Government’s EV charge runs flat
Government’s EV charge runs
flat
New figures obtained
by Labour show that the National Government has left the
handbrake on over its purchasing of electric vehicles, with
less than 0.4 per cent of its All-Of-Government Panel
purchases being EVs since Minister Simon Bridges announced
that the Government was “driving the switch to electric
vehicles”.
“Just eight electric vehicles have been purchased in the six months since Minister Bridges made his commitment, among the 2039 vehicles purchased by the Government’s procurement panel in that period,” says Labour’s Transport Spokesperson Sue Moroney.
“It is a wasted opportunity for the Government to use its purchasing power to increase the viability of EVs in New Zealand.
“This failure comes on the back of the decision a few weeks ago to ditch electric freight trains for diesel trains on the main trunk line – it’s a backwards trend when New Zealand has committed to reducing carbon emissions.
“Buying less than 0.4 per cent of the government fleet in EVs is even more pitiful than their plan to only have 2 per cent EVs in the country’s fleet by 2021.
“The Government can’t even lead by example to reach that tiny target itself.
“No number of photos of a grinning Simon Bridges with electric vehicles will hide the fact that KiwiRail has ditched Electric Locos for diesel under his watch and that his Government is failing to lead the switch to EVs.”
Written Questions from Sue Moroney:
15394 (2016). Sue Moroney to the Minister for
Economic Development (08 Dec 2016): How many vehicles in
total have been purchased under the All-of-Government
Vehicles contract since 30 April
2016?
Hon Steven Joyce (Minister
for Economic Development) replied: I am advised there have
been a 2,039 vehicles in total purchased under the
All-of-Government Vehicles contract between 1 April 2016 and
30 September 2016, based on the last two quarterly sales
reports MBIE has received from the All-of-Government (AoG)
vehicles panel suppliers.
15392 (2016). Sue Moroney to the Minister
for Economic Development (08 Dec 2016): How many
non-electric vehicles have been purchased under the
All-of-Government Vehicles contract since 30 April
2016?
Hon Steven Joyce (Minister
for Economic Development) replied: I am advised that there
have been 2,031 non-electric vehicles purchased under the
All-of-Government Vehicles contract between 1 April 2016 and
30 September 2016, based on the last two quarterly sales
reports MBIE has received from the All-of-Government (AoG)
vehicles panel
suppliers.