Proposed investment into infrastructure for electric vehicles will see more people turning to battery power according to Automobile Association’s Simon Douglas.
Earlier last month, National Party leader Christopher Luxon promised 10,000 electric vehicle chargers by 2030 if elected. Automobile Association’s chief policy and advocacy officer Simon Douglas says underinvestment in EV charging facilities is one of the associations election calls.
“We’re really happy to see more and more EVs on the roads, but the problem is our public charging infrastructure isn’t keeping up - there are more than 80,000 EVs out there, but we’ve only about 400 charging sites for them to use,” says Simon.
He thinks National Party’s promise of 10,000 more EV chargers will see uptake in EV use and will address “range anxiety”.
“Overcoming range anxiety is the biggest thing that people are worried about. The key to that is making sure that there’s an [EV charger] network in place so if people are caught short away from home, or away from their normal place of charging –they can access a public charger, get a top up and get to where they’re going in the same as we do with a petrol station.”
Simon says having the same level of infrastructure for EV chargers as petrol stations will “help increase people’s confidence to purchase an EV and meet our emissions targets”.
End to exemption
At the same time National Party have also stated if they win, EV users will be subject to road user charges as they are currently exempt from fuel excise taxes. Simon says “it’s about time for this exemption to end”.
“The exemption for EV’s in paying road user charges was brought in as a tool to help incentivise to buy EV’s. Since then we’ve seen the clean car standard and the clean car discount introduced and those have proven to be much more effective tools and we’ve seen a much faster uptake in the purchase of EVs.
“If we’re to maintain balance in the system and make sure that we’ve got the funding and the revenue necessary to maintain the roads in a safe and proper way, then yes it’s time for the road exemption to end.”
2 comments
The Master
Posted on 01-10-2023 14:47 | By Ian Stevenson
The real science shows that EV's create more CO2 than a fossil fuel vehicle, that reality does not seem to to be allowed for.
Lets not ignore the 40-800 times more mining required also.
Perhaps a small wee issue also... how are all these EV's going to be charged? Where is the power coming from to do so, fossil fuels? Nuke? There is no way solar, tidal or wind will ever get there. Its all a complete joke and hoax.
bugnuts
Posted on 05-10-2023 09:35 | By olemanriver
Must be getting his information from a petrol friendly sight as it just is not logical. BEV have many fewer parts, batteries use tiny amounts of rare elements needing special mining, and the main materials are the same as used in a petrol fart vehicle. Facts he ignores - BEVs produce no poisonous exhaust at all. Every drop of fossil fuel in NZ is imported, while electric charge is local and in surplus. You can fuel your BEV at no charge from rooftop solar (off grid). The exhaust from fossil fuel turns into corrosive acid when it finds water (in your lungs), or kills a red blood cell per atom of carbon monoxide.. not to even mention the co2 to the planet. The time for petrol is past.
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