Electric Vehicles Must Spark Government Action

New Zealand First supports the call by the Motor Industry Association and the Sustainable Business Council to accelerate a shift to fully electric vehicles, making meaningful progress on climate change.

“Transport fuels account for over 40 per cent of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions, so anything we can do now to reduce them will have very positive effects on the country’s emissions profile. This is good for business and the economy,” says Spokesperson for Transport Denis O’Rourke.
“The government should encourage the uptake of the excellent electric vehicles now available.

“With re-charging times now reduced to as little as 20 minutes, and the range of fully electric vehicles now well over 200 kilometres, effective government action to support the transition to plug-in vehicles is now urgent.
“Clearly the biggest opportunity is for the government to address the 70 per cent of new vehicles being bought by businesses (only 30 per cent by private purchasers).

Therefore the government must move now to:

• Create a fringe benefit tax holiday for plug-in vehicles when they are purchased by businesses
• Continue to exempt electric vehicles from road user charges beyond 2020; and
• Address residual vehicle values (the market value of a vehicle at the end of its lease) by adjusting depreciation rates for electric vehicles
• Regulate to require licenced petrol service stations to have at least 1 electric plug-in facility within 2 years.
“The Minister needs to do a lot more than just commit to exploring how to encourage more car manufacturers to bring electric vehicles into New Zealand,” says Mr O’Rourke.

ENDS

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