New stats from Dot Loves Data reported on RNZ today show that in April motorists in parts of rural New Zealand were spending "nearly a quarter of their total discretionary spending on fuel".

As director Justin Lester says: "Fuel isn't discretionary spending in rural New Zealand. For many families, it's the cost of getting to work, school, healthcare, and even the supermarket. Rural families are more exposed to the global fuel shock due to longer travel distances and heavy dependence on private vehicles."

In cities, there may be other options available to avoid those costs, like public transport or cycling, and we're all for that if you can do it. But rural folk often need cars and there are also a lot of New Zealanders in cities who have to travel long distances for work.

As our research shows, electricity is the cheapest fuel (and solar is the cheapest delivered electricity) and EVs can save tens of thousands over their lifetime.

They make even more economic sense for those who travel longer distances and, as Mike Casey has proven, they can easily handle the rural jandal.

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The Government has provided a $50 per week tax credit for some families to offset high fuel prices and offered increased mileage rates for rural relief teachers, but getting more households off petrol and diesel and onto New Zealand-made energy has to be the long-term goal.

We're calling on the banks to up their game and give New Zealanders what the Aussies get when it comes to EV finance.

And we're also calling on the Government to enable salary sacrifice schemes like those seen in Australia, which could get nurses, teachers or those living rurally into a new EV for around $200 a week, including charging, insurance, tyres and maintenance.

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