Wood told Carbon News he saw a Citroen Ami – France’s massively popular micro-EV – on a recent trip to Oslo and has been approached by people wanting to bring them into New Zealand.

“It’s a dialogue we’ve had and clearly there are some benefits both on the electrification side – but we’re pretty successfully electrifying our fleet anyway. The other argument is about road space which is more of a congestion argument than a decarbonisation argument.”

Currently the Citroen Ami and China’s most popular EV the Wuling are classified as quadricycles and are barred from New Zealand’s roads.

Wood says the appropriateness of micro-vehicles for New Zealand conditions was identified as an area of work that needed doing under the Emissions Reduction Plan but it was unlikely to be done before the end of 2023 or 2024.

“The key trade off and regulatory issue is around safety,” he says. “They almost all inevitably rate at the lowest safety rating of zero to one star. So that’s the policy challenge.”

The two-seater Citroen Ami has a top speed of 45km/h, can be driven by unlicensed 14-year-olds, and retails for under NZ$10,000.

Paradoxically, Wood says the potential popularity of micro-EVs could be in conflict with the government’s commitment to reducing the total number of kilometres travelled by privately owned automobiles.

“There are questions there about whether you help that by bringing in additional modes of car and do you potentially sometimes unhelpfully transfer potentially active modes into that mode.”

Scandinavians opting for E-trucks over hydrogen

Wood, one of the keynote speakers at the EVS 35 symposium in Oslo last month, says the Scandinavians have decided electrification is the future of long-haul trucking.

“A lot of the previous intelligence has been that hydrogen is going to play that role,” Wood says.

But he says it’s too early for New Zealand to make a call on the issue.

“We’re taking the approach that it’s not the right time to make a decision on which way it’s going to go. Certainly, at the moment we’re seeing good developments for smaller electrified trucks.”

He says work is continuing with Hiringa Energy in the establishment of “a baseline” for hydrogen in New Zealand.

“We need to keep our options open.”

EV uptake now up with most of Europe: Wood

Wood says the electrification of Norway is impressive with EVs having an 86% market share last year.

But with much of it funded with the proceeds of oil there’s “a bit cognitive dissonance involved.”

He says Norway is an outlier in Europe and the uptake of electric vehicles in New Zealand, currently running at about 20%, is among the highest in the developed world.

Before the introduction of the clean car discount New Zealand ranked near the bottom.

Wood says this is clear evidence of the success of the policy.

But with secondhand EVs in hot demand with prices sometimes above their post-rebate costs there will be those who question whether it’s the clean car policy or the international hike in fuel costs driving demand.

Cargo bikes and small delivery vehicles

Wood says there’s been huge advancement in terms of e-cargo bikes and small delivery vehicles. were one of the areas.

He says both have real potential and it’s easier to make a case for a subsidy for e-cargo bikes than e-bikes in general.

With e-bike sales “going bonkers” it’s hard to argue a subsidy is required but it could be that the upfront cost of cargo bikes is an obstacle to individual and businesses buying them as a partial car replacement.

Earlier articles in the E-volution of the microcar series:

Evolution of the microcar

The microcars already on our roads

Citroen Ami punches above its weight