In which I chat with Greater Auckland’s Connor Sharp about cycling fan Chris Bishop replacing car fan Simeon Brown as Transport Minister, and what might happen next.
I believe that 89 % of new cars sold in Norway were EVs. So not sure it's a worldwide trend. It does seem a no brainer, particularly of that 1 % bank loan is still available to buy them. Also the new MG4s has a 13 year warranty, over 330 kms driving on a fullish charge and you can plug it into your house should there be a power outage. You can tell I am a fan, right. It's wonderful not smelling petrol or diesel fumes & its saving us a heap of money not visiting the gas station. The current Govt could do so much more in terms of reducing emissions but they don't really care for our future. Lots of EVs on Waiheke as we do short trips but also lots of ebikes. More please!
Hi Kathy, I looked up the MG4. I am not against EVs, however Google says $46,900 to $63,900 for one. Was that your experience? Hence my comment about wealthy first adopters.
Norway is the wealthiest of wealthy countries. In Germany, sales declined 27% last year and Tesla sold slightly fewer vehicles in 2024. I think that is just the economy. People don't have the money, and then you have the populist governments removing rebates and subsidies.
I still can't believe that Simeon Brown got away with so much craziness in terms of cutting funding from basic traffic calming devices such as raised crossings. And that Warkworth debacle, right. I hate to think what he will do with health but like Connor, I am glad he is far away from my favourite zebra crossings at least. I was ready to fight tooth and nail if he tried to stop the 30 km rule on our windy, little sharrows, on Waiheke!
The intersection in Chris Penk's electorate. He complained about Labour not doing Hill St upgrade fast enough, killed by National's then Transport Death Minister, Simeon Brown.
I got an email from 'Hon' Simeon Brown (then Transport Minister) in reply to one where I questioned raised crossings being removed (replaced by paint) from a Massey, West Auckland, motorway on-ramp upgrade near a school (& also between school & community sport centre) in response to his directions and the reply was 'Good to see'.
I think that Luxon was getting a lot of flack from National supporters, provincial mayors and realised that Simeon was an electoral liability and he needed someone to step into health. Lester Levy as health Czar is a buffer between Simeon and health Senior leadership and they are most probably pretty much aligned.
I think it was obvious that Shane Reti was getting increasingly conflicted about health cutbacks starting with the repeal of smokefree legislation. I don't believe that he had an agenda to go down the US health privatisation model and the fact that he owned a couple of GP practices meant that he wanted to abolish public health. He would have been about "choices" mantra. The thing is that In NZ about 90% (that is a guestimate) of GP practices are private businesses. However they are increasingly getting agglomerated into large practices and it would be very hard for a young Shane Reti to buy a practice. The seeds of all this goes back to the compromise the first Labour government made with the BMA prior to the formation of the NZMA in 1941. But that is another story.
Like the short form interview style. Despite this being packaged up as a promotion of sorts, its a hospital pass to get the health portfolio and NZ cities & commuters will be better off having Simeon's hands off the steering wheel. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
One of the things you didn't cover was the introduction of a higher level of user pays in public transport. Where do you think this standsv now? I know many councils were very strongly pushing back against this.
Whilst cycling on Ilam Rd in Christchurch this morning, I was astonished to see that the council has removed just recently installed traffic lights in front of Ilam Primary School (to allow children to cross the road on foot safely). What possible logic could there be to do this, at great cost to the ratepayer, no doubt? Surely this was driven by Wellington, so hopes are high that there will be more common sense under Chris Bishop as transport minister..
A situation is building which will impact on both NZ's energy sector and the EV part of our transport sector. This will both boost solar uptake and increase the economic advantages of EVs.
The soon to be rolled out version of the AS/NZS 4777.1:2024 electrical standards includes facility for V2G connectivity of EVs whereby they will be able to be used as home battery storage to power your home and time-shift electricity use and export to the grid. Australian EV owners are already getting excited about the opportunities this presents and the same will happen in NZ as the technology catches on here.
EV prices are already reducing as has been forecast over the past decade and combined with their gaining functionality by way of V2G the adoption of EVs and solar will receive a boost, despite whatever Energy Minister is in place chooses to do.
Now we just have to wait for the promised rollout of RUCs on petrol vehicles to level the playing field in terms of running costs thereby moving our buying decisions away from fossil fueled vehicles, including hybrids.
Thanks Bernard. Enjoyed listening to this while having the morning coffee. Connor seems a sensible sort, so that makes two of you.
The downturn in EV sales seems to be widespread, so I don't draw too much specific about NZ in it. Are we running short on wealthy first adopters?
I believe that 89 % of new cars sold in Norway were EVs. So not sure it's a worldwide trend. It does seem a no brainer, particularly of that 1 % bank loan is still available to buy them. Also the new MG4s has a 13 year warranty, over 330 kms driving on a fullish charge and you can plug it into your house should there be a power outage. You can tell I am a fan, right. It's wonderful not smelling petrol or diesel fumes & its saving us a heap of money not visiting the gas station. The current Govt could do so much more in terms of reducing emissions but they don't really care for our future. Lots of EVs on Waiheke as we do short trips but also lots of ebikes. More please!
Hi Kathy, I looked up the MG4. I am not against EVs, however Google says $46,900 to $63,900 for one. Was that your experience? Hence my comment about wealthy first adopters.
Norway is the wealthiest of wealthy countries. In Germany, sales declined 27% last year and Tesla sold slightly fewer vehicles in 2024. I think that is just the economy. People don't have the money, and then you have the populist governments removing rebates and subsidies.
I know the numbers are inflated by China buying heaps of cars, but 2024 was still the biggest year for EV sales: https://autotalk.co.nz/2024-breaks-global-ev-sales-record-with-over-17-million-units-sold/
I still can't believe that Simeon Brown got away with so much craziness in terms of cutting funding from basic traffic calming devices such as raised crossings. And that Warkworth debacle, right. I hate to think what he will do with health but like Connor, I am glad he is far away from my favourite zebra crossings at least. I was ready to fight tooth and nail if he tried to stop the 30 km rule on our windy, little sharrows, on Waiheke!
The intersection in Chris Penk's electorate. He complained about Labour not doing Hill St upgrade fast enough, killed by National's then Transport Death Minister, Simeon Brown.
See his 2021 & 2020 posts:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18Vj6daawr/
What they've done:
Simeon Brown's fanaticism kills Warkworth intersection fix - Greater Auckland
https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2024/12/09/simeon-browns-fanaticism-kills-warkworth-intersection-fix/
I got an email from 'Hon' Simeon Brown (then Transport Minister) in reply to one where I questioned raised crossings being removed (replaced by paint) from a Massey, West Auckland, motorway on-ramp upgrade near a school (& also between school & community sport centre) in response to his directions and the reply was 'Good to see'.
Love these short(er) form interviews - still manage a lot of carefully laid out argument and reason. More please!
I think that Luxon was getting a lot of flack from National supporters, provincial mayors and realised that Simeon was an electoral liability and he needed someone to step into health. Lester Levy as health Czar is a buffer between Simeon and health Senior leadership and they are most probably pretty much aligned.
I think it was obvious that Shane Reti was getting increasingly conflicted about health cutbacks starting with the repeal of smokefree legislation. I don't believe that he had an agenda to go down the US health privatisation model and the fact that he owned a couple of GP practices meant that he wanted to abolish public health. He would have been about "choices" mantra. The thing is that In NZ about 90% (that is a guestimate) of GP practices are private businesses. However they are increasingly getting agglomerated into large practices and it would be very hard for a young Shane Reti to buy a practice. The seeds of all this goes back to the compromise the first Labour government made with the BMA prior to the formation of the NZMA in 1941. But that is another story.
Like the short form interview style. Despite this being packaged up as a promotion of sorts, its a hospital pass to get the health portfolio and NZ cities & commuters will be better off having Simeon's hands off the steering wheel. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
One of the things you didn't cover was the introduction of a higher level of user pays in public transport. Where do you think this standsv now? I know many councils were very strongly pushing back against this.
Whilst cycling on Ilam Rd in Christchurch this morning, I was astonished to see that the council has removed just recently installed traffic lights in front of Ilam Primary School (to allow children to cross the road on foot safely). What possible logic could there be to do this, at great cost to the ratepayer, no doubt? Surely this was driven by Wellington, so hopes are high that there will be more common sense under Chris Bishop as transport minister..
A situation is building which will impact on both NZ's energy sector and the EV part of our transport sector. This will both boost solar uptake and increase the economic advantages of EVs.
The soon to be rolled out version of the AS/NZS 4777.1:2024 electrical standards includes facility for V2G connectivity of EVs whereby they will be able to be used as home battery storage to power your home and time-shift electricity use and export to the grid. Australian EV owners are already getting excited about the opportunities this presents and the same will happen in NZ as the technology catches on here.
EV prices are already reducing as has been forecast over the past decade and combined with their gaining functionality by way of V2G the adoption of EVs and solar will receive a boost, despite whatever Energy Minister is in place chooses to do.
Now we just have to wait for the promised rollout of RUCs on petrol vehicles to level the playing field in terms of running costs thereby moving our buying decisions away from fossil fueled vehicles, including hybrids.