In an “open letter” to the incoming government, published on LinkedIn, Greening says a simple change in regulations would result in a significant reduction in the country’s transport emissions.

The self-described micro-car evangelist has been promoting micro-cars for more than a decade.

In 2014 he imported a US-made Tango 600 and toured it around the country, making it on to Campbell Live. 

The very narrow, very fast micro-EV made headlines around the world when actor George Clooney bought one in 2005.

Micro-cars have proliferated since then with the Wuling Hongguang micro-cars one of China’s most popular cars, the Citroen Ami a surprise hit in Europe, and Japan’s Sakura the country’s best-selling EV.

Sakura Japan's bestselling EV

 The Citroen Ami is classed as a quadricycle - a category of vehicle currently not allowed on our roads - and has a top speed of just 45km/h. The Tango 600, by comparison, has a top speed of 240 km/h.

A Waka Kotahi spokesperson said the Wuling - which has a top speed of 100 km/h, a range of 120km and sells for under $10,000 - would probably also be classed as quadricycle.

Wuling mini-EV - one of China's bestselling cars

Greening says allowing micro-EVs on our roads is a no-brainer. “When you consider New Zealand faces mulitbillion dollar ETS costs, I would think a new microcar EV category be a logical low cost decision.”

And it’s an idea backed up by a recent report from The International Transport Forum - an intergovernmental organisation with 66 member countries including New Zealand.

Shifting the Focus: Smaller Electric Vehicles for Sustainable Cities argues its a mistake for governments to promote the replacement of “like-for-like” internal combustion engine vehicles with EVs. And it says doing so would slash electricity use by 15%.

“EV uptake policies seem to focus on like-for-like replacement of private cars while ignoring other vehicle types that support net-zero by design strategies,” the report says.

 “In 2020, around 20 second-generation Nationally-Determined Contributions (NDCs) had specific electrification measures for electric passenger cars, while less than ten had actions for two- and three-wheelers.”

The report also says it is a mistake to include plug-in hybrid vehicles in government subsidy schemes - like the last government’s clean car discount.

“This is because of the environmental challenges raised by these vehicles. The real-world use of PHEVs leads to two to four times higher GHG emissions than values from PHEV testing for approval processes under the New European Drive Cycle.”

A number of European countries have targets for phasing out sales of PHEV by as early as 2025.

The report says cities wanting to achieve net-zero emission will only be able to do so by moving away from larger passenger vehicles.

“EV uptake policies seem to focus on like-for-like replacement of private cars while ignoring other vehicle types that support net-zero by design strategies. Like-for-like replacement focuses on replacing existing ICE vehicles with electric equivalents without considering mode shift or smaller vehicle sizes.”

The report estimates that around 35% of existing private vehicle users could eventually replace their current vehicles with a “car-like” light alternative, mostly in urban and suburban areas.