This column is archived at: https://aardvark.co.nz/daily/2018/0118.shtml
Could better use have been made of that $3.7m?
Does the government's press release prove only that it has no real strategy for encouraging the use of EVs in this country?
Why are F&P again on the list of winners in this contestable funding round? Why are they different to any other NZ company that might want to put in EV chargers for staff and what evidence did they have to back up their claim that "if you build them, they will come" in respect to those chargers?
Would a $1m technology challenge be a good idea to foster interest and investment in the creation of an indigenous EV commuter-car industry? Why is our government seemingly so opposed to the sensible use of money by leveraging it through such challenges instead of handing it out like lollies to whichever company can come up with the best story (as F&P so regularly seem to do)?
And wouldn't Coda be better to simply wait until Tesla's electric truck is available and buy one of those for much less than the $1m+ that they're planning to spend on building their own?