What EV owners are actually paying in RUCs now the exemption is gone

The light EV RUC exemption ended in 2024. We run the real numbers for Leaf and Ioniq 5 owners in Canterbury against a comparable petrol car and hybrid.

The argument for electric vehicles always rested partly on running costs. No petrol, minimal servicing, and for a while no Road User Charges either. That last part is now history. Since 1 April 2024, light EVs have been subject to RUCs at $76 per 1,000 kilometres, purchased in advance through NZTA the same way diesel ute owners have been doing for years. The exemption served its purpose as an early-adopter incentive. It is gone. So let's work out what EV ownership actually costs on Canterbury roads in 2025, against a realistic petrol or hybrid alternative.

The two EVs worth anchoring this to are the Nissan Leaf and the Hyundai Ioniq 5, because they represent the two most common EV price brackets in the local used market. A 40 kWh Leaf (2018-2020 vintage) sits around $18,000 to $24,000 at a dealer. A used Ioniq 5 Standard Range from 2022 is closer to $45,000 to $52,000. Their real-world energy consumption differs, but both now attract the same flat RUC rate.

The RUC maths, run straight

At $76 per 1,000 km, a driver covering 15,000 km per year pays $1,140 in RUCs. Push to 20,000 km, which is not unusual for a Selwyn commuter, and that's $1,520. These figures are fixed regardless of how cheaply you charge at home.

A Leaf 40 kWh uses around 15 to 17 kWh per 100 km in real-world Canterbury driving, where winter temperatures knock a measurable chunk off range and efficiency. At a home charging rate of roughly 25 to 30 cents per kWh, that works out to about $4.00 to $5.10 per 100 km in electricity. Over 15,000 km, say $680. Add the $1,140 RUC and your combined fuel-equivalent cost is around $1,820. Over 20,000 km it climbs to roughly $2,540.

Now compare a Toyota Aqua, which is the sensible alternative in that Leaf price bracket. Petrol at $2.70 per litre, real-world consumption around 4.5 L/100 km, that's $12.15 per 100 km. Over 15,000 km: $1,823. Over 20,000 km: $2,430. No RUCs, no charging infrastructure to think about.

The Leaf's advantage over the Aqua, on fuel costs alone, has effectively disappeared at 15,000 km annually. At 20,000 km the Aqua is marginally cheaper to run on energy costs. The Leaf still wins on servicing, and regenerative braking is kinder on brakes, but the headline running-cost gap is gone.

The Ioniq 5 comparison

The Ioniq 5 is a different conversation because its petrol equivalent would be something like a Mazda CX-5 petrol or a RAV4 hybrid, both of which sit in similar territory on the used market. A RAV4 hybrid averaging 5.5 L/100 km at $2.70 costs about $14.85 per 100 km. Over 15,000 km: $2,228. Over 20,000 km: $2,970.

The Ioniq 5 Standard Range consumes around 17 to 19 kWh per 100 km under real conditions. At 28 cents per kWh home charging, call it $4.76 to $5.32 per 100 km. Add the RUC. Combined energy-plus-RUC cost over 15,000 km sits around $1,900 to $2,000. Over 20,000 km, roughly $2,530 to $2,660.

Here the Ioniq 5 holds a genuine edge over the RAV4 hybrid at both mileage points, somewhere between $300 and $450 per year depending on your driving. That's real money but it's not the transformative saving the marketing implied when RUCs were zero. At zero RUCs the gap was closer to $1,200 to $1,500 annually. That is the number that moved a lot of people into EVs, and it no longer exists.

What this actually means for buyers

For my money, the Leaf's value case now leans almost entirely on purchase price and servicing savings rather than fuel. If you're buying a used Leaf at $20,000 and doing 12,000 to 14,000 km a year mostly around Christchurch, it still makes sense. You'll spend less on servicing over five years and the charging convenience at home is real. But the running cost argument needs to be made honestly, not on pre-exemption numbers that no longer apply.

The Ioniq 5 still stacks up against a comparable SUV hybrid on energy costs, though the margin is thinner than it was. And frankly, anyone who bought an EV purely as a financial decision and didn't account for RUCs eventually returning was being optimistic about the longevity of a government incentive.

The real objection to all of this arithmetic is that it ignores emissions, which is fair. But emissions don't show up on a bank statement, and if we're being honest about why people buy used cars in New Zealand, the bank statement matters more.

RUC compliance also comes with admin that petrol drivers never think about. You purchase a licence, display it, track your odometer, and renew before you run out. Fines for overrunning are not trivial. It's not complicated but it is one more thing, and dealers should be telling buyers this plainly at the point of sale.