John MacDonald: Are my views on EVs changing at all?

Maybe my head is in the sand, but all this excitement about fuel prices isn’t making me any more inclined to buy an electric vehicle.  Tell that to the people who are getting all excited and buying them. In big numbers too, it seems.  So we’ve got the government warning that petrol prices could hit $4 a litre and EV dealers saying they’re being run off their feet because of the ongoing situation in the middle east.  BYD sold 80 on Saturday across the country. Normally they’d sell 25 on an average Saturday. So that’s a major increase.   Here in Christchurch, EV dealerships are reporting a major leap in sales too, with one of them selling out entirely in just two days.  People are coming from as far away as nelson to get their hands on electric vehicles too, apparently.  How things can change. In November, the EV dealers were ripping-in to the government for the changes it was making to the clean car standards for imported vehicles and we were all talking about the EV bubble busting.  Fast-forward four months and throw in a bit of good old fashioned kiwi over-reaction, and the picture is very different.   This war has only been going two-and-a-bit weeks but that’s enough, it seems, for some people to want to go all EV on it.  I drive petrol cars. And, at this point, i have no intention of switching to an EV.  One of my vehicles, especially, is a real gas guzzler. But despite that, I have never had any interest in owning an EV. I can‘t tell you exactly why. It’s not a protest of any sort. It’s not climate change denial. It’s none of that.  I’m just not interested. And I am no more interested now, despite the war and the fuel prices.   And i reckon that, once the oil tankers start sailing again through the strait of Hormuz, most people will still be happy with petrol and diesel vehicles.  The other thing too is, that if i was buying an EV, I'd spend quite a bit of time looking into it.  You wouldn’t get me seeing a few days of petrol price increases and going all knee-jerk on it.  But the ev people are loving it that some people are.  DTR motors in Hornby had six cars on the lot on Friday night. By Sunday, they were all gone.  Alex Wu is the sales manager. He says: “people just showed up, even from nelson, paid and drove off.”   He says the weekend was the most “explosive” sales period in the nearly two years that DTR motors has been operating in Christchurch.  And that’s without any rebate assistance from the government.   Which Finance Minister Nicola Willis said yesterday wouldn’t be making a comeback. Saying: "i simply don't accept the idea that giving subsidies to millionaires in Remuera would help those afflicted by high petrol prices."  Nevertheless, EV’s are in demand again. So how tempted are you?  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.