Wellington, Beehive, Thursday 19 May 2016 - ACC Minister Nikki Kaye today confirmed the new ACC annual licence levies that owners of light vehicles (cars, vans, utes and SUVs) will pay from 1 July 2016, as well as refinements to the vehicle risk rating system used to calculate these levies.

The ACC annual licence levy is part of the vehicle licensing (‘rego’) fee paid when you register or relicense a vehicle.

“From 1 July, the average motor vehicle levy, which includes the annual licence levy and petrol levy, will reduce from around $195 to around $130 per vehicle,” says Ms Kaye.

“This is a huge reduction of 33 per cent to the average levy. It will save New Zealanders $218 million, and follows $438 million of cuts to motor vehicle levies last year.

“This means the average motor vehicle levy has fallen from $330 to $130 since 2014.

“ACC now applies vehicle risk ratings when setting annual licence levies for light passenger vehicles, which means the specific levy paid by vehicle owners reflects how well their vehicle protects occupants and other road users in a crash.

“Annual licence levies for petrol cars from 1 July will range from around $25 to around $84.

“The exact amount you will pay will depend on the risk band your vehicle is assigned to, but the vast majority of owners of light vehicles will pay a reduced levy. For some owners of petrol vehicles, the annual reduction will be as much as $132.

“Vehicle risk rating was introduced by ACC last year. It was clear the new approach needed improved data for some cars and refinements to policy to ensure greater integrity of the system for some models.

“As part of last year’s public levy consultation, ACC consulted on my behalf on a number of proposed improvements to the system.

“As a result, various changes have been made to the way vehicles will be risk rated from 1 July 2016.

“For example, the system now better identifies when improvements have been made to particular models of car, and it better recognises cars that have different names but which are essentially identical vehicles.

“Enhancements have also been made to ensure greater robustness of the crash data that’s used to help generate risk ratings.

“This is a new system that involves thousands of models of cars, so it’s possible there will be further refinements in years to come.

“I’d like to thank everybody who provided feedback as part of the consultation, in particular stakeholders such as the Automobile Association, Motor Trade Association, Motor Industry Association, Imported Motor Vehicle Industry Association, NZTA and MBIE.

“The average lifetime cost of a person seriously injured on the road is around $2 million. The severity and cost of injuries are reduced if people are in safer cars. A large proportion of cars in the risk bands with the lowest levies are older vehicles, so this is not just about the age of the vehicle.

“Vehicle risk rating is a fairer allocation of levies and helps people have a greater understanding of vehicle safety.”

Enter your number plate to view your ACC licence levy from 1 July 2016 here

View “Enhancements to vehicle risk rating for the 2016/17 levy year” here

Find out more about motor vehicles and ACC levies here