Wow this is so remarkably stupid…
Election 2023: National would make electric vehicle drivers pay road user charges
National is committing to ending a “free pass” for electric vehicle owners if the party gets elected in October.
…put the environmental argument to one side, this is political stupidity on behalf of Luxon.
National have to desperately reach across to the middle vote, that middle vote is 50 year old white women with tertiary education. They are staunchly propping up Labour because they are terrified what a National/ACT Government will do.
They also own lots of EVs.
National are punishing EV drivers for culture war purposes because they are frantically attempting to fend ACT off as they suddenly realise a double digit ACT is now an existential threat to National.
This cements the middle vote to Labour leaving ACT and National to fight over an increasingly smaller polarised reactionary right wing vote.
National look like they have given up winning the middle and are now just in a duel for vote share against ACT.
Why is he talking about Teslas again?
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Baldrick strikes again!
Trades type people are starting to get EVs now, and there are some pretty grunty electric trucks avail in the US, which will win over the macho brigade eventually. Rurals should wake up-have solar power rather than, or in addition to petrol/diesel tanks.
Labour is trying to make used EVs at least, more affordable. I am an old petrol head, still have one ICE Ford, but after a year of EV ownership, the feeling of driving past gas stations-priceless.
EVs are also being used in drag racing! National has shown its hypocrisy with its Tesla purchases and putting its advertising on the side.
Yes…National have no moral compass and will do any old thing if they believe it will garner more votes for them.
Luxon recently claimed the EV subsidy for “his wifes” new Tesla, yet only a few months earlier said it was a bad idea to subsidise the rich into EV vehicles.
He’s all over the shop!!
You can’t believe a single word he says!
He could have easily paid full price to demonstrate how committed he was to National’s policies. But no. Couldn’t resist taking money off all those hard working taxpayers just to line his own pockets a little bit more.
Fundamentally he is a true believer in nanny state…. when it benefits him!!
City folk should wake up and learn the meaning behind the phrase ‘People in glass houses’ or more correctly ‘People who use use tonnes and tonnes of concrete (horrendous for emissions) are best to STFU about emissions or be seen as raving hypocrites’.
My house and farm run entirely on solar, we have a 9.6kw battery bank of which we can use 5.8kw, and can charge up to 4.2kw on a OK winter day. A small EV ute battery is 90kw. So I can recharge the 600km range ute using diesel in 5 minutes. To recharge the 260km range EV could take up to 20 days.
Is that Luxon figure real? The guy is an idiot regardless but what does vIP transport mean?
A very successful man is our Mr.Luxon.
I suggest the person who calls themselves Wheel is not a successful person but rather an envious loser.
Anybody with intelligence and strong critical thinking skills knows that EVs are a virtue signaling wank doing more harm than good.
Given that people with these characteristics is less than 1% of the population, yep its a loser for National
Anybody with intelligence and strong critical thinking skills knows that EVs are the future doing more harm than good is a denier lie
Given that people with these characteristics is less than 1% of the population, yep its a loser for National
there fixed that for you jays
National, happy to give property speculators a free pass by removing the brightline test, but not those evil EV owners. What a bunch of f’wits.
Isn’t it ironic that after all it’s rhetoric about reducing taxes, that National is promising to hike taxes lol
Never mind that the things explode and burn, and that Jaguar re-called ever single EV they sold because it spontaniously combust, please park them on the street and out of the house. .
And yes, there should be no subsidy for EVs and that includes road user charges until there is a proper permanent subsidy to people using public transport. Be that via a tax write of at the end of the year or a monthly stipend, i don’t care. But we have shoveled enough money up people arses that could afford these vehicles by themselves such as any critter in government and their spouses.
One brand of EVs has issues and it’s “the things” like every EV does that? Are you going to freak out about electric buses being used for public transport?
At some stage EV owners are going to have to pay RUC. So bringing them in now is no different then in 2, 3, 4, 5 years time. Someone has to pay to fill the potholes.
The cohort that can afford to purchase (with taxpayers support – rich pricks tax cut)a EV will have done so. EV’s are only just now dropping below the $40K price point. Still 100% above what the Labour voter in the pleb suburbs can afford. Guess the proletariat will keep having to buy petrol to pay the RUC that fill the potholes so that the elite can drive over smooth in their EV’s.
The smugness of EV owners is palpable. “but after a year of EV ownership, the feeling of driving past gas stations-priceless.”
Remember that old ditty; “the working class can kiss my arse, I got the foremans job (and an EV) at last”?
Labour; traitors to the working class with their pandering to the elite.
Yep – the Chardonnay socialists will be outraged by this one.
Martyn – You are right, but National are not interested in the middle vote because they will not/cannot think, and act against their large scale donors.
Road user charges are not a punishment, they’re a part of how our roading infrastructure is funding. There might be arguments for changes to the funding model, be regardless charges are always intended to apply to EVs in the future – with a huge uptake in EVs why not now?
I don’t understand why tradies especially in places like welly and dunnidin don’t make use of japanese kei trucks which can navigate some of our tortuous streets also kei cars for the same reasons…they’d both make parking a lot easier and are cheap 2nd hand from japan(the japanese 2nd hand market beingwhere most of our cars come from anyway)…now of course in rural areas or for long hauls you’d need something bigger.oh yeah I got it kei vehicles are not penis enhancing
I know blokes who’ve used Actys and the like, sparkies and comms cabling guys who can cart long conduit etc on the roof and used to use Corolla and Legacy wagons. They aren’t that much cheaper second hand to buy or run than a normal sized van- especially considering that you need to take into account parts costs etc.
In Japan, you don’t need to worry about feral filth randomly stealing anything that isn’t locked inside your van at the very least.
Because a Kei car has no room for tools and building materials and can’t tow a trailer.
You do know what a “Tradie” is and does, right?
A farm just down the road from us up here in soggy northland has a couple of them. When parked next to the tractors and harvesters, it is a BIG farm with BIG gear, they look like cutest little Tonka toys, funny as. Big chunky knobbly tyres and snorkels fitted. They love them. I want 1.
Where are you getting u Power from Tiger? Solar power and wind farms won’t be enough to power EV Trucks.
Rich Soccer mum’s EV s have worn out tyres and clunk into the same POT holes. They can afford road user charges and morally and ethical ly want to pay anyway.
can you comment on the nats increased truck weight limits and our stupid reliance on road haulage marco?
that’s what does the real damage to our roads
Road user charges is how our roads are funded.
Once road user charges are charged for EV’s there will be little incentive for motorists to change over to EV’s other than the climate friendly argument.
“Banning” single use plastic bags with products and replacing it with products that have a 10 times higher carbon footprint, is beyond stupid. The lifecycle carbon footprint of EV’s may well fall in that same category.
I will continue to use an EV if it provides benefits to me and the environment.
Talk about footprints! You should ditch that EV right now!!!
Regards
The African Kids Diggin up your Lithium
My nephew in the UK is a car dealer and tells me while EV cars were popular when first available the sales have dropped off .One reason is that many do not have garages and so have to fill up at stations which takes so much time and with recent power price increases the cost of a charge now makes EV a lot less economical against petrol .
There is a plus for electric against petrol but there is more and more doubt on that .
I’ve never understood why the right wing seem to hate smart thinking and intelligent innovative solutions so much.
Old news but I was gob-smacked that the FIRST thing John Key did in government was to go after (dismantle) research and development incentives. i mean, ffs?
Ummm, because its neither smart nor a solution.
EVs are not remotely carbon neutral and are an environmental night (relative to ICE vehicles) to both manufacture and dispose of.
I don’t expect you to understand nor accept this statement, so feel free to mock it.
It will make you feel better but still leave you utterly ignorant of the facts.
As an aside, having taught at University for a while, I have see first hand what most of that research looks like and less than 1% of it will ever be used to anything other than toilet paper.
“less than 1% of it will ever be used to anything other than toilet paper”
is that what happened to yours?
Ah, the song of your people.
Where your people are ignorant fools of course.
He is actually stating a near statistic … 6% of research has value. The rest is rubbish.
94% will join wastepaper bags that replace single use plastic bags in the landfill at carbon emissions 10 times more than plastic.
That is valuable research that is just ignored! So 1% may well be a good estimate.
the thing is jays you don’t know which 1percent it is until you do the bloody research do you
If you taught at university, your posts wouldn’t read as negatively as they do. They would be balanced and constructive .
I’m typing this as the sun sets on Mars
University balanced?
Not for some years has balance come from universities.
Having been a one time light diesel vehicle owner; There have been studies on the impact of light diesel vehicles compared to heavy, trucking industry vehicles on road surfaces. No measurements could be obtained for any noticeable impact from light diesel vehicles on road surfaces while heavy transport vehicles ripped our roads new arse holes. In short, and I’m not that short, is that heavy haulage is a fucking rip-off sucking up money from light vehicle drivers to pay for the damage caused by heavy haulage. In short, and again, I’m not that short, domestic diesel vehicle owners subsidise heavy road haulage and as for rail? What rail? Where’d it go? Boooys…? You got our rail systems buried in a shallow grave out in the desert somewhere? You have haven’t you?
The Guardian.
Rowan Atkinson.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/03/electric-vehicles-early-adopter-petrol-car-ev-environment-rowan-atkinson
YouTube.
Rowan Atkinson on Free Speech.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiqDZlAZygU
luxon?
A windbag in fear of the potential loss of his salary and perks.
Yep CB. EVs are great science, but they fuck the planet as much as any other mode.
EV’s are already shaping up to be an environmental disaster. Everything from the where all the new electricity will come from (and the costly required grid upgrade) to the horrific impact from the mining and manufacture of the Lithium ion batteries. At best it’s moving ecological damage into someone else’s backyard, at worst it ultimately does far more environmental damage than the oil powered cars they are replacing.
https://climate360news.lmu.edu/lithium-not-as-clean-as-we-thought/
https://www.azocleantech.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1520
“the horrific impact from the mining and manufacture of the Lithium ion batteries.”
This PRATT of a comparison is becoming quite popular amongst the more gullible and dishonest in the denier-sphere.
Always made without any reference to the overwhelmingly vaster environmental destruction and costs wrought by fossil fuel extraction and its players.
It’s like our politicians in NZ on all sides are the most pathetic, ideologically, bought politicians imaginable!
No wonder so many honest people are leaving NZ and so many criminals are making NZ their hunting ground.
We are attracting the criminal, the entitled and nutters who increasingly like to go around and attack random people.
And our politicians seem to be ignoring that, are going after more taxes on anybody still here who is leading a normal life and making astute decisions, aka buying an EV.
EV drivers and vegans have much in common .One of the most annoying is they try to convert everyone else with the chief arguement being they are saving the plant . Most people just want to get on with life .
Really Trevor? I know EV drivers and they have never tried to convert me. They just don’t want to pay a fortune to fill up.
You are a fanboy of an evangelist EV purchaser. According to your perception you’ll be having conversion conversations up the yin yang
Fuck EVs!
Regards
The Planet
fuck cabbage house
regards
sentient beings
EVs are much heavier than equivalent ICE vehicles and cause increased wear and tear of both roads and tyres. Those are facts. Then we need to add carbon footprint of increased road maintenence and tyre wear., plus fine road and tyre dust pollution. EV owners/users should cover all that.
I am not agsinst EVs. But heavy, bloated we have now are wrong. Lightweihgt EVs are the right choice. But not in this country. “Some are not safe” arrogantly rejected by govt. Evrn if proven safe enough for EU. Jow come we allow riding e-scooters on the road without helmets ?
EVs are practical…. in situations where ‘functional public transport’ would be a far, far better and cheaper solution. The fact that the filthy neoliberal traitors of the Labour/National uniparty won’t deliver on good public transport doesn’t make EVs good.
Reading half of these comments about EVs and mining for lithium blah blah, like you actually care. It’s about reducing omissions from burning fossil fuel, leading to global warming. They were never brought in as a solution to having zero impact on the environment. When they work out a way of producing hydrogen more efficiently you petrol heads will bitch about that too. You are the same tossers that berate anyone going to a climate conference that didn’t take a year to walk to the f’ing thing because hey until we have a perfect solution let’s do nothing.
Wheel what qualifications do hold in climate science or indeed science in general?