At the end of 2014, there was close to 2.5m cars on NZ roads, most using $2500 worth of petrol - a total price tag of $6.25b for fuel which is imported from offshore.
Mighty River Power (MRP) chief executive Fraser Whineray articulated it nicely last November when he said: "Imagine our Kiwi exporters standing on the end of the wharf having just sold their wonderful goods and shipped them off, only to throw that money at visiting oil tankers."
Far better to throw it at our power companies, parts of which are now owned by Kiwi mums and dads.
Conversely, the electricity mix in New Zealand is 75% clean, renewable electricity, with the remaining 25% generated from burning fossil fuels. That mix will only move one way - more renewables.
Whineray said that the energy in the renewable power projects that are already consented is more than enough to drive the entire country's cars 12,000km a year. He has put his money where his mouth is, with both himself and chairwoman Joan Withers now getting around in E-vehicles, and company plans to switch 70% of the MRP fleet to E-vehicles.
MRP has also teamed up with the brand new Audi E-Tron plug-in hybrid, offering a 30% discount for E-Tron owners charging their cars with MRP electricity between 11pm and 7am.
It has emerged that one of the challenges for EV producers and retailers is to bust the myths about them.
So-called 'range anxiety' is a legitimate concern, which isn't helped by motoring journalists discovering that the advertised range on some EVs applies only if you're extremely light on the accelerator and don't use the car stereo or air conditioning.
The short-term solution has been the plug-in hybrid, which generally has a short electric-only range, backed up by a petrol engine for longer trips (of the electric-only vehicles, the Holden Volt and Tesla Roadster are boasting ranges comparable to standard petrol car, albeit for a hefty price tag).
It's particularly applicable for the New Zealand situation, where a long, skinny country with limited public transport options between towns and in the regions means we tend to do a lot of driving if we're planning on an out-of-town excursion, and a vehicle is needed when we get there.
Plug-in hybrids include the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV and the Audi E-tron vehicles, while the brand new BMWi3 is marketed as an all electric vehicle (with a range of 150km), but it too has a 'range extender' - a nine-litre petrol tank which will get you where you need to go - or at least as far as the next petrol station.
Drivers new to EVs are generally taken by surprise by the torque on offer - without a gearbox or transmission most EVs get off the mark like the proverbial cut cat.
The charging issue is another which raises its head in discussions about EVs. As the Association for the Promotion of Electric Vehicles (APEV) points out, electricity is the most widely distributed form of energy in New Zealand.
While a dedicated charging station delivers a much faster charge, many of today's EVs also plug into a standard three-point socket so stranding is unlikely to be an issue if you have the time to charge the car.
For those who realise and accept that their personal emissions contribute to the global problem, driving a vehicle which prevents about two tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere each year has merit of its own. Multiplied by 2.5m cars - the size of New Zealand's fl eet - that's 5m tonnes - or almost 15% of the country's total emissions.
The conversion of the country's fleet to electric power is modestly supported by the government, but far from the extent to which other countries have promoted E-vehicles. E-vehicle owners are exempt from road user charges through to 2020, but that's where the encouragement ends. "This government will not subsidise the purchase price of EVs," announced Energy Minister Simon Bridges last May.
The government itself has been urged to take the initiative and replace its own fleet with EVs, with the Tesla Roadster electric vehicles being touted as a suitable replacement for its BMWs.
Quite how this would be viewed by the foreign oil companies invited by the government to prospect here is another matter.
The oft-quoted issue of environmental impact of an EVs batteries is explained best by APEV: "It is true that producing batteries requires the use of minerals such as nickel, copper and aluminium and that the potential global warming impact is greater because of this. However a recent study by a Norwegian University found that if the cars are powered by electricity made from low-carbon sources such as we have in New Zealand, then they offer substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions over time, and of course they eliminate exposure to tailpipe emissions which dirty the air and create costly health problems. Also, because of the high value of lithium which is found in EV batteries, it is, and will continue to be, recycled."
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