Transport Simeon Brown has shown what his true priorities are. In the first three months of his term not only has he cancelled the Auckland light rail project but he has also cancelled the clean car discount policy and moved quickly to impose road user charges on electric vehicles and plug in hybrids.
As congestion grows and the wall of bus problem in the inner city increases the folly of the first decision will be shown. Sure Labour overcooked the scale of the project and it should have been at grade rather than tunneled but it is still required. While overseas cities rush to implement advanced rail systems Simeon wants to build more tarmac.
The EV policy changes are especially galling.
The Clean Car discount policy was working very well and EV numbers were skyrocketing. Sure the overall environmental benefit from EVs is complex and there are better things that we can do but EVs, particularly the smaller ones, are way better than gas guzzling utes.
And although road pricing was inevitable the haste with which it is being introduced is unwarranted. Despite the surge EVs currently only make up about 2% of the total fleet. Every incentive should be used to increase numbers. The slow in the growth in EV numbers that the policy will cause will only mean that the country will have to pay more for carbon credits because we will not meet our international obligations.
As has been pointed out by people in the know. From Radio New Zealand:
It does not take a rocket scientist to realise the government’s decision to implement road user charges for electric vehicles will really slow down sales, industry group Drive Electric says.
On Tuesday, the government announced EVs and plug-in hybrid vehicles will no longer be exempt from road-user charges as of 1 April.
Owners of light EVs will pay $76 per 1000 kilometres, to match equivalent diesel-powered vehicles.
Meanwhile, plug-in hybrid owners will pay a reduced rate of $53 per 1000km so they are not double taxed by the fuel excise duty.
Drive Electric chairperson Kirsten Corson told Morning Report the decision alongside losing the EV clean car discount will have a significant impact on sales.
“[It’s] disappointing in our bid to hit our Paris Agreement target.”
Corson said incentives had a “dramatic” impact on sales, with EV sales sitting at around 2 percent of new car sales every month in 2018. That increased to more than 27 percent by 2023.
“We know the biggest barrier is the upfront capital cost of EVs is higher, so we do need to talk to the government and see how we could put some incentives in place like other countries do.”
In dollar terms the change will bring in $80 million in revenue. The National Land Transport Fund last year brought in about $4.2 billion in RUC, FED and other income so the extra income is about 1.9% of the NLTF total. There was no need for this to happen urgently.
And it is a false economy. The shortfall in the country’s greenhouse gas commitments will require the purchase of carbon credits.
And purchase decisions made now will have long term effects. As noted by the Climate Commission in its final advice to inform the Government’s plan to meet Aotearoa New Zealand’s greenhouse gas reduction goal for 2026–2030 states:
Decisions made in the second emissions budget period will impact Aotearoa New Zealand’s ability to meet the third emissions budget. For example, the large jump in emissions reductions expected
from transport in the third emissions budget relies on a rapid scaling up of electric vehicle sales in the 2020s. Without that early scaling up, a higher-emissions vehicle fleet will be locked in, making the necessary emissions reductions from transport more costly and disruptive.
The Commission’s conclusion about the success of the Clean Car discount policy is particularly galling. From the Commission’s advice:
[U]ptake of low-emissions vehicles has grown rapidly since the introduction of the Clean Car Discount in 2021, exceeding Te Manatū Waka Ministry of Transport’s modelled impact of the Clean Car policy package. The share of electric light vehicle registrations in 2022 grew to over 10% – a level not achieved until 2028 in the Ministry’s modelling. This also exceeds the Commission’s demonstration path, which projected a 6% share in 2022, reaching 11% in 2025. The share of hybrids also grew well beyond what was expected. This highlights the opportunity for electric and hybrid vehicles to deliver significantly higher and faster emissions reductions than previously thought.
Simeon’s preference, building more roads, is the worst thing you can do if you want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This graphic from the Commission’s advice shows how retrograde what he is proposing is.
At a time when we need cool heads and leaders who understand the enormity of the problem that is climate change and the consequences of getting our response right we are getting this retrograde culture war from people who should know better.
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress