DCC buying 12 more electric cars this year
THE number of electric vehicles in the Dunedin City Council’s fleet is due to more than double by the end of the year when it reaches its 2021 goal.
But as yet, there are no plans to increase its uptake of vehicles in light of recent climate change advice.
Council fleet and parking operations team leader Reece Smith said the council intended to buy 12 electric vehicles this year to add to its current lowemissions fleet of eight electric or hybrid vehicles.
In May 2016, days after the Government announced its electric vehicles programme, the council decided to purchase electric vehicles at a rate so it owned 20 fully electric vehicles by the end of this year.
Electric vehicles in New Zealand number just over onethird of the Government’s stated target of 64,000 electric vehicles in the country by the end of 2021.
The Climate Change Commission this month began consulting on its advice to the Government that could lower the number of petrol and dieselpowered vehicles on the road.
‘‘While there is no specific direction to local government to follow the Government's new lead, the DCC will continue to acquire more EVs [electric vehicles] in the future as vehicles are due for replacement,’’ Mr Smith said in an emailed statement this week.
With about 120 vehicles in its fleet, 20 electric or hybrid lowemissions vehicles would make up more than 15% of the fleet.
The Climate Change Commission now says at least 50% of all light vehicle and motorcycle imports should be electric by 2027.
The majority of the vehicles coming into New Zealand for everyday use should be electric by 2035, it said.
And road transport could be almost ‘‘decarbonised’’ by 2050, it said.
One important constraint would be the availability of electric vehicles, particularly those that were second hand.
The country’s vehicle market was ‘‘small, remote, leftside driving, and heavily dependent on used vehicle imports from Japan’’.
Meanwhile, Japan was prioritising investing in hydrogen and conventional hybrids and had limited electric vehicle supply, it said.