RACQ Head of Public Policy Rebecca Michael said electric vehicle drivers did not pay to use Queensland roads under the current model which relied on the fuel excise tax to pay for roads and infrastructure.

“While EV’s must be included in road user charging reform, we don’t want to discourage the uptake of clean motoring by slapping together state taxes, in favour of broader macroeconomic reform at a Federal level,” Dr Michael said.

“We urge Queensland leaders not to levy an additional motoring charge on EV users which will result in a duel system – EV charging and fuel excise. This will be costly, and inherently difficult to implement."

Dr Michael said road user charging reform fell squarely on the Federal Government’s shoulders.

“Unless the Federal Government steps in and leads an overhaul of our road user charging system we’re going to end up a scrapped together bunch of taxes which varies from state to state,” she said.

“We think it’s fair that EV’s pay their way, but the charging needs to be consistent across the country, modest so we don’t discourage uptake and scalable as we see more EVs enter our fleet into the future.”