EV (electric vehicle) News and Discussion

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#3368114 27-Apr-2025 21:51

I struggle to understand why they even take the time to write a press release about this.

As PolicyGuy said: This is changing the model from grants to loans. And it is being dressed up as an improvement.

At the same time this government has disincentivised people from buying EVs. The uptake has plateaued in 2025.

This is not a government that is serious about EV uptake, and I am confused why they are trying to make it up like they are.

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Scott3

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#3368120 27-Apr-2025 22:28

This is quite frustrating.

Funding for 10,000 chargers by 2030 was used as justification for scrapping the clean car discount scheme.

While I am glad to see the 10,000 chargers by 2030 has not been abandoned, it is really strange to read a press release which talks up at length the importance of said chargers, while also announcing changes intending to keep government spending in the area to a "Minimum"....

And of course no mention of the elephant in the room, RUC's. Non plug in hybrids are the massive winner of the current road taxation system, and it really shows in the sales charts.

richms

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#3368126 28-Apr-2025 00:08

No, non plug in hybrids are the massive sellers because the aqua crapbox is the most popular as its the cheapest importable car essentially, and its new enough to get a warranty for cheap which is essential for most of the sales that are going on finance. The demio was the one before that until the base models from Japan stopped being able to be imported. If the honda fit was cheaper, it would be selling great. The people buying these things dont care about hybrid or whatever, they want the cheapest thing they can get for no money down off the lot.

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#3368127 28-Apr-2025 00:19

richms:

No, non plug in hybrids are the massive sellers because the aqua crapbox is the most popular as its the cheapest importable car essentially, and its new enough to get a warranty for cheap which is essential for most of the sales that are going on finance. The demio was the one before that until the base models from Japan stopped being able to be imported. If the honda fit was cheaper, it would be selling great. The people buying these things dont care about hybrid or whatever, they want the cheapest thing they can get for no money down off the lot.

It's not just the bottom of the market. Rav4 Hybrid has been in the two best sellers every month so far this year. $49k - $61k.

johno1234

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#3368133 28-Apr-2025 07:41

The EV subsidy never sat right with me because it effectively had mid to low income tax payers subsidising people wealthy enough to afford a Tesla.
There are now affordable EVs but people still aren’t buying many despite the price not being such an issue anymore. However adjusting people’s attitude to EV operation and charging remains an issue. Ask people any they didn’t buy an EV and you’ll hear about depreciation, range and charging. Making charging more accessible, faster, easier and cheaper will help.

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#3368136 28-Apr-2025 07:47

Dingbatt:

I wonder how much coal we’ll burn to meet electricity demand this winter?

Even if coal was burnt to support increased demand for electrification of transport (I could do another post to show why that will not be the case), we are saving billions in foreign exchange on oil imports, also remove a major cause of air pollution that kills and maims thousands of kiwis each year. And if the fools dream known as carbon capture/storage ever becomes technically and economically feasible then it's easier to attach it to a single smoke stack than thousands of vehicles burning fossil fuels in the open air.

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fastbike

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#3368137 28-Apr-2025 07:50

Scott3:

This is quite frustrating.

Funding for 10,000 chargers by 2030 was used as justification for scrapping the clean car discount scheme.

While I am glad to see the 10,000 chargers by 2030 has not been abandoned, it is really strange to read a press release which talks up at length the importance of said chargers, while also announcing changes intending to keep government spending in the area to a "Minimum"....

This is not frustrating. This is well signalled by the Minister of Finance - tax cuts and "balancing" the books are #1 priority. Even though it makes no sense, it is their program so until a government with an investment mindset commands the treasury, expect no progress.

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#3368143 28-Apr-2025 08:10

Dingbatt:

That’s great.

Meantime my electricity provider has just hiked my daily charge by 18% and my per unit cost by 15%.

I wonder how much coal we’ll burn to meet electricity demand this winter?

Not investing sufficiently in our electricity generation and instead pumping huge amounts of our overseas funds to big oil companies is how NZ rolls.

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#3368150 28-Apr-2025 08:27

Dingbatt:

That’s great.

Meantime my electricity provider has just hiked my daily charge by 18% and my per unit cost by 15%.

Yeah that sucks, but at least they didn't put it up an extra 22% just for the weekend like all the petrol stations around here did.

I wonder how much coal we’ll burn to meet electricity demand this winter?

If you're asking "because of EVs" then the answer is, "not much", since the vast majority of EV owners do the vast majority of their charging at night when demand is lowest.

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#3368159 28-Apr-2025 08:46

SaltyNZ:

If you're asking "because of EVs" then the answer is, "not much", since the vast majority of EV owners do the vast majority of their charging at night when demand is lowest.

No, not asking that at all. More a commentary on Watts’ spruiking on our “plentiful renewable electricity resources”. So plentiful that we have to burn imported coal to keep the lights on. Nothing to do with EVs.

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#3368170 28-Apr-2025 09:15

Dingbatt:

No, not asking that at all. More a commentary on Watts’ spruiking on our “plentiful renewable electricity resources”. So plentiful that we have to burn imported coal to keep the lights on. Nothing to do with EVs.

Yeah, fair point then.

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#3368171 28-Apr-2025 09:18

So plentiful that we have to burn imported coal to keep the lights on.

Wrong. NZ exports our coal because it is of metallurgical grade, i.e. used in steelmaking, and more valuable that the thermal coal we import.

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#3368176 28-Apr-2025 09:28

Scotdownunder:

So plentiful that we have to burn imported coal to keep the lights on.

Wrong. NZ exports our coal because it is of metallurgical grade, i.e. used in steelmaking, and more valuable that the thermal coal we import.

Well, for me it's less about whose coal we burn and more about the fact we need to burn coal at all because of under-investment in other generation.

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#3368177 28-Apr-2025 09:30

Scotdownunder:

So plentiful that we have to burn imported coal to keep the lights on.

Wrong. NZ exports our coal because it is of metallurgical grade, i.e. used in steelmaking, and more valuable that the thermal coal we import.

NZ also has large reserves of lignite coal but not enough is extracted to meet our own demand so we import it from Indonesia instead. If we are going to burn the brown mucky stuff I wish it could at least be supporting our own workers, industry and balance of trade.

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#3368411 28-Apr-2025 22:56

johno1234:

Scotdownunder:

So plentiful that we have to burn imported coal to keep the lights on.

Wrong. NZ exports our coal because it is of metallurgical grade, i.e. used in steelmaking, and more valuable that the thermal coal we import.

NZ also has large reserves of lignite coal but not enough is extracted to meet our own demand so we import it from Indonesia instead. If we are going to burn the brown mucky stuff I wish it could at least be supporting our own workers, industry and balance of trade.

Coal is a sunset industry in the long run globally, at least for the low-grade stuff.

And it's telling when wind farms are denied fast-tracking, while resource-cursed sectors seemingly get free rein.

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