NZ's energy future

Nearly all of New Zealand’s cars will have to be electric or another form of zero-emission vehicle if New Zealand is to become carbon neutral by 2050, according to Climate Change Minister James Shaw. 

Shaw, who is also Green Party co-leader, explained to Radio New Zealand (RNZ) that the country's commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2050 is reliant on significantly accelerating the uptake of electric vehicles.

"We can't get to the zero-emissions carbon goal without switching over the ground vehicle fleet to electrics. You just can't get there," said Shaw. 

"We think that means about 95 per cent of vehicles in the year 2050 will be zero-emissions vehicles."

However, analysts believe to meet that goal every newly registered car would have to be zero-emissions by 2030. 

Associate Transport Minister Julie-Anne Genter is the minister with chief oversight of electric vehicles and dismisses the claim. 

“It has been about ten years where we’ve had a government who really didn’t do much to improve people’s transport choices or the safety and efficiency of the fleet. What is possible in 2030 will be far different to what we imagine will be possible today,” said Genter to RNZ.

National MP Jami-Lee Ross says the government doesn't appear to be making any meaningful steps toward the goal. 

“There hasn’t been anything meaningful that is being done around electric vehicle uptake and if there is a serious desire for a reduction in emissions and the vehicle fleet in New Zealand, the government should be leading the way.”

Genter rejects this and says the government is considering a range of changes to bring down the cost of electric vehicles, including a potential feebate scheme that would slap a fee on heavily polluting cars, which would be then used to subsidise clean green alternatives. 

“There is still quite a lot of work to do to investigate what are going to be the most effective policies and what are going to be the fairest policies."

"When we know that we can have an idea of what sort of target we can aim for.”

*Featured image: Brand-new BMW i3s awaiting delivery