Read our new Electric Homes and Vehicles report
Across the political spectrum, there's broad agreement that going electric is the right path for New Zealand to take - often for very different reasons. Many of our politicians are also in agreement, as our Political Power series continues to show, and ACT's Andrew Hoggard is already well on his way.
Speaking to Mike Casey at Fieldays, Hoggard says he doesn't have any gas coming to his home on the farm, which mostly runs on electricity (aside from the things that move, like the tractor, cars and side-by-side).
His first experience with e-bikes wasn't great because, he freely admits, they were cheap and couldn't handle life on the farm, but, as Casey says, when you live on the bleeding edge, you know a few things will break.
After a storm knocked out power to the farm for three days a few months back and the generator wasn't powerful enough to get power to the house, he decided to experiment with some cheap solar and rig up a system.
"I realise I should have read some instructions before because I've blown up a few things already."
Now he's investigating solar for the cow shed because the costs have come down so much, there's a shortage of gas that will flow into energy prices and lots of other farmers are saving - and, in some cases, making - money with it.
"It's a good level of resilience. I always prefer having more than one option."
Electric vehicles are increasingly pulling into New Zealand workshops - and mechanics need the right qualifications to work on them safely. High-voltage battery systems carry risks for untrained technicians, and as EVs become a larger share of the national fleet, workshops without qualified staff risk being left behind. Some vehicle manufacturers are also beginning to require demonstrated technician competency as a condition of warranty-related work - a trend that is expected to grow. Here's where the training is on offer.
Read moreDownloadSolar and storage on farms has been going off like a frog in a sock recently. And Federated Farmers has made it a big part of its election manifesto. While Wayne Langford recently missed out on a fourth term as president, he's a Bright Spark in our books for all the work he's done to get this issue on the political radar and help speed up adoption.
Read moreDownload"To emphasise both the risk and the opportunity for New Zealand’s political economy, the price of Brent crude hit US$100 a barrel again on Friday, which is likely to push petrol prices back towards $3.50/litre. But New Zealand’s uptake of EVs, home solar, home batteries and grid-scale solar and batteries is lagging far behind most other countries, who have incentives and national strategies to electrify fast."
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