{"id":392171,"date":"2026-04-22T13:37:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T13:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/392171\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T13:37:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T13:37:14","slug":"the-new-age-of-car-buying-evs-hybrids-and-the-end-of-old-myths-the-front-page","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/392171\/","title":{"rendered":"The new age of car buying: EVs, hybrids and the end of old myths \u2013 The Front Page"},"content":{"rendered":"

AA\u2019s chief mobility officer, Jonathan Sergel, told The Front Page<\/a> that people are definitely looking for options at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith worldwide events putting a real big spotlight on the cost of fueling your vehicle, people are looking at alternatives and whether that\u2019s EVs, plug-in hybrids, hybrids, public transport, walking, cycling, everyone\u2019s looking at ways to try and reduce the cost of travelling,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEVs have got a part to play in that, and we\u2019re definitely seeing a big push for people to learn more about EVs, but also talking to some of the people that are bringing those vehicles into the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Clean Car Discount, which ran from July 2021 to December 2023, was a scheme that made low-emission vehicles more affordable.<\/p>\n

Vehicles with zero or low emissions qualified for the rebate, which saw new EV owners, for example, save thousands of dollars. Those with high emissions would incur a fee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scheme is forecast to save New Zealand from importing 1.4 billion litres of petrol. At current prices, the economy will save an average of $325 million a year less on fuel, out to 2035,\u201d then Transport Minister Michael Wood said in May 2023.<\/p>\n

But the coalition Government would promise to scrap the discount, and its subsequent \u201cute tax\u201d, in its first 100 days. It criticised the rebate portion of the scheme as a \u201cTesla subsidy\u201d and the fees charged as a \u201cute tax\u201d.<\/p>\n

That was after Christopher Luxon\u2019s family upgraded to a Tesla, appearing to have claimed the $8625 subsidy.<\/p>\n

Sergel said a clean car rebate or discount would likely work better now than it did then, because there are more affordable EV and hybrid options on the market now.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe raft of choices that we have today does not compare to what it was like two years ago, when we had a bubble of EVs that were priced between $60,000 to $80,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was talking to one Chinese manufacturer and they have got a whole heap of cars arriving in April and May that are all pre-sold. But they\u2019ve got – to quote him – thousands of vehicles arriving in June.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, they\u2019re really upping the ante and offering that choice. This manufacturer has a good range from $30,000 up to $80,000-plus.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll those vehicles that come into New Zealand cycle through the second-hand market between three and seven years generally. So that\u2019s where the opportunity is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Listen to the full episode<\/a> to hear more about:<\/p>\n

Future charging infrastructureRange and daily drivingHybrids vs EVsBattery life and degradation.<\/p>\n

The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5pm. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime\/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.<\/p>\n

You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio<\/a>, Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AA\u2019s chief mobility officer, Jonathan Sergel, told The Front Page that people are definitely looking for options at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7127,81551,95,138,5098,3944,5343,36173,537,7123,14037,8127,15233,1668,2678,11945,202724,20340,117,111,139,69,1118,9716,28630,12937,77126,13120,223,16641,6845],"class_list":{"0":"post-392171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-age","9":"tag-amidst","10":"tag-and","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-buying","13":"tag-car","14":"tag-climb","15":"tag-continuing","16":"tag-crisis","17":"tag-current","18":"tag-electric","19":"tag-end","20":"tag-evs","21":"tag-front","22":"tag-fuel","23":"tag-heights","24":"tag-hybrids","25":"tag-myths","26":"tag-new","27":"tag-new-zealand","28":"tag-newzealand","29":"tag-nz","30":"tag-of","31":"tag-old","32":"tag-page","33":"tag-prices","34":"tag-registrations","35":"tag-remain","36":"tag-the","37":"tag-uncertain","38":"tag-vehicle"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}