The ACT's new emissions-based vehicle registration scheme has been exposed as badly flawed with one Canberra EV owner being required to pay a rego fee 170 per cent higher than before.
The new ACT registration scheme comes into effect from Monday. When the new scheme was announced in February, it was declared "under the emissions-based registration scheme, Canberrans will be able to access lower fees for lower emissions across any motor type".
"From the commencement of the scheme, 96 per cent of all private passenger vehicles will pay the same or less registration," it stated.
The introduction of the new scheme sought to address the contradiction inherent in a weight-based scheme in which EV owners would be asked to pay more for rego because the battery systems which power some EVs are inherently heavy.
At the time of the announcement, ACT Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction Shane Rattenbury said under existing arrangements, "electric vehicles often pay a higher registration fee because of their heavier weight".
"These changes will ensure that the lowest-emission vehicles will pay the lowest registration fees," he said.
He added the "initiative supports emissions reductions by encouraging a switch to lower emission vehicles, an important step towards our goal of a zero emissions fleet by 2035".
It was also claimed the overall package of the first stage of the transition including the changes to registration fees, stamp duty and concessions, would save motorists $6.6 million.
However, these government declarations of a better deal for EV owners in the ACT haven't rung true for Margaret Jamieson, who owns a 2020 model Audi e-tron.
Her zero-emission e-tron weighs a hefty 2.7 tonnes by virtue of a large underfloor, liquid-cooled battery pack. It's a complex thermal management system comprising cell modules the size of shoe boxes, each of which houses "pouch" cells.
Audi says the thermal management was designed to overcome the heat issues generated by fast recharging so the car can be recharged from 5 per cent to 80 per cent in just 30 minutes.
After her initial two years' free EV rego offer from the ACT government ran out, Ms Jamieson paid $341.80 to register the car in 2023-24.
However, her latest renewal, due on June 29, has demanded a new rego fee of $918.60.
This is only marginally less than the diesel-powered Toyota LandCruiser of much the same weight but which produces a CO2 output of 235g/km.
At first she thought there was a glitch in the system because her rego falls due just before the system changes on July 1.
But when she used the Access Canberra online calculator and tested the fee paid post-July 1, it remained the same.
"Why have this charade of providing assurances that EV owners in the ACT will receive lower registration charges under this new system when clearly this is not the case?" she said.
"If my EV falls under the old scheme because the registration changeover is just a few days before the new scheme rolls out, then why am I not being charged the same fee as before rather than one that is $576 more?"
