Don't listen to Old Man Gas. Ditch LNG. Support New Zealand-made energy!
Whether you think subsidies are justified or not often depends on whether the goal is deemed worthy. One man’s subsidy is another man’s tax. And one man’s tax break, low-interest financing scheme or industrial policy intervention is another man’s subsidy. Government support can either keep the old world alive or give an uneconomic new option an unfair advantage. But there's a pretty good argument for subsidising EVs in New Zealand, as Marc Daalder explained in Newsroom.
"Electric cars, trucks and buses are cutting New Zealand’s dependency on imported fossil fuels, saving the country hundreds of millions of dollars since the start of 2024."
Rewiring's Josh Ellison said that "essentially, every litre of fuel that we’re not buying, it’s a lot of money we’re not spending offshore."
And the money we do spend on charging those electric vehicles up with New Zealand-made energy largely stays in the country.
"New Zealand imports $10 billion in oil products each year – about the same amount of money goes overseas to buy fuel as we bring in through selling concentrated milk, our largest physical export product."
Petrol prices were the primary cause of the highest inflation numbers in a few years recently and diesel is up by 70% since the start of the year. And while our politicians like to claim that these inflation issues are imported, they could be addressed by offering more support to get off fuel for good.
New Zealand has some history when it comes to EV subsidies and the Clean Car Discount saw us leading the world on adoption for a while. There were issues with the design of that subsidy, but a better one should not be ruled out because it could pay us back in terms of energy security, economic gain and emissions reductions.
“It would be nice if EV subsidies weren’t as out of vogue as they are. I think there is a very good argument for investing in the economy in that way,” Ellison said.
We're pushing for the EV Salary Boost scheme, where new or second-hand EVs can be leased using pre-tax income. Around 50% of the EVs bought in Australia used a similar scheme. But there's plenty of room for all the parties to be a bit more ambitious on EV policy.
Political Power has gone local! Dr Nick Smith, mayor of Nelson and ex-National Party minister, is an early adopter when it comes to electric machines but, through his efforts with the council and his close involvement with the Ratepayer Assistance Scheme, he's also embracing one of Rewiring's core mantras: once you've electrified your own life, electrify someone else's life, too.
Read moreDownloadWhether it's the growing number of electric buses, new electric trains for the lower North Island and City Rail Link, or new electric ferries, we love seeing more electric transport options in our big cities. It's also good to see some of our smaller cities like Palmerston North, Timaru and Nelson going electric and, as is almost always the case, the drivers reckon it's better on electrons. At the Electrify Nelson expo, we spoke with one driver Lee about the city's electric buses. And he definitely wouldn't go back to diesel.
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