How real is an electric future in the short to medium term? The other evening over dinner I was regaled by a veteran journo who has just returned from a trip to Norway where he met up with the top brass involved with electrification of motoring.

Christina Bu, secretary general of the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association, convinced our man that New Zealand is much like Norway, with more than 80 percent of its electricity coming from renewable sources, a similar population to ours, and similar demographics.

And Norway is the second most-populated EV country in the world – next to China, so why can’t New Zealand follow suit.

The answer is simple. One word. Oil. The GDP of Norway is exactly twice New Zealand’s; last year alone the Norwegian Government netted the equivalent of $NZ22-billion in revenue from its slice of North Sea oil, its oil exports only exceeded by Saudi Arabia – before the Norwegian Goverment had collected any taxes from its people..

New Zealand, however, doesn’t have huge incomes from oil, or anything else except taxes. Simply, we can’t fund a massive switch to EVs, especially on top of the demands from all sectors for more social spending, not to mention paying for all the earthquake and flood damage the country has suffered in recent years.