Graeme Weston

The Clean Vehicle Discount was scrapped in 2024 as a climate policy and died as one. That was the wrong argument. Three stronger cases were sitting elsewhere the whole time: our hospitals, our security, and our power bills.

Start with hospitals. The Health and Air Pollution in NZ study puts the annual social cost of vehicle air pollution here at more than $10.5 billion, with over 2200 premature deaths and 9200 hospital admissions a year.

Diesel vehicles, under a quarter of our fleet, cause more than 80 percent of that harm. That is a hospital bill, paid by every taxpayer, regardless of what anyone believes about climate change.

Then security. This year proved fuel import dependence is not hypothetical. When Iran blockaded the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint carrying a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil, brent crude jumped from around $72 to $150 a barrel within weeks.

The strait has since reopened, but only under a disputed ceasefire, with Iran now threatening new transit fees. Every litre of imported fuel replaced by electricity made in New Zealand is a litre no longer hostage to a war on the other side of the world.

Finally, power bills. EVs are becoming batteries as much as transport – a typical one carries 60kWh, five times a home battery, and sits idle 95 percent of the time.

With bidirectional charging, that battery sells power back to the grid at the evening peak, easing the strain that drives up everyone’s bills. A feebate weighted toward vehicles capable of this, not just tail-pipe emissions, would put more of them on our driveways faster.

Put the three together: a feebate that lowers the cost of the vehicle, a security case with nothing to do with climate belief, and a power bill that pays for using it as a battery. None depends on the others – which is what a durable, cross-party policy looks like, not another climate argument for the next government to cancel.