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Archerflight
By Archerflight | AA Member | 1 Post | 27 May 2013 at 9:40am

I drive a small diesel car - Skoda Fabia VRS, approx 9 years old. Average fule usage under 6 l/100 kms, even round town.

Like all othr small diesel users I am aggrieved by Govt policy on RUCs for small diesels. I see the cost is going up again on 1 July, no doubt to allow for the 03 cents tax increse on petrol. Chargewill be 5.30 per 100 km.

I looked at MoT website and it tried to claim that levies are still actually lower on diesels. Really. They argue that the "average" motor car uses 10 l/100 km, and this amounts to 6.10 per 100 km. I don't know if they include the AC levy or not. But I am deeply suspicious of this "average". Does AA agree that 10 l/100 km is average for NZ cars? Any car I would compare with these days would surely be in the 7 or 8 km range. Is MoT just picking figures to suit?
If you can let me know the "real" average for NZ cars, and maybe some bands of average s for small medium and large - I will seek some official information on why I am being overcharged.
Cheers
Peter

markstockdale
By markstockdale | AA Expert | 101 Posts | 27 May 2013 at 3:51pm

We would agree that an average fuel economy of 10 litres per 100kms is about right for the NZ fleet considering the age and profile. The MoTs data is based on the amount of petrol sold in NZ (almost all of which is for on-road use) and the average annual distance travelled by the light fleet. As the govt collects this data, it is a very accurate estimate. Note however, that this estimate only applies to petrol vehicles so it would be slightly less for light diesel vehicles, but MoT can't estimate average diesel fuel economy because they don't know how much diesel is sold for on-road use.

However, MoT have estimated the average fuel ecomomy of diesel vehicles according to engine size, which is based on manufacturers official economy ratings. You can find this information in the MoTs NZ Vehicle Fleet Statistics (see graph 9.6b of the PDF or Excel spreadsheet).

Note that RUC does not include ACC charges - that is why it costs more to licence a diesel vehicle than a petrol vehicle, because petrol vehicles also pay 10c/litre in ACC petrol tax (overall, for a 'typical' petrol vehicle consuming 10l/100km, the amount of road tax it pays is more than the RUC an equivalent diesel vehicle would pay, although very fuel efficient petrol or hybrid vehicles do pay less than small diesels).