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BYD's Atto 1 is "set to become New Zealand’s cheapest electric car, with a starting retail price of $29,990 plus on-road costs ...This pricing sees the Atto 1 go head-to-head with some of the very cheapest cars on the market, in a move that sees the industry inch closer towards price parity between electric vehicles and internal combustion engine cars. The Atto 1 is just $7000 more than the cheapest car on sale in New Zealand currently, the $22,990 Suzuki Ignis (a model that is being phased out next year). It also undercuts the cheapest Toyota currently on sale, the $33,490 Yaris GX."
The sticker price remains a barrier for many when it comes to EVs, so having these come down should help to increase adoption rates and improve the lifetime cost comparisons.
On average, an EV charged with rooftop solar will save you almost $20,000 over the lifetime of the vehicle and charging via the grid will save you around $10,000. Those numbers factor in the higher upfront costs of EVs, but because electric vehicles are so much better at using energy to create motion than petrol or diesel vehicles, it makes them much cheaper to run and there's no competition when it comes to carbon emissions.
In the UK, EVs overtook petrol cars in October, with one in four new cars fully electric and sales of petrol and diesel cars down by a third.
We are seeing a gradual increase in sales in New Zealand after the big dipper of 2023 when the subsidy was removed (according to Stuff, overall, BEV registrations were up 28.5% in August compared to the same time last year), but the growth is pretty anaemic compared to some other markets.
When Mike Casey bought his house near Cromwell, it came with gas bottles on the side of the home for water and an expensive diesel system for the underfloor heating. He replaced both of them with a Steibel Eltron system and it's been saving him money ever since. As technical manager Bhawesh Singh told him at the Electrify Queenstown conference, there has been a big influx in enquiries from homes looking to get off the molecules and onto electrons.
Read moreDownloadConfidence that cutting regulations to make solar power more accessible - won't jeopardise people's safety. A new Regulation Ministry reports laid out a potential blueprint to legalise plug-in solar and reduce the time and cost of panel installation. Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey shares his thoughts with Andrew Dickens.
The burgeoning demand for solar was also a chance to address a mismatch between the numbers of training opportunities available and young people searching for work, Casey said. "The mums of New Zealand are telling me that there's not enough apprenticeships for their kids and the solar installers of New Zealand are telling me there's not enough trained people."
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