Electric vehicle support accelerates among New Zealand's leaders

New Zealand's most senior environment watchdog has thrown her weight behind the use of electric cars to help combat climate change, but failed to back solar panels.

Electric cars were a "no-brainer" for reducing emissions, Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Jan Wright said Tuesday.

She was commenting on a report by an independent consulting company on the impact of solar panels and electric cars on the country's emissions.

The report from Concept Consulting said while the rising number of solar panels would initially displace generation from existing fossil-fuel generation stations, increasingly they would substitute for new low-emission power stations as "most of New Zealand's electricity is generated from renewable sources (hydro, wind and geothermal)."

Renewable sources would also increasingly power electric vehicles (EVs), said the report.

"Overall, we expect EVs to result in a significant net reduction of greenhouse emissions," it said.

Wright called for people to take heed of the report if the country was serious about tackling climate change.

"Electric cars are a no-brainer. Carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles are a big problem and getting worse. Electric cars must be part of our future," she said in a statement.

Solar panels would do little to help in New Zealand as carbon dioxide emissions from generating electricity were highest during the winter, while solar panels were most effective in summer.

"Solar makes a lot of sense in many countries, but we need to play to our strength," said Wright.

"Wind farms, geothermal power plants and electric cars will help us all year round."

Electric-vehicle charging stations are slowly popping up around New Zealand, where most people are dependent on owning and driving their own vehicle to travel both long and short distances.

Simon Bridges, who is Minister of Transport as well as Minister of Energy and Resources, said earlier this month that a network of charging infrastructure was necessary to support the increased uptake of electric vehicles and to facilitate longer distance travel.

"Across their life cycle, from resource extraction and manufacturing to driving and disposal, electric vehicles have 60 percent fewer CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions than petrol vehicles," Bridges said at the opening of a charging station in the eastern North Island city of Tauranga.

"In addition, because of New Zealand's high renewable electricity generation, they have 80 percent fewer CO2 emissions when driven here. If we start to replace our fleet with electric vehicles, we can begin to significantly reduce New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions." Endit