The case for energy loans: read our latest explainer
Around 150,000 new vehicles are purchased every year in New Zealand and around 60% of them are bought by businesses. We reckon a lot more of them should be electric - both for the benefit of those companies but also to seed the second-hand market - and that could be on the cards now because one of the major barriers to fleet EV uptake has been removed.
Following discussions with companies that had large vehicle fleets (including Vittoria Short at ASB), we learned that WorkSafe New Zealand guidance was getting in the way of wider EV adoption because if a work vehicle was being charged at an employee's home, the home was to be considered to be a workplace.
That came with the associated liability and compliance costs for companies and understandably put them off.
We talked with WorkSafe and now Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden has taken action. The guidance has been updated and common sense has prevailed.
The Minister says it best: "Crucially, employee homes are no longer referred to as workplaces in the new guidelines... I expect this to free up the employer-owned EV landscape and give businesses more confidence to choose EVs for their organisations."
Rewiring is keen to keep working with companies to help drive fleet EV uptake. It makes so much sense for profitability, productivity, resilience, emissions and more. So whether it's company cars for getting around town or big rigs for getting around the country, the future is looking increasingly electric.
Read more about the change here.
"We've lost the cops!" In our next instalment of Political Power, we managed to get David Seymour, deputy prime minister and leader of the Act Party, behind the wheel of a Zeekr 7x when he was in Queenstown recently. As is often the case when people take a new EV for a spin, there was much chortling as he gave it heaps up the Remarkables ski field road - and, if we take him at his word, we might even see him give Mike Casey's tractor heaps up Parliament steps in the future.
Read moreDownloadEVs are having a moment right now, so how can we get more people driving electric; Tom Selleck sums up how EV owners are feeling right now and staggering analysis shows the sun's prices have been unaffected by decades of geopolitical conflict; Scion goes solar to get off gas, while dairy farmers and homes go with solar and batteries to keep going; Saul Griffith takes his solar-powered scooter to Canberra and starts a fight with regulators; the Cancer Society's Lions Lodge in Hamilton gets some panels donated and will save $17,000 a year; and killing the Friday vibe with new studies on how fossil fuel companies made massive profits after the last energy crisis in 2022 and carbon emissions making our blood boil - perhaps quite literally.
Read moreDownloadAn electrification advocate says the rising price and falling supply of gas may not be a bad thing in the long-term. PwC research —commissioned by Gas Industry Co— has found New Zealand's gas market will need to shrink sharply as domestic supply declines. It warns this could mean business closures, job losses, and higher energy costs.