Giving EVs a boost

Drive Electric is “trying to give EVs a boost”, its chairman Mark Gilbert says.

But he says the Government “isn’t doing a lot in the delivery department right now” to help.

Addressing about 60 guests at Drive Electric’s global EV update session in Auckland on May 22 from Nordic EV Summit attendees, Gilbert says New Zealand’s EVs are expected to hit the 14,000 mark this week.

However, he says New Zealand has to triple its average 485 EVs a month in registrations to reach the goal of 64,000 EVs by 2021.

And while Gilbert says Drive Electric has never really used the word “incentive”, it is talking about backing a “feebate” scheme as proposed by the Productivity Commission to penalise polluters and reward zero-emission transport introduction.

He mentioned Drive Electric’s proposed fringe benefit tax variation ‘Project Switch’ that would see EVs purchased by businesses for fleet use attracting the likely lower value of FBT linked to the fleet’s outgoing fossil fuel models.

“It’s a no-brainer to get fleets to pick up.”

Gilbert says “a lot of stuff (encouraging EV uptake) is not happening” and that it’s anyone’s guess when it will.

“New Zealand is a small market at the bottom end of the world, so there’s no real reason (for EV makers) to come here.

“The odds are stacked against us, unless we pick up on the signals from the UK and elsewhere about what’s happening with fossil fuel transport.”

Speakers Nick Robilliard from Meridian Energy and Liz Yeaman from transport renewable energy consultancy Retyna outlined their findings from the recent Nordic EV Summit.

“There’s amazing stuff happening globally,” Robilliard says. He pointed to development of powerful ultracapacitors (supercapacitors) and the potential for solar energy to eventually overcome many battery issues.

Using the example of Ford investing in Rivian, Robilliard also explained how all automakers felt they were start-ups in the EV revolution, including traditional manufacturers, adding a quote that many are moving “from horsepower to data power”.

He outlined how in future many people won’t own cars, using subscription, rideshare or other transport forms.

Quoting BloombergNEF advanced transport head Colin McKerracher, Robilliard says policies are very important in encouraging EVs.

Liz Yeaman says she noticed a real change in the talk from OEMs between the 2018 and 2019 Nordic summits as they get on board with electrification.

Discussing mobility as a service (MaaS), Yeaman says China now has 10 billion Uber-type ride hails daily.

She talked about electrification of ships in Norway and associated port services, adding this is happening in New Zealand as well.

Yeaman was disappointed the summit had little coverage of electric trucks.

Outlining lessons for New Zealand, Yeaman says ambitious polices help drive electrification in new sectors. She ponders whether new freight modes, such as cargo e-bikes, are considered in policies and infrastructure plans, whether greater electricity supply is planned for the switch, and the impact on supply of global demand for EVs – particularly batteries.