EV policies welcomed but action plan needed

EV advocacy group Drive Electric reckons politicians need to get an EV action plan sorted after both National and Labour released their election policies around EVs and clean energy respectively.

“To meet New Zealand’s legislated climate ambitions our analysis shows we need to see at least 250,000 new EVs on the roads by 2025, and for this trend to continue through to 2030,” Drive Electric chair Mark Gilbert says.

“What we really need in New Zealand is an ambitious bipartisan roadmap to decarbonise the light fleet in line with the Zero Carbon Act, detailed in a New Zealand Motor Industry Plan.

“In New Zealand, the light fleet constitutes more than 90% of the travel on New Zealand roads, and remains a growing component of our nation’s emissions.

“We can’t leave a transition to chance,” Gilbert says.

“Unless we have a consistent policy roadmap that deliberately moves New Zealand towards EVs, we will lock in the importation of secondhand fossil fuel powered cars from markets like Japan and the UK as they decarbonise.”

Drive Electric congratulates the National Party for its policy announcement, including specifying a target of 80,000 EVs on the roads by 2023.

“Hitting these numbers would mean progress. The proposal on FBT, in particular, is a real step forward,” Gilbert says.

“NZTA data for 2019 shows that almost 60% of new passenger cars were bought by companies. Incentivising the corporate fleet to transition, through initiatives like this and access to bus lanes and high occupancy lanes, is a vital way to introduce EVs into the country.

“We would like the next Government to go a step further and work with the industry to detail how New Zealand will then get to 250,000 EVs by 2025, and then move to decarbonise the entire fleet.”

Drive Electric also welcomes Labour’s recommitment to the Clean Car Standard.

However, this is just one element of a roadmap towards a light vehicle fleet that does not emit carbon, Gilbert says.

A standard needs to be supported by additional measures to enable businesses and consumers to move into emissions-free vehicles, he explains.

“Perversely, without actively encouraging consumers to switch to EVs through tax or other incentives, a clean car standard makes it more likely New Zealanders will buy cheap, secondhand petrol cars exported from Japan or the UK, instead of EVs.

“This will lock in the number of petrol cars on New Zealand on roads for longer, making it more difficult to meet our climate change ambitions.”

New Zealanders need to understand the future must be electric, so they can take this into consideration when they buy their next car, Drive Electric points out.

“The abundance of renewable energy in New Zealand means the owner of an EV here can charge their vehicle at home for as low as 30 cents a litre.”

In August, Drive Electric announced five key policy platforms in an EV discussion document

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