David Cormack: Can Govt and Nats drive in same direction with electric vehicles?

The proposal shows that the Greens aren't anti-car. Photo / Getty Images

COMMENT

Yesterday's announcement of a subsidy for new EVs and a fee for new gas guzzling cars is not just an excellent policy, it's excellent politics.

The Greens have been accused of being anti-car since forever and this policy demonstrates just how fallacious that argument is. They're not anti-car,they're anti cars that are bad emitters. This policy is a big step in the right direction of trying to address a major contributor to New Zealand's pollution footprint.

I know from personal experience that the Greens have been trying out policies to try and get more businesses to buy electric cars for their fleets. The idea being that if they import more EVs then when they replace that fleet those EVs will filter into our second-hand market where individuals tend to buy their cars. And we have one of the oldest fleets of cars in the world - for a long time, New Zealand has been a bit of a dumping ground for aging vehicles.

One of the major concerns with policies like this is that they can effectively be a subsidy for the rich and that charging more on top for "gas guzzling" cars would act as a regressive tax on the poor. It's people from lower socio-economic areas that then to buy the van types that are cheaper to buy but drink a lot more petrol.

Despite criticism from some quarters that this policy is somewhat nullified by only applying to new cars, and not used ones, this is the right way to go about it. It's the fairest way to do it and while it may take slightly longer to have the desired effect, it does mean that those people who may have been stung by a fee buying used cars will not be affected.

The addition of having a proper fuel efficiency standards also seems a no-brainer, and one that you have to ask why wasn't it done sooner?

Recently it was revealed that nearly half of all cars sold in Norway were electric, and this is something New Zealand should aspire to. It's policies like this that make that more likely.

And it's policies like this that, while slow, are actual tangible efforts to address climate change.

While demonstrating that the Greens are not wholly anti-car, this policy also must be part of a suite of transport solutions. Because while an EV is better for the environment, it's still using electricity from the grid which means that there could potentially be a bigger burden on our hydro-lakes and other electricity sources.

But a shift away from fossil fuels is the main thing, and that's a very important thing given that about 100 companies - mainly fossil fuel - contribute up to 70 per cent of the world's harmful emissions. The one thing this policy doesn't do is solve congestion. An EV on the road is still a car on the road causing traffic jams and snarl ups on our major motorways, particularly in and out of our major CBDs.

That's why the Government's public transport, cycling and walking work is so crucial. Reducing traffic congestion has huge flow-on benefits. Freeing up the roads for people gives obvious benefits like faster travel times, but it also means that people can live further out from where they work which could plausibly have an impact on our housing. If working people have the freedom of an easier long commute they can live in areas where the houses are more affordable.

It will be interesting where National lands on this issue. It's been a very oppositional opposition and seems to have run counter to just about anything the Government has put forward. This new policy seems so completely sensible and obvious that coming out against it will make them seem churlish and unwilling to work on what is excellent policy with no clear losers. I hope we see a constructive bi-partisan approach. And I expect one.

When Simon Bridges was Minister of Transport it was to his credit that he was a huge EV enthusiast. Now he's got the chance to support a policy that helps get more of them here.