Manifesto 2026/2027
About Drive Electric
Our membership includes:
- Automotive: Major vehicle manufacturers (OEMs) and distributors for light and heavy transport.
- Commercial Fleet & Delivery: Commercial delivery operators and last-mile logistics providers.
- Energy: Electricity generators, retailers, and distributors (Lines Companies).
- Infrastructure: AC charger providers, Charge Point Operators (CPOs), and hardware providers.
- Finance and Fleet: Leading banks, insurance providers, and major fleet leasing companies.
- Micro-mobility: E-bike, e-scooter, and e-moped providers.
Our Three Core Pillars
- Advocacy: Expert, evidence-based submissions to ensure policy is commercially viable.
- Education: Publishing industry-leading whitepapers.
- Connection: Facilitating collaboration to solve cross-industry challenges whilst connecting our members and industry to accelerate and grow the sector
Executive Summary - The Case For Energy Independence
In 2026, New Zealand has a rare opportunity to turn a renewable energy grid exceeding 88% of New Zealand’s energy consumption into a national competitive advantage. Shifting transport energy from volatile global fossil fuel markets to locally produced electricity protects Kiwi households from price shocks and keeps billions of dollars within our domestic economy.
Drive Electric proposes a renewed partnership between industry and Government structured around a single strategic logic:
Supply Side + Demand Side + Infrastructure = Uptake
Ensure the right vehicles are available in New Zealand, make them the financially smart choice for every New Zealander, and build the infrastructure to support them.
Realising this opportunity requires long-term, bi-partisan commitment. Market confidence depends on consistent policy signals across electoral cycles — investors, fleet managers, and households make decisions on multi-year horizons. A shared political commitment to EV transition sends the signal our market needs.
Equally, the benefits of lower running costs must be accessible to all New Zealanders, not just those who can afford upfront purchase. Salary Sacrifice is a proven mechanism that lets employees access EVs through pre-tax income — broadening the pool of households who can make the switch. The government should strengthen and extend Salary Sacrifice and any complementary policy that closes the affordability gap and ensures the transition is equitable.
Strategic Framework at a Glance
| SUPPLY SIDE | DEMAND SIDE | INFRASTRUCTURE | = UPTAKE |
| Clean Car Standard | FBT exemption Salary Sacrifice | AC and DC public charging | 10,000 public chargers by 2030 |
| Heavy vehicle emissions standard (pathway) | Accelerated depreciation — LCVs, heavy trucks & depot chargers and route chargers | Home / work charging. Route charging for heavy fleet and coaches | Fleet electrification |
| RUC charges have an emissions component rather than simply km. Payload rules should also level the playing field between diesel and electric heavy vehicles — accounting for both individual axle load and total mass, so battery weight doesn’t commercially disadvantage electric fleet operators. | RUC exemptions — heavy EVs to 2032 or 2% of the fleet. Payload allowances that account for battery weight — both individual axle load and total mass — to level the playing field for diesel and electric vehicles. | Right to Charge legislation | Heavy freight decarbonisation |
| Emissions testing as part of warrant of fitness. | Salary sacrifice / novated lease | Co-funded depot charging — state highway freight corridors |
STRATEGIC PRIORITIES
1. Supply Side — Reinstate the Clean Car Standard in line with Australia. Remove OEM barriers for heavy EVs through permanent VDAM weight concessions covering both individual axle load and total mass — issued urgently via interim guidance. Begin developing a pathway toward a heavy vehicle emissions standard for trucks.
2. Demand Side — Close the upfront price gap through FBT exemption, salary sacrifice, accelerated depreciation on heavy EVs and depot chargers, RUC exemptions to 2032 or 2% of the heavy fleet, and payload rules that level the playing field between diesel and electric vehicles.
3. Infrastructure — Scale public charging and private charging through national digital visibility, Right to Charge legislation, and smart charging standards aligned with EECA’s smart charging programme. Update the Building Code to require 100% of new residential parking spaces and a minimum of 20% of new commercial parking spaces (10+ spaces) to be EV Ready, with territorial authorities able to set higher requirements. Establish co-funded high-power charging along key state highway freight corridors and depots.
= Uptake — A nationwide public charging network that meets demand by 2030. Fleet electrification led by the corporate sector. Heavy freight decarbonisation with heavy EVs reaching commercial viability and meaningful market penetration by 2030.
Part 1: Micromobility & Product Safety
Micromobility — e-bikes, e-scooters, and personal electric devices — represents the fastest-growing segment of New Zealand’s electric mobility ecosystem. It also presents a distinct set of regulatory challenges that, if left unaddressed, risk undermining public confidence in electric transport more broadly.
The two most urgent issues are product safety and infrastructure access.
1.1 Mandatory Battery Certification
Substandard, uncertified lithium-ion batteries entering New Zealand via unregulated import channels present a substantial risk of home and workplace fires. As with light vehicles, New Zealand must not become a dumping ground for unsafe inventory that fails to meet the standards required in our trading partners’ markets.
RECOMMENDATION
| 1.1 | Require all e-mobility batteries sold in New Zealand to comply with internationally recognised safety standards such as AS/NZS 60335.2.114:2023 or UL 2272, preventing the importation of substandard devices and protecting consumers, homes, and workplaces. |
1.2 Performance Limits and Infrastructure Access
Many devices currently operating on New Zealand footpaths and cycleways significantly exceed the 300W nominal power threshold defined in the Land Transport Act 1998, rendering them legally classified as motor vehicles. Consistent enforcement of existing rules — and consistency between what devices are permitted on shared infrastructure — is essential to protect cyclists and pedestrians.
RECOMMENDATION
| 1.2 | Enforce the 300W performance threshold for e-scooters and e-bikes accessing shared infrastructure, and ensure access rules are consistent — devices exceeding moped performance standards should not be permitted on infrastructure from which mopeds are already excluded. |
1.3 FBT Exemption for E-Mopeds
E-mopeds occupy a distinct and growing category within New Zealand’s electric mobility ecosystem — registered motor vehicles with performance characteristics above the 300W threshold, yet functioning primarily as commuter and urban transport alternatives to cars. Despite their role as a practical, lower-cost pathway into electric transport, e-mopeds are currently subject to standard FBT treatment for motor vehicles, placing them at a structural disadvantage relative to employer-provided e-bikes and e-scooters, which are exempt.
This inconsistency creates a perverse fiscal signal: employers can provide e-bikes and e-scooters tax-free, but e-mopeds — which serve the same commuter function for a broader range of employees and trip distances — attract a tax liability. Extending FBT exemption treatment to e-mopeds would close this gap, accelerate uptake, and support the commuter decarbonisation outcomes already targeted through the broader EV fiscal framework.
RECOMMENDATION
| 1.3 | Extend FBT exemption to employer-provided e-mopeds, consistent with existing exemptions for e-bikes and e-scooters, to remove the fiscal inconsistency between comparable electric commuter devices and accelerate uptake across the full micromobility segment. |
Part 2: Supply Side
Ensuring the right electric vehicles are actually available in New Zealand.
The supply side addresses a fundamental market failure: without regulatory signals, vehicle manufacturers have no commercial incentive to prioritise New Zealand as a destination for their most efficient and capable electric models. We become a dumping ground for technology that international markets are moving away from. The two levers below correct this.
2.1 Light Vehicle Efficiency Standards (Clean Car Standard)
The Clean Car Standard (CCS) is the single most important tool available to ensure New Zealand receives the same quality and variety of EV technology as comparable markets.
Weakening the CCS – as occurred through the 2025/26 penalty reductions -directly reduces OEM incentives to offer competitive EVs here, and risks New Zealand becoming a destination for inefficient internal combustion engine technology being phased out elsewhere.
New Zealand is now among only a handful of countries — alongside Russia and a small number of developing nations — without an effective vehicle emissions standard, leaving us isolated from the trajectory of global automotive supply.
RECOMMENDATION
| 2.1 | Reinstate and strengthen the Clean Car Standard (CCS) — restoring penalty settings to align with Australia’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (141 g CO2/km for passenger vehicles in 2025, tightening to 58 g CO2/km by 2029) — and improve the credit framework to ensure legitimately earned credits retain their value and are tradeable across both new and used vehicle segments, preventing market distortions that incentivise older, less efficient imports. |
2.2 Align New Zealand’s CO2 targets with international leaders, including Australia, to ensure access to the latest EV technology and prevent NZ from importing vehicles no longer acceptable in other markets.
2.3 Heavy Transport: Removing Barriers for OEMs and Manufacturers
For heavy EVs to enter the New Zealand market at scale, OEMs and trailer manufacturers require regulatory certainty around vehicle dimensions and axle loads. Battery weight is a structural characteristic of heavy EVs — penalising operators for that weight through reduced payload allowances simply makes heavy EVs commercially unviable and removes the OEM incentive to develop right-hand-drive variants for this market.
VDAM concessions must be treated as a matter of urgency. Interim guidance should be issued immediately while permanent settings are legislated, providing the certainty OEMs and operators need to make long-term investment decisions now. The following recommendations should be progressed via a proforma or similar to provide clarity and certainty to both OEM and operator.
RECOMMENDATIONS
| 2.3 | Provide permanent VDAM weight exemptions to ensure battery weight does not reduce freight payload for heavy EVs — and issue interim guidance immediately while the VDAM review and permanent legislation is progressed, providing the certainty OEMs and operators need to make long-term investment decisions now. |
| 2.4 | Allow for increased axle weights and length dimensions to provide regulatory certainty to OEMs and trailer manufacturers. |
Section 2.3 Heavy Vehicle Emissions Standard
Heavy vehicles represent just 4% of the national fleet yet contribute approximately 31% of transport emissions. While New Zealand has exhaust emissions standards for heavy vehicles, there is no equivalent of the Clean Car Standard — meaning no CO₂ or zero-emission performance requirement to incentivise OEMs to prioritise New Zealand as a destination for their zero-emission heavy vehicle models.
New Zealand’s current heavy vehicle exhaust emissions framework requires Euro VI-c compliance for new models from November 2024, aligning with international type approval frameworks including UN/ECE regulations.
New Zealand accepts compliance demonstrated through European, Japanese, American, and Australian standards. The EU is now progressing Euro VII (Regulation 2024/1257), a unified regulation covering both light and heavy-duty vehicles that introduces tightened pollutant limits, real-driving emissions requirements, and non-tailpipe emissions controls including brakes and tyres.
Implementing acts for heavy-duty vehicles under Euro VII are expected by late 2026. Separately, the EU has established dedicated CO₂ performance standards for heavy-duty vehicles (Regulation 2019/1242), requiring fleet-wide CO₂ reductions of 45% by 2030, 65% by 2035, and 90% by 2040 — a supply-side decarbonisation lever with no New Zealand equivalent. Submissions on type approval standards are made through the Motor Industry Association (MIA) or directly by OEMs.
Australia, the EU, and the United States have all introduced or are actively developing heavy vehicle CO₂ or zero-emission performance standards. Rather than prescribing specific technologies, these frameworks focus on CO₂ outcomes — leaving OEMs flexibility in how they meet targets. New Zealand risks falling behind its closest trading partner and becoming a residual market for older diesel technology as these international markets accelerate their heavy fleet transitions.
Drive Electric calls on the Government to build on New Zealand’s existing Euro VI-c alignment and develop a CO₂-focused heavy vehicle emissions standard — equivalent in function to the Clean Car Standard — that directs OEM supply toward New Zealand without prescribing specific technologies. Given that heavy vehicles represent just 4% of the fleet but approximately 31% of transport emissions, the case
for supply-side intervention in this segment is proportionately stronger than anywhere else in the transport system.
RECOMMENDATION
| 2.5 |
Begin developing a pathway toward a heavy vehicle CO2 or zero-emission performance standard, building on New Zealand’s existing Euro VI-c alignment and consistent with the EU’s CO2 standards framework (Regulation 2019/1242) and emerging international approaches, to ensure New Zealand receives a fair allocation of zero-emission truck supply.
Drive Electric recommends the Government initiate stakeholder consultation on design options, with MIA and OEM participation, with a view to introducing a standard that is outcome-focused rather than technologically prescriptive. |
Part 3: Demand Side
Making electric vehicles the financially rational choice for businesses, fleets, and freight operators.
Supply alone does not drive uptake. Even when EVs are available, the purchase and operating cost calculation must be right. The demand-side levers below target the two largest segments driving fleet electrification: light commercial vehicles (the primary source of affordable second-hand EVs for New Zealand families) and heavy freight.
3.1 Light Vehicles
With Business fleets buying over 60% of new cars, they are the primary pathway through which affordable second-hand EVs enter the New Zealand market — but only if the right policy signals are in place to drive corporate uptake in the first place.
The evidence from Australia is compelling. When Australia introduced an FBT exemption on eligible EVs in July 2022, market share in zero and low-emission vehicles rose from under 2% to over 8% within two years. Novated lease arrangements (salary sacrifice) — which enable employees to acquire vehicles from pre-tax income — went from facilitating around 2% of all EV purchases in early 2022 to approximately 40% by mid-2023, a 20-fold increase in roughly 18 months.
The cost impact is material: the annual cost of a typical EV on a novated lease fell by more than $5,000 once the FBT exemption was applied. Australia’s experience demonstrates that demand-side fiscal settings don’t just make EVs marginally cheaper — they structurally reshape how and by whom new vehicles are purchased.
New Zealand’s used vehicle market has a structural characteristic that makes the corporate fleet pathway even more important here than in comparable markets. Approximately 41% of New Zealand’s light vehicle fleet arrived as second-hand imports with an average age of 10 years, predominantly from Japan with older technology and safety standards. This dependency means New Zealand families are largely reliant on overseas fleet cycles — and the policy decisions of overseas governments — for access to affordable used vehicles.
Building a domestic fleet-to-used pipeline, through corporate uptake of EVs locally, reduces this dependency and gives New Zealand families access to late-model, locally-serviced used EVs on a predictable and growing timeline.
GST-registered buyers account for approximately 80% of all new light commercial vehicle purchases in New Zealand. With typical fleet replacement cycles of 36–60 months, the corporate sector has the potential to generate a steady, predictable pipeline of late-model used EVs accessible to everyday New Zealand families — but only if fiscal settings make EVs the rational choice at the point of corporate purchase. Without them, fleets continue buying ICE vehicles, the domestic used EV pipeline remains negligible, and families remain dependent on the used import channel.
Salary sacrifice and novated lease schemes provide an additional and complementary pathway, extending the demand-side signal beyond corporate fleet managers to individual employees across the workforce.
See also Recommendation 1.3: FBT exemption for e-mopeds, extending demand-side fiscal settings across the full electric commuter segment.
RECOMMENDATIONS
| 3.1 | Implement targeted FBT exemptions or reduced rates for zero-emission LCVs. |
| 3.2 | Establish a framework supporting salary sacrifice and novated lease arrangements for zero-emission vehicles, enabling employees to access EVs from pre-tax income and accelerating uptake beyond the corporate fleet. |
3.3 Heavy Transport: Road User Charges
Heavy fleet investments are long-lived capital decisions; operators need a clear and stable cost environment during the market development phase to commit with confidence. A time-bound exemption tied to fleet penetration provides that certainty while remaining proportionate — it expires when the market no longer needs the signal.
RUC exemptions directly reduce the operating cost of heavy EVs during the critical market development phase, making them commercially competitive with diesel alternatives. The exemption should remain in place until the heavy EV market reaches sufficient scale to sustain itself without fiscal support — defined either by a fixed end date or a fleet penetration threshold, whichever is reached first.
RECOMMENDATION
| 3.3 | Extend RUC exemptions for heavy EVs — including electric trailers — until 2032, or until they reach 2% of the heavy vehicle fleet, whichever comes first. |
3.4 Heavy Transport: Accelerated Depreciation
The upfront capital cost of battery-electric heavy vehicles remains one of the most significant barriers to fleet adoption. Even where operators can demonstrate a favourable total cost of ownership over the life of the asset, the scale of the initial investment — compounded by the cost of depot charging infrastructure — makes the first step prohibitive for many freight businesses.
Accelerated depreciation addresses this directly. By allowing operators to write down the value of heavy EVs and their associated charging infrastructure more rapidly, the tax treatment shortens the effective payback period and strengthens the investment case at the point of purchase. Unlike ongoing subsidies, accelerated depreciation is time-limited in nature — the fiscal cost to the Government reduces as the asset depreciates — and is particularly effective for larger fleet operators making multi-unit purchasing decisions.
This mechanism complements RUC exemptions on the operating cost side, targeting the upfront capital barrier that RUC relief alone cannot address.
RECOMMENDATION
| 3.4 | Introduce accelerated depreciation for battery-electric heavy vehicles and their associated depot charging infrastructure, reducing the effective upfront cost and strengthening the investment case for freight operators committing to zero-emission heavy transport. |
3.5 Road User Charges: Emissions-Based Component
New Zealand’s Road User Charges system is currently structured around distance travelled rather than the emissions profile of the vehicle. This creates a structural inequity: a clean electric vehicle and a high-emitting diesel vehicle are treated identically on a per-kilometre basis, removing any price signal that would otherwise incentivise operators to choose lower-emission alternatives.
Introducing an emissions component to RUC — so that charges reflect the environmental cost of the vehicle, not simply the distance it covers — would align the user-pays principle with New Zealand’s emissions reduction objectives. This would strengthen the demand-side case for fleet electrification without requiring new subsidy mechanisms, using the existing RUC framework as the lever.
RECOMMENDATION
| 3.5 | Reform Road User Charges to include an emissions-based component, so that per-kilometre charges reflect the emissions profile of the vehicle rather than distance alone — creating a price signal that incentivises the transition to lower-emission alternatives across both light and heavy fleets. |
Part 4: Infrastructure
Building the physical and digital backbone that makes electric vehicles practical at scale.
Supply and demand signals are necessary but not sufficient. Without the infrastructure to charge reliably – at home, at work, and on the road – the rational consumer or fleet operator will not make the switch.
International markets show that infrastructure deployment stalls without clear standards and regulatory frameworks — not because the appetite isn’t there, but because inconsistent processes and upfront cost barriers erode the case for investment. Regulatory mandates and digital standards are required to ensure charging infrastructure delivers its full potential value to operators and customers alike
4.1 Public Charging Infrastructure
Reaching the national goal of 10,000 public chargers by 2030 requires learning from markets that have gone before us. Two structural inefficiencies risk undermining deployment: early CPOs bearing connection costs before demand materialises, and the variability and opacity of network connection processes across different Electricity Distribution Businesses (EDBs) — both of which erode the value of infrastructure investment before it has a chance to perform.
The Electricity Authority’s Distribution Connection Pricing Reform and pioneer scheme rules represent meaningful progress on both fronts — but implementation must be monitored and gaps addressed where high upfront costs remain prohibitive, particularly for high-capacity DC charging in public and business locations.
RECOMMENDATIONs
| 4.1 | Implement a mandatory national digital tool providing real-time visibility of network capacity, reducing site assessment costs and accelerating deployment. |
| 4.2 | Establish Electricity Authority oversight of EDB connection performance — including monitoring of timeframes, and costs — with intervention powers where progress stalls. Develop targeted support mechanisms for high-cost locations where connection costs remain prohibitive for both public and business charging. |
4.3 AC Charging – Home, Work and Private Facilities
The majority of EV charging happens at home and at work. The primary barriers are the split-incentive problem between landlords and tenants, the absence of EV readiness requirements in the Building Code, and the lack of smart-charging standards that would allow the grid to manage peak loads.
RECOMMENDATION
| 4.3 | Introduce Right to Charge legislation preventing landlords from unreasonably withholding consent for tenants to install EV charging equipment. |
4.4 Update the Building Code to:
● require 100% of new residential parking spaces to be EV Ready (wired conduit and sufficient electrical capacity).
● require that all new commercial buildings with more than 10 parking spaces provision a minimum of 20% of spaces as EV Ready (wired conduit and sufficient electrical capacity).
● territorial authorities should retain the ability to set higher requirements through district plan rules to reflect local EV uptake and infrastructure goals.
4.5 Require all new dedicated charging installations to be Smart-Ready, and aligned with EECA’s smart charging mandating and labelling programme.
Support nationally consistent, technology-neutral export standards for distributed energy resources — including solar, batteries and V2G — that allow safe, dynamic export where local network capacity permits
4.6 Heavy Transport Corridor Infrastructure
Public fast-charging networks are designed primarily around passenger vehicles. Heavy transport operates on fundamentally different duty cycles — higher energy demands, fixed depot-based charging patterns, and long-haul state highway routes that require purpose-built high-power infrastructure at freight hubs and logistics centres.
No private actor has a sufficient commercial incentive to be first. The upfront cost of high-power depot charging is substantial, demand is emerging rather than established, and the benefits — reduced emissions, lower fuel import costs, energy security — accrue broadly to New Zealand rather than to any single operator.
International experience demonstrates that targeted government intervention is the proven mechanism for unlocking private investment. The Netherlands has developed a two-track model through its enterprise agency RVO: the SPULA scheme supports companies installing publicly accessible high-power charging infrastructure for heavy EVs along major roads and logistics hubs, while the complementary SPRILA scheme supports private depot charging at business premises. Under SPULA, subsidies of up to €19,000 are available for chargers in the 200–350 kW range, and up to €43,000 for ultra-fast chargers above 350 kW, with an additional €80 per kWh available for co-located battery storage. This public co-funding directly de-risks early private investment and has catalysed the buildout of a national charging backbone for freight.
At the corridor scale, Europe demonstrates that OEM-led private investment can follow once the policy and funding signal is established. Milence — a joint venture between Daimler Truck, Traton Group, and Volvo Group — was founded in 2022 and is building a pan-European high-power charging network targeting 1,700 charging points by 2027, strategically located along major freight corridors and logistics hubs. Milence has secured over €111 million in EU funding through the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility to accelerate this buildout. The model is clear: the government establishes the co-funding framework; private operators and OEM consortia build and operate the network at scale.
New Zealand’s state highway network and key port and freight hub locations present a clear, finite set of priority sites for equivalent intervention. A targeted co-funding programme, modelled on SPULA and designed for New Zealand’s freight corridors, would de-risk early investment and establish the charging backbone that commercial operators require before committing to zero-emission heavy fleets.
RECOMMENDATION
| 4.6 |
Establish a co-funding programme for high-power depot and public charging infrastructure at freight hubs and logistics centres along the state highway network, modelled on the Netherlands SPULA scheme, to de-risk early investment and build the charging backbone required for commercial heavy EV adoption at scale.
Concurrently, the Government should actively invite private operators — including OEM-backed charging ventures — to develop and operate arterial route and key port charging infrastructure under a supported framework. |
=Uptake:What Success Looks Like
When supply, demand, and infrastructure signals are aligned, uptake follows. Drive Electric’s three strategic targets for 2030 are:
| OUTCOME | TARGET |
|---|---|
| Public Charging | 10,000 public chargers across New Zealand by 2030, closing regional gaps and ending range anxiety. |
| Fleet Electrification | Corporate and government fleets lead the transition, with a target that at least 1 in 4 new fleet vehicles purchased are electric — in line with the global new car sales average — generating a pipeline of affordable second-hand EVs for New Zealand families. |
| Heavy Freight Decarbonisation | Heavy EVs reach commercial viability and 5% of the heavy fleet by 2030, reducing freight emissions and fuel import costs. |
Part 5: Emissions Testing at Warrant of Fitness
New Zealand’s Warrant of Fitness (WoF) regime is a well-established, mandatory touchpoint for every light vehicle on New Zealand roads. It currently assesses vehicle safety — brakes, lights, tyres, and structural integrity — but does not assess what the vehicle is emitting into the air New Zealanders breathe.
Introducing emissions testing as a component of the WoF would provide a practical, low-cost mechanism to identify and address the most polluting vehicles in the existing fleet, independent of what new vehicles are being imported. This is particularly relevant given New Zealand’s ageing light vehicle fleet and its high proportion of used imports, which are statistically more likely to be high emitters.
Emissions testing at WoF is consistent with approaches taken in the United Kingdom and across much of Europe, and would complement supply-side standards like the Clean Car Standard by addressing the tail of the existing fleet rather than only influencing new vehicle purchasing decisions.
RECOMMENDATION
| 5.1 | Introduce mandatory emissions testing for light vehicles as a component of the Warrant of Fitness, identifying high-emitting vehicles in the existing fleet and creating a practical mechanism to address tail-pipe emissions independently of new vehicle import standards. |