Operation Laser Kiwi: help us take New Zealand-made energy on the road
The conflict in Iran and resulting energy crisis marks a permanent shift for New Zealand’s reliance on imported fossil fuels, an electrification advocate says.
Kiwibank Sustainable Business Leader of the Year 2026 and chief executive of Rewiring Aotearoa Mike Casey tells Q+A New Zealanders’ interest in electric alternatives have soared in the past few weeks as the price of fuel continues to ratchet up.
Last week was the biggest week for electric vehicle sales since the week before the Clean Car Discount was scrapped in 2023.
Down on Casey’s fully-electric cherry orchard in Central Otago, his neighbour has been talking about borrowing his electric tractor if the diesel price continues to rise.
“I think more and more New Zealanders are starting to realise the future of everything is in New Zealand-made energy,” he said.
Casey said New Zealand is home to 10 million machines that are reliant on imported fossil fuels, and not all of them are ready to make the change to electricity.
We definitely need to keep an lid on electricity prices, but the grid still provides savings and we need to focus on our fuels; geothermal could change everything in New Zealand and it's helping Iceland become a fruit and vege growing paradise; Devan Plastics looks to the sun for savings (and embraces floating panels); sparks fly as Master Electricians and BYD partner up, while electric vans and utes are now a competitive advantage for businesses; and a magnificent three-wheeled electric machine from the 1960s and an electric tractor from 1932.
Read moreDownloadWinter cold snaps led to the country hitting record electricity usage multiple times at the start of this month with eight of the 10 highest demand periods in history reached in the first two weeks of August. It's driven calls to speed up consumers' ability to feed back into the grid via their electric vehicles. And to pay households for cutting electricity use at peak times. Bruce Fowler from NordEast and Margaret Cooney from Octopus talk to Kathryn Ryan.
We've heard from plenty of MPs telling us about the electric machines, solar and EVs in our Political Power series. Green MP Kahurangi Carter is also mostly running on electrons, but her set-up is fairly unique. She lives in one of 14 units in the Peterborough Housing Co-op in central Christchurch.
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