Budget 2020 a ‘lost opportunity’ for EVs

The lack of anything new for EVs in the recently released Budget 2020 has not gone unnoticed by EV advocacy groups like Drive Electric.

“A lost opportunity in my view,” its chairman Mark Gilbert says.

He says it appears anything climate change related has been put on the back burner.

“All the ‘shovel ready’ projects that are being contemplated, and are town centre or road corridor related, should be reviewed for charging infrastructure related inclusion,” Gilbert says.

“Even if it’s cable now and install chargers as and when required, it will save a lot of additional digging in the future and mitigate one of the ‘invisible’ costs that those putting in the infrastructure are experiencing – the cost of getting the cable to the charge point.”
Gilbert says there are also no signals in the Budget as to the likely future make-up of the NZ fleet.

“NZ First, in its 2017 election policy manifesto, promised a public consultation – guess they still have a couple of months to do it,” he adds.

“They keep missing opportunities.”