Know how much RUC you have left.

In April 2024 the exemption from Road User Charges for electric vehicles ended. Suddenly thousands of EV owners had to work out what buying Road User Charges even meant. It sounds simple enough, right? You buy distance up front at $76 per thousand kilometres. A paper label arrives in the mail and goes in the windscreen, saying what you bought. The part nobody tells you is that from there, it’s entirely on you. There’s no meter, no warning light, nothing on the dashboard. Just a label you glance at, if you remember.

By the time you do remember, it’s already too late. You’re a few thousand kilometres over. Now you have to back pay what you’ve already driven, work out how much you want to buy next, and figure out how to afford it all without paying the $12.44 admin fee multiple times a year.

This problem was solved years ago. Fleet vehicles already have hardware fitted that reports their driving information automatically. Nothing like this exists for your average EV owner. Until now.

Your vehicle already knows how far it’s driven. vokt reads this from compatible vehicles, checks it against the RUC you purchased from NZTA, and works out how many kilometres you have left. It tells you when you’re going to run out, based on how you actually drive. And it tells you what to put aside, so the money’s there when it’s time for the next block.

Where things are going

The Government is reviewing what fuel taxes and road user charges could look like in the future, from paper labels giving way to e-ink displays, to pay-as-you-go RUC by subscription. Whatever direction it takes, vokt will be watching.

Why it’s called vokt

Say it “vokt”, rhyming with “docked.” Short, easy to say, and nothing like the RUC-this and e-that names the Road User Charges space is already saturated with.

vokt is Norwegian, the imperative of vokte: to guard, to watch over.

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Made in Papamoa, New Zealand.