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And so it begins?

It was only a short while ago that I suggested that at some stage the government would be requiring all cars to track your every move.

The column was titled Prepare to be tracked and highlighed the issue surrounding applying road-user charges (RUCs)to EVs.

Well the new National government here in NZ has decided that it is now time for EV and hybrid users to start paying their fair share of the road tax that is supposedly used to keep the potholes on our roads in tip-top shape.

Drivers of diesel vehicles are long-used to purchasing "Kms" in order to meet their RUCs up to date but EV/hybrid drivers will be treated a little differently.

If this RNZ story is to be believed, EV owners will be charged at a rate of $76 per 1,000Km and hybrid owners which have a "plug-in" capability (PHEV) will pay just $53 per 1,000Km.

The PHEV figure is calulated on the assumption that the average hybrid vehicle will use about 3 litres per 100Km. That's a bit of a bugger if you find yourself running entirely on petrol and not having the opportunity to recharge via the plug -- in effect you'll be paying your road tax twice.

None of these figures are particularly interesting but what did catch my eye was the following:

"Whenever a warrant of fitness is carried out, a vehicle's odometer will be reviewed. If the odometer exceeds the RUCs purchased by the vehicle's owner, they will be invoiced for any difference"

That's significantly different to the way RUCs for diesel vehicles are handled. With those trucks and cars you're required to always have pre-paid Kms in reserve and if you're caught driving without pre-paid Kms then you get a stiff fine and are charged (from memory) three times the price for the shortfall. It seems that EV/PHEV users are getting off easily.

However, back to my earlier assertion -- it's clear that getting a WOF is going to become the moment when the government starts calling in all "fees owed" in respect to a vehicle. As I have previously suggested, modern "smart" cars are logging everything and it wouldn't surprise me if we soon see speeding fines and perhaps parking fines added to the WOF bill.

No pay, no WOF, no way to legally use your vehicle.

It could be argued that only those who break the law will have any reason to complain -- but that assumes no data errors or other stuff-ups occur.

I'm actually picking that pretty soon all vehicles will be transitioned to RUCs based on the number of Kms driven. For some vehicles this will involve installing a device with GPS that tracks your location, time and speed at every moment. Every tiny infraction will be noted and the relevant fines issued automatically when you take your car in for it's WOF. Part of the WOF procedure will be to download the logs and transmit them to the MoT's central computer system.

Imagine turning up to pick up your car after you leave it for a WOF and a service, only to discover that your teenage son must have been hooning around in it and, as a result, when this was revealed by the logged data, it has been automatically impounded for 21 days (or worse).

Or, just as bad, Police roll up at your door and demand to know why you were in the vicinity of a burglary at 2am in the morning when you stopped to take a mobile phone call while driving home (sober) from a party. Just coincidence that you were parked in the wrong place at the wrong time -- but try proving that.

Remember the motto of the new state: All your privacy belongs to us!

Carpe Diem folks!

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