000 to $45,000 bracket, the honest numbers deserve a proper look.
Let's use a realistic Canterbury commuter profile: 15,000km per year, a mix of city and open road, home charging overnight at the Meridian or Contact flat rate of around 30 cents per kWh on a standard plan, and occasional public top-ups at roughly 55 to 65 cents per kWh on networks like ChargeNet.
Nissan Leaf: the volume case
A 2019 to 2021 Nissan Leaf 40kWh is sitting around $18,000 to $24,000 on the Canterbury market right now. Real-world consumption for that generation in cooler temperatures runs about 18 to 20kWh per 100km. Call it 19kWh average across the year. At 15,000km, you're pulling about 2,850kWh. If 80 percent of that is home charging at 30c and 20 percent is public at 60c, your electricity cost lands around $1,026 per year.
Add RUCs at $76 per 1,000km and that's $1,140. Combined electricity and RUC spend: roughly $2,166.
The equivalent comparison is a 2019 Toyota Corolla 2.0 petrol hatchback, available in the same price bracket at $21,000 to $26,000. That engine returns about 7.5L per 100km in mixed driving. At 15,000km and petrol around $2.70 per litre, you're spending about $3,038 on fuel. Add no RUCs because fuel excise duty is already baked in, and that's your total fuel cost.
On running costs alone, the Leaf is still around $870 a year cheaper than the Corolla. That's real money over three years, but it's no longer the $1,500-plus annual saving people were quoting when RUCs were zero.
The Leaf's known issue at this mileage is battery degradation. The 40kWh pack loses bars on the capacity gauge, and anything showing nine bars or fewer on a 12-bar display is a car with materially reduced range. A Canterbury winter with the heater running hard and a degraded pack can shrink usable range to under 180km. Check the bars before you buy, and factor in that a replacement pack is not a casual expense.
Hyundai Ioniq 5: the mid-range calculation
The Ioniq 5 sits higher, around $38,000 to $48,000 for a 2022 model with reasonable kilometres. It's a bigger car, a longer-range pack (72.6kWh in the standard rear-wheel-drive), and real-world efficiency around 17 to 19kWh per 100km. At 15,000km and the same charging split, annual electricity cost comes to roughly $990 to $1,080.
RUCs: same $1,140. Total: around $2,130 to $2,220 per year on energy.
Compare that to a 2022 Mazda CX-5 2.0 petrol at a similar $38,000 to $44,000. The CX-5 drinks about 8L per 100km in Canterbury conditions. At $2.70, that's $3,240 per year in petrol. The Ioniq 5 saves you roughly $1,000 to $1,100 annually on running costs.
At that purchase price gap, the Ioniq 5 is less obviously the value play than it was. You're saving money, but you need to hold the car for several years to recover any premium over the petrol equivalent, and depreciation on newer EVs is still moving in unpredictable directions.
BYD Atto 3: the newcomer numbers
The Atto 3 is newer to the used market, mostly 2022 to 2023 cars in the $30,000 to $38,000 range. Extended range version carries a 60.5kWh pack, real-world consumption sits around 17 to 20kWh per 100km. Running costs end up close to the Ioniq 5 band: roughly $2,100 to $2,250 in electricity and RUCs annually.
The honest caveat on the Atto 3 is parts and service depth. BYD's NZ network is still thin compared to Hyundai, and independent mechanics aren't as comfortable with them yet. That's not a reason to avoid one, but it's a reason to know where your nearest authorised service centre is before you need it.
What the numbers actually tell you
EVs are still cheaper to run than comparable petrol cars in this commuting context. That hasn't changed. What has changed is the margin. The RUC exemption was worth $1,140 a year at 15,000km, and its removal has compressed the running-cost advantage to the point where it's meaningful but no longer dramatic.
For buyers who bought in 2021 or 2022 with the exemption factored into their ownership sums, the recalculation stings a little. For buyers shopping today, the numbers are what they are: a Leaf is still cheaper to run than a Corolla, an Ioniq 5 is still cheaper to run than a CX-5, and the BYD sits in similar territory.
The case for an EV now rests more on the purchase price you can negotiate, the battery health you can verify, and your actual charging setup at home. Anyone without reliable off-street charging is going to find the public network costs erode that advantage faster than the headline figures suggest.
By Paul Gray. See our editorial standards or email sales@premiumwholesalecars.co.nz with corrections.
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