Drive Electric: Australia may help us hunt down Norway

Wednesday, 22 June 2022

Norway is pretty and has lots of EVs. New Zealand is also pretty, but doesn’t have as many EVs. Are we on track to become the Norway of the Pacific?

Mark Gilbert is the Chair of Drive Electric, a not-for-profit organisation that promotes the benefits of making e-mobility mainstream and encourages accelerated electric vehicle uptake across the country.

OPINION: After the Government released its Climate plan in May, US website CleanTechnica wrote that when it comes to electric vehicle uptake, New Zealand is becoming the Norway of the Pacific.

Here is every new electric car you can buy in New Zealand as of September 2022.

Norway has long been held up as the world’s leading adopters of electric vehicles. In 2022 so far, between 80 and 90% of new cars sold each month were some form of plug-in electric vehicle.

In April, about 17% of new vehicle registrations were plug- in electric in New Zealand. So it’s fair to say that we’re still some way off Norway.

**READ MORE:

Mark Gilbert, chair of Drive Electric, says that the recent Australian election may help New Zealand increase our EV uptake.

* Every new EV on sale in New Zealand right now

* Subscriptions are the best way to try an EV before you buy

* Stellantis is working on roads that charge your car

* Six initial dealers for cheap new EV

The newly-elected Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, may boost the ease of access to EVs for New Zealand distributors.

That said - recent progress at home has exceeded my expectations. EV registrations are up 38% from last year (March 2021 to March 2022). And the Government has now confirmed our future target: 30% of all vehicles will be electric by 2035.

This will be well north of a million electric cars on New Zealand roads. Actually, it wouldn’t surprise me if we exceed that metric. (To put our target in comparison, Norway’s national target is a fully electric fleet by 2025.)

Globally, more than $400 billion has been invested in the EV sector in the last decade - the truth is the world’s automotive market is electrifying. So many brands have already committed to going all electric.

A Nissan Leaf could have several thousand dollars lopped off its price in Australia if the new government removes import tariffs on EVs.

It’s true there are some headwinds to this electric swap out. Global supply is being overwhelmed by demand and there are current supply chain challenges. But all the predictions are that EVs will soon assert their final dominance over their petrol-powered forebears.

So how can New Zealand hit Norwegian levels of EV adoption?

Will Ferrell is appalled that Norway sells more EVs per capita than the USA.

Surprisingly, the newly elected Prime Minister of Australia Anthony Albanese might just give us a helping hand.

Climate change has been a political hand grenade for more than a decade in Australia, which has curtailed their national responses. Signs are that in the recent election that voters have had enough, rate climate change as the number one issue for Australia, and are demanding action.

In Australia transport comprises around 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Like New Zealand, those emissions have been on the rise for decades. Again like New Zealand the Australians have recognised to deal with climate change, you need to deal with transport.

On the campaign trail, Labor pledged to introduce an Electric Car Discount. This would exempt EVs from import tariffs and fringe benefits tax.

The Australian Electric Vehicle Council estimates that a $50,000 model (such as the Nissan Leaf) will be more than $2,000 cheaper as a result of removing the import tariff. This will be in place by July 2022. Coupled with this, Labor intends to develop Australia’s first National Electric Vehicle Strategy.

This is on top of the fact that most States now have some form of financial EV incentive for consumers in place. The big two states, NSW and Victoria, have a target of 50% of sales to be EV by 2030.

Federally, Labor has, however, shied away from setting emissions standards, which are considered to be a very powerful tool for cleaning up the fleet. New Zealand was one of the last OECD countries to set these standards in law as recently as April.

While standards should be mandated, any effort Australia takes at a national level to accelerate EV uptake should make it easier for us to source electric vehicles over time.

We are told by industry voices, like the NZ Motor Industry Association, that a number of New Zealand’s new car importers work through their Australian offices to source vehicles from global manufacturers.

I am hopeful that if more Australians are buying EVs then this should only make sourcing for our local distributors easier. After all, the new car market in Australia is more than one million vehicles per year, many times ours.

They’re not just helping us with a supply of cars, Australia has also made a major commitment to our national charging infrastructure.

We’ve just seen the arrival of Jolt Charging from Australia, awash with capital from BlackRock. Starting in July, Jolt will begin rolling out its first chargers around New Zealand installed at Mitre 10 stores. Drivers using the Jolt chargers will have access to 7kWh of free charging in a 24-hour period.

Jolt will take on the incumbent ChargeNet and will aim to have 500 public charging stations in place over the next four years. EV drivers will revel in more choice and competition.

Back to Norway, where 80 per cent of EV charging is done at home, they have more than 16,000 public charging stations in 2020. Waka Kotahi says we don’t yet have 1,000.

While Norway can be a source of inspiration and Australia can help source the EVs, the next major step is developing a world-class charging network. I hear a consultation on this critical topic should hit government websites in July.