New Zealand is facing an energy future where the continual production of greenhouse gas emissions will become progressively less acceptable. Electric Vehicles can be a long-term component of the transport fleet that will reduce our dependence on imported oil, reduce our CO2 emissions and take advantage of our natural endowment of renewable energy sources.
This paper has been prepared around the concept that electric vehicles should form a significant component of our future transport energy. It investigates mitigating factors that could prevent electric vehicles from entering the fleet and identifies the potential problems they could create. It does not aim to offer immediate solutions but instead highlights the areas that will require additional work to make a comprehensive uptake possible.
The focus is on the light vehicle fleet.