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Drive Electric chair Kirsten Corson explains the significant reduction in lifetime costs from buying an EV compared to signing up for an expensive and unpredictable petrol or diesel subscription.
All those New Zealanders filling up their cars with fuel for summer roadtrips would have seen some pretty big numbers at the pump. And those numbers are set to get even bigger because the price of petrol is set to go above $3 a litre.
If history is any guide, these price increases are likely to keep happening. If you want to save some money, it's not going to make much difference shopping around for small discounts at different petrol stations. That's a bit like trying to lose weight and suggesting you only eat nine burgers a day instead of ten.
What will make a difference is shopping around for a vehicle that uses a cheaper energy source: electricity.
Using a petrol price equivalent, EVs cost around 30c a litre to charge at home using rooftop solar, or 60c a litre using electricity from the grid. Maintenance costs are also much lower.
While the price of petrol keeps going up, the price of EVs continues to fall, which makes the economic equation even better.
As Drive Electric's Kirsten Corson says, there's never been a better time to buy an EV.
Financial commentator Frances Cook uses her own story to show that that an investment in solar and an EV significantly outperforms the stock market and fellow number cruncher Nadine Higgins says that if you do it right, EVs are cheaper to run and own; EV sales have climbed to their highest level since 2022 and are closing in on 2023's numbers and Go Rentals has just invested $2.3 million in some new Tesla Model Y Premiums; the gap between energy costs of diesel vans and utes and electric vans and utes is absolutely massive; solar is also going off right now, with one installer in Otago 448% above their sales target in March; Lightforce has gone back to the Barretts with a new TV ad; Wellington mayor Andrew Little explains its electrification strategy and Hutt City Council shares data showing how its fleet has gone from dirty Toyotas to cleaner EVs; Shenzen in China has electrified its public transport and taxis and that's come with big benefits - and some challenges; and a very simple illustration of the LNG terminal.
Read moreDownloadAs Minister of energy, climate and local government, Simon Watts had a great opportunity to push the country towards cheaper, cleaner and more reliable New Zealand-made energy. And that’s why we laid down a challenge and gave him the ‘MegaWatts’ moniker last year. Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey says he did some good things, like enabling more solar on farms, removing tax on solar exports, fixing onerous solar consenting requirements, putting pressure on the lines companies to pull up their socks, and getting the ball rolling on the Ratepayer Assistance Scheme. "But the LNG import terminal appears to have been a defining issue."
Read moreDownloadAfter ‘crunching the numbers’ and adding in new sources of ‘New Zealand-made energy’ to our equations, CEO Mike Casey has announced that Rewiring Aotearoa will be changing its name to Refuelling Aotearoa. There has been a huge amount of independently verified research showing electrification beats fossil fuels on economics, efficiency, emissions and energy security and that there is a huge opportunity for New Zealand to electrify, but the discovery of an infinite supply of snake oil in New Zealand has changed everything, he says.
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