With all the hype now about electric and/or hybrid cars, there is a problem emerging for governments, and motorists who think it will save them money.

As the fuel usage goes down, the excise goes down with it. The use of electricity goes up for the charging of batteries at the same time.

Don't forget that new non-hybrid cars now use 1/2 of the fuel of new cars 10 years ago, so there is already a severe revenue dip from fuel excise per person.

Who is clever enought to predict how the govt will address this shift in energy use????

Any takers?

1) Excise on electricity - no good for federal, as it is State run, hard to separate household consumption from vehicle consumption.

2) Drop fuel excise altogether, replace with a new federal tax on mileage based on various factors like vehicle size, etc.
Easy to collect - just add to BAS, PAYG, weekly payroll tax collection.
Easy to be equitable and rebateable for, say. pensioners
Money goes to federal coffers just like the excise