Kirsten Corson, chair of New Zealand’s electric vehicle lobby Drive Electric joined Fleet News Group podcast host Caroline Falls and talked about the ups and downs of EVs in her country, in Australia, and globally.
Corson will be a keynote speaker at the upcoming Electro Mobility 2024 event, sharing a global overview of electric vehicle trends, including adoption rates across different regions. The conference and expo is being held at the Auckland Showgrounds October 16-18.
In this podcast, Corson, makes clear the crucial role government policy has to play.
“We saw significant EV uptake last year, 27 percent of new car sales in New Zealand were electric. That’s a massive increase. So we had a lot of what we call demand-side policy, so incentives in place, and similar to what Australia has got now, and that made a massive difference.
“But unfortunately, it has been a bit of a tale of two halves. We’ve had a change of government, and we have really seen EV sales slow down in New Zealand.” More recently, EVs as a proportion of new car sales have dropped to 10 percent, she said.
Meanwhile, Corson said she will be telling the story of the opposite turnaround in Australia.
“I was going to talk about what a stellar job the Aussies are doing,” said Corson, adding, “The federal and state incentives you’ve got in place, just some of the policy changes around the building code is really impressive.
“I just wanted to acknowledge and salute the fabulous work that’s been done in Australia, no doubt by a lot of people listening, and the EV Council and politicians and it’s great to see that growth in the Australian market.”
Corson also talks about Zilch, a public car sharing company which she co-founded and which late in 2023 was acquired by green fleet financing and advisory business, Carbn Group. Corson remains in a role at Carbn, as an ambassador. She said Carbn is eyeing operations in Australia.
Corson said Drive Electric’s key planks remain lobbying and advocacy work; education; and, networking.
Regarding networking, Corson said IKEA is coming into New Zealand and recently joined the organisation.
“We’re looking to connect them up with different parts of the ecosystem to make it easier for them, so that that piece is really important”
On education, Corson talks about a so-called winter learning series with webinars featuring UK battery minerals mining expert Jim Lennon, and Scottish electro chemist and battery expert Dr Euan McTurk, among others.
Here’s a link to the Full Webinar and Q&A.
