[ad_1]
Electric cars could enter bus lanes and other high-occupancy restricted lanes under National as part of a large effort to get Kiwis to use them.
National transportation spokesperson Chris Bishop and environment spokesperson Erica Stanford revealed the policy with leader Judith Collins on Friday, saying the party would set a goal of putting 80,000 electric vehicles on the roads by 2023.
This would quadruple the number of electric vehicles currently in the fleet.
Bishop said he believed the future of transportation would be zero emissions.
READ MORE:
* The government plugs a multi-billion dollar hole in transportation financing with grants and loans
* Lobbyist wants 250,000 electric vehicles on the road in five years
* Auckland Councilor Shattered by Light Rail Delay Announcement
“Our ambitious and comprehensive plan will encourage the purchase of electric vehicles, create a thriving market for second-hand electric vehicles, support sustainable transport infrastructure and reduce carbon emissions in New Zealand’s transport sector,” he said.
Other parts of the policy include extending the current exemption for electric vehicles from road use charges (RUC) until 2023 and exempting electric vehicles from fringe tax until 2025.
The party also wants to electrify a third of the government’s light vehicle fleet by 2023.
SUPPLIED
National wants to reduce taxes on electric vehicles to stimulate their acceptance.
National believes the package will cost the Crown $ 55 million in lost revenue over the next four years and $ 38 million to electrify the government fleet.
The RUC exemption will not cost the Treasury, as that money goes to the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi to pay for the construction of new transport infrastructure.
The party has not disclosed how much it believes the RUC exemption would cost.
It is a rather difficult number to estimate, given that the amount of RUC an electric vehicle would pay depends on how much the car is driven, but the model made by the Ministry of Transport when Simon Bridges first introduced a RUC exemption for electric vehicles in 2016 he suggested it would cost around $ 558 per EV per year.
That equates to a cost of $ 44.6 million to the NZTA in lost revenue. NZTA currently collects about $ 4 billion in RUC and fuel taxes each year it spends on transportation.
Ross Giblin / Stuff
Chris Bishop says the future of transportation is zero emissions.
The party says that electric vehicles would receive a special license plate that would allow them to use bus lanes and lanes for high occupancy vehicles. The party would immediately implement this on state highways and work with councils to implement it in cities.
Electric vehicle policy has been an area in which the current government has dramatically failed to comply.
He proposed a “feebate” style scheme that subsidized the cost of electric vehicles by imposing a polluting car tax and emissions standard, which would aim to reduce the number of polluting vehicles imported into New Zealand.
Both were rejected by NZ First, but remain Green Party policy for elections.
Collins said his policies would help the adoption of electric vehicles, without taxing drivers, something for which the feebate scheme was criticized.
STUFF
National leader Judith Collins has again raised the suggestion that Labor may introduce more taxes than promised.
“We are committed to tackling our transportation emissions problem in a practical and effective way. This ambitious plan will make electric vehicles cheaper and easier to own without unfairly taxing the kiwis. ” Collins said.
National said the big incentive would come from tax exemption on fringe benefits, given that FBTs can go as high as 49 percent, and a third of New Zealand new vehicle purchases are business purchases.
The party hopes that the purchase of electric vehicles by companies will stimulate the second-hand market.
“Emissions from transportation are the main driver of the increase in greenhouse gas emissions in New Zealand, having doubled since 1990. National has a bold plan to address this,” Bishop said.
“The work has failed to implement a new single policy to increase the acceptance of electric vehicles. Its abandoned car tax actually slowed EV sales and, if implemented, would have punished those least able to afford it.
“Exempting EVs from the fringe tax will significantly strengthen the second-hand market by giving Kiwis access to new, longer-range and late-model EVs,” he said.
