The Government turned its back on EVs and now we’re paying the price

Monday, 16 March 2026

Ed Harvey is a New Zealand energy expert and founder of EV smart charger manufacturer Evnex.

OPINION: When the Government removed the Clean Car Discount in 2023, the message to New Zealand car buyers was straightforward: electric vehicles are too expensive, and we're making it easier to buy something cheaper.

It worked. EV sales fell off a cliff, from more than 26,000 in 2023 to around 9000 in 2025. Hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders bought petrol and diesel cars instead. But, the fall in sales wasn't just driven by the subsidy removal, it was also the clear signal from the government — we’re not interested in supporting electrification.

The Middle East crisis has just presented the bill. As conflict in the Gulf escalates and the Strait of Hormuz sits effectively closed, New Zealanders are paying for National’s decision with higher petrol prices at the pump.

The market has already noticed. Second-hand EV enquiries have surged within days of the conflict escalating. Consumers understand the maths even when policy and politicians don’t.

Read more:

• NZ hits 100,000 EV milestone as Government consults on scrapping Clean Car Standard

• Electric vehicle sales jump 50% at dealership as fuel prices surge

• NZ will be 'dumping ground' for high-emission cars, EV advocate warns

The sticker price is only a small part of owning a vehicle. New Zealanders keep their cars for a long time; the average vehicle on our roads is around 14 years old. A petrol car bought today will be filling up, and exposed to every oil market shock, well into the 2030s.

An EV charged at home costs a fraction of a petrol car, per kilometre travelled. When oil prices spike because of a war on the other side of the planet, the EV driver's weekly transport cost barely moves. Their power bill doesn't care about what’s happening around the world.

The Government's pitch was that removing incentives would save Kiwis money. What it actually did was shift the cost, from the showroom floor to the petrol station, paid over years and decades, now magnified by an international conflict. That's not saving money, it’s simply deferring the true cost over a long time.

If EV sales had maintained their 2023 trajectory, tens of thousands of additional households would today be immune to this week's price shock. The country's fuel import bill, already $7 billion to $8b a year, would be smaller. Charging infrastructure would be further along.

Instead, the Government spent two years actively discouraging electrification. Now, in the definition of a tone-deaf move, it is considering scrapping the Clean Car Standard altogether, the last meaningful policy encouraging cleaner vehicles into our market. Doing so would make New Zealand one of only two OECD nations without a vehicle emissions standard. The other is Russia.

Australia is going in the opposite direction. Manufacturers are prioritising their best, most efficient vehicles for that market. If we scrap our standard, we become the obvious destination for whatever cars Australia no longer wants.

It's not too late to do better. New Zealand generates more than 80% of its electricity from renewable sources, hydro, wind, geothermal, right here at home. No shipping lanes. No tankers. No exposure to the Gulf. That's a structural advantage most countries would trade a great deal for.

We also need to stop framing electrification as a climate argument, because clearly that message is not resonating with those who don't believe the science.

Instead, let’s frame electrification as a cost-of-living argument. An energy security argument. A national resilience argument. Take your pick because electrification addresses all of them.

This is not the first oil shock and it won't be the last. We saw it with Ukraine in 2022. With Iran now. Each time, prices eventually stabilise and the conversation fades. Each time we fail to lock in structural change; we ensure the next shock hits just as hard.

Just like any investment, the best time to meaningfully invest in EVs would have been 10 years ago. The second best time is right now. New Zealand has the renewable energy, the developing infrastructure, and consumers who, when they feel the pain at the pump, make the rational choice.

What we keep lacking is the policy consistency to turn that into something permanent.