The 'Electric Election': energy policies, side by side
A pinch and a punch (and a big bunch of new EVs) for the first of the month. The Rewiring gang is always pretty jazzed about the release of the new car sales numbers each month and, while the short-term stats tend to bounce around a bit, the long-term trend is clear: sales of new EVs are up by 150% year to date and sales of new petrol vehicles are down by 15% in the same period.
Detractors may point out that growth in new EV sales in August was not as rapid as it was in previous months. But EV sales still grew significantly in comparison to the same time last year.
The reason for this monthly dip could be down to a combination of some businesses reaching the end of their financial year at the end of June and delays of big EV shipments out of China due to storms.
Looking at EVDB numbers from 2023, when EV sales were at similar levels and the Clean Car Discount was in place, sales in July and August were also low before picking up again before the scheme stopped (1,223 new BEVs were sold in August 2023, and 1,096 were sold in August 2026).
Despite the growth in EV sales, they still make up a small share of overall sales. Approximately 9,000 new petrol or diesel light vehicles were brought into the country in August and each one of those will lock in a couple of decades of imported fuel costs and emissions.
The sticker price might be lower than the electric equivalent, but those owners are likely to face higher lifetime costs, as the comparison graph shows (EVs that rely exclusively on expensive public fast-chargers will pay more but they are in the minority and EV owners do most of their charging at home).
With fuel excise tax remaining lower for the foreseeable future, our policy settings are reinforcing this false economy.
To even the playing field, Fringe Benefit Tax should be removed (or significantly reduced) to give the incentive for businesses to run on New Zealand-made energy.
And for households, the EV Salary Boost, which lets employees lease a new or second-hand EV using pre-tax income, would provide more New Zealanders with access to the savings.
There is no end in sight to the war in the Middle East and fuel prices are set to remain high. More support is needed for New Zealanders to get off that imported energy hamster wheel and go electric.
BloombergNEF says sales of combustion cars peaked in 2017 and there's no coming back, while a new study in New Zealand shows petrol vehicles were losing value more quickly than equivalent models did a decade ago; big batteries aren't just for storing electricity, they can also store heat; the story of the world's biggest electric ferry and the Australian company that made it; electric motorbikes are doing a lot of heavy lifting on emissions reduction, so why don't they get more attention?; and a new show called HallowGreen2 that tackles the energy transition "with music, humour and a hopeful message”.
Read moreDownloadRNZ's Kate Newton looks at why no-one is really talking about emissions as an election issue. As Mike Casey said: "The climate movement up until this point has been very, very good at creating dartboards, but terrible at providing people with darts to play the game." That's allowed for inaction, and active lobbying against climate change action from fossil fuel companies and others who stand to lose out ... The solution is "flipping it into a strong economic narrative that they can't possibly fight with".
Read moreDownloadHumans are comparative creatures and they're particularly comparative during election season. That's why we've created a rundown of all the energy-related election policies that have been announced by the parties so far.
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