Funding to support the adoption of low emission heavy vehicles, a $279 million investment package for State Highways and a boost for electric vehicle charging are some of the major transport announcements in Budget 2023.
The Government will be setting aside $30m over three years for clean heavy vehicle grants.
The fund builds on the Clean Car Discount and Low Emissions Transport Fund to support road freight operators to lower their emissions.
The fund will provide grants towards the purchase of low emissions heavy vehicles, including trucks, heavy vans and non-public transport buses.
“Estimates show this will help get about 500 low emission heavy vehicles on to New Zealand’s roads, displacing fossil fuel ones,” energy and resources minister Megan Woods says.
“This transition could reduce operators’ fuel costs by up to 75%.”
Major investment in roads
A $279m investment package for State Highways will focus on slip prevention, flood mitigation, and managing risk of sea level rise. Waka Kotahi have worked with local communities to identify the highest risk areas.
This includes work on projects like slope stabilisation at various SH1 locations in Northland such as Long Hill, Saunders Road and Kaiwaka, flood mitigation on the Auckland motorway network, and managing the risk of coastal inundation on SH6 at the top of the South Island.
Transport minister Michael Wood says the recent severe weather events have highlighted how “crucial it is to invest in early preventative works to protect our transport network”.
“We need to ensure that communities will stay connected as we see severe weather events become more common and damaging. These roads are lifelines for communities, particularly rural ones.
“A strong, resilient network will give certainty that emergency vehicles can get where they need to go as quickly as possible, goods and services can move in and out of regions, and people can stay connected with friends and family,” Wood says.
It also provides funding for 100 resilience projects including culverts, slip stabilisation, drainage improvements, rockfall protection and bridge erosion protection on state highways which can start development immediately.
Some of these projects include:
- Northland – Addressing high priority land instability and subsidence issues including State Highway 1 Longhill and State Highway 12 north of Waipoua Forest.
- Auckland – Upgrades to pumping stations in Mt Wellington and Pukekohe to help prevent the motorways from flooding.
- Bay of Plenty – Rockfall protection at Ruahihi Bluff on State Highway 29.
- Waikato – Constructing a retaining wall to prevent the risk of a slip and improve drainage at State Highway 1 Bulli Point.
- Taranaki – Addressing coastal flooding issues for State Highway 3 including Tongaporutu Estuary and the Monhakatino Bridge.
- Wellington – Rockfall protection on State Highway 59.
- Nelson, Tasman and Marlborough – Providing upgrades for route security including State Highway 6 Whangamoa and Rai Saddle and Dashwood on State Highway 1.
- Canterbury – Debris clearing in water channels on State Highway 79 and 1 to better manage water flows.
- West Coast – Addressing landslip, drainage and river erosion issues including high priority coastal erosion and coastal flooding sites along State Highway 6 and improvements at Meybille Bay (SH6) and the Candys Bend on SH73.
- Otago and Southland – Addressing flooding issues such as on State Highway 1 Kakanui Straight and the growing coastal flooding risk at Ocean View, north of Bluff, securing access for the township and the Port.
In addition to the State Highways package, the Government is also creating the Transport Resilience Fund, which will support local councils to develop and fund resilience upgrades on local roads. The fund will provide $20m in support to projects each year.
This initiative recognises the need to work closely with local councils and communities to develop resilience projects and solutions that work for them.
“This investment package is another step in the Government’s work to build back our transport network better, stronger, and more resilient,” Wood says.
EV charging network
Budget 2023 is also accelerating the uptake of low-emissions vehicles by growing the number of public EV chargers across the country.
Funding for the EV network expansion is $120 million over four years.
Government will be partnering with the private sector to build thousands of new EV chargers across the country. This will expand the growing national network of EV charging hubs – each containing up to 20 chargers – to up to 23 hubs.
The initiative will see charging hubs every 150–200 kilometres on main highways, a public charger for every 20-40 EVs in urban areas, and public charging at community facilities for all settlements with 2000 or more people.
“We’re making sure there are more locations for people to ‘tank up’ their EVs, with a nationwide network of public electric vehicle charging hubs, with multiple fast electric vehicle chargers,” Megan Woods says.
“We’ll also ensure rural and regional communities have more options to charge up EVs so a lack of chargers is no longer seen as a barrier to electric vehicle adoption as we decarbonise our energy system,” she says.
“Emissions from our light vehicle fleet are the single largest source of transport emissions in New Zealand, partially due to having some of the most fuel inefficient and emissions intensive vehicles in the OECD,” Michael Wood says.
“This costs Kiwis at the pump and is damaging to our health and the environment. Switching to EVs would be like buying petrol for 40c/litre, which will make a big difference for household budgets,” he adds.
Green hydrogen
The Budget is also setting aside $100 million, with $32.5 million for the first four years, for a green hydrogen rebate.
“We’re kick-starting early adoption of hydrogen by subsidising businesses to bridge the price gap between fossil fuels and green hydrogen, starting with Southland,” Woods says.
“This initiative will help make hydrogen a financially viable option. A green hydrogen rebate will support a small number of early adopters in hard-to-abate industries to reduce their emissions by 150,000 tonnes – equivalent to cancelling out the emissions of hundreds of trucks.
“This Government support will move Southland closer to a renewable energy industry which diversifies the economy, and increases the region’s resilience,” she says.
