Tax fuel hogs and switch on to EVs, NZ told

New Zealand politicians need to get more ambitious with electric vehicle incentives if they want to meet targets and are serious about cutting carbon emissions, says the secretary general of the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association, Christina Bu.

She says this country should follow the lead of Norway in taxing large, polluting private vehicles and set more ambitious targets to get more EVs on the road.

“I think politicians are exaggerating the difficulties of doing something. It doesn't have to be too much but taxing the most polluting cars that people don't need to buy and then help and incentivise the cars that they do want us to buy.''

Bu is in New Zealand meeting industry, fleet buyers and politicians to discuss what this country can learn from Norway's conversion to electric vehicles.

Close to 50 per cent of new-car registrations in Norway are now full battery electric or hybrid cars, helped by tax incentives and other sweeteners.

Large petrol-driven cars are taxed heavily while EV buyers don't pay import taxes or VAT in Norway, where cars and petrol are expensive.

In September, 10,600 new cars sold in Norway were electric, dwarfing New Zealand's fleet which stands at just 11,000 registered EVs, although the rate of increase in the fleet is accelerating.