Category: Business

Source: Radio New Zealand

The EV slowdown: How government decisions changed the road ahead.

For a while there, electric vehicles felt inevitable in New Zealand, attracting a growing number of Kiwi drivers.

The future, humming quietly along city and rural roads, was silent, clean, and cheaper to run.

Then the brakes went on.

The Detail looks at why, talking to long-time EV-user Ed Harvey, founder and CEO of Evnex – an EV smart charging company in Christchurch.

He says in the space of a couple of years, electric vehicle sales have slumped, with the blame trail leading straight to Wellington. The government scrapped the clean car discount, introduced EV road-user charges, and, most recently, weakened the clean car standards.

“They [government ministers] would say they didn’t think it was working – they would probably say, look, the market share is way down, that’s proving Kiwis don’t really want electric vehicles, but I think the government has… really leveraged the politicisation of EVs to their advantage,” Harvey tells The Detail.

“And they haven’t shown leadership in a technology that is actually going to save kiwis money.”

Harvey built his own EV car, converting his Honda Accord, while at university in 2013.

He’s since sold it, upgrading to another EV.

But he says fewer Kiwis are joining him for the silent drive on New Zealand roads.

“We are definitely not soaring. 2025 was not the best year; I would say it was sort of flat, if not a very moderate growth.”

In terms of pure B-EVs (battery electric vehicles rather than hybrids) just over 9000 were sold in the New Zealand market last year. That’s just over a four percent market share, a slight increase on 2024 but a big dip on the year before. In 2023, which was the last year of the clean car discount, B-EVs had a 10 percent market share, translating to 26,000 sold.

“And even the year before that, in 2022, we had just under 20,000 [sold], and, again, compare that with just over 9000 last year, it’s a huge drop, which is really disappointing for those of us in the industry,” Harvey says.

After the government scrapped the clean car discount – the rebate that knocked thousands of dollars off the price of an electric vehicle – EVs were brought into the road user charge net.

For years, EV drivers had been exempt – a deliberate incentive to encourage uptake. That advantage disappeared – fairness, the government argued. Everyone pays their way.

Then late last year, penalties under the Clean Vehicle Standard – designed to push importers toward low-emission cars – were slashed, and the pressure to prioritise cleaner vehicles eased.

The government insists the slowdown reflects global trends and tight household budgets.

But Harvey says it has come at a devastating cost to the environment and for EV businesses.

“It’s done huge damage to the industry. There were a lot of fledgling businesses that were building, whether it be EV charging infrastructure, like us, or battery recycling, or EV service specialists that were starting to grow quite well back in 2022/23. It’s done a huge amount of damage to those businesses, and they have lost a lot of confidence.”

It prompted him to write opinion pieces for The Post and on LinkedIn, saying “the New Zealand government’s lack of strategy and ambition around electrification is nothing short of embarrassing. Our transport minister is capitulating to the interests of lobbyists and short-term political gains”.

He tells The Detail that transport remains a large source of emissions in New Zealand. And EVs are an answer to reduce this.

The Port of Auckland has noticed a drop in the number of EVs arriving in New Zealand.

Between 15,000 and 18,000 vehicles – a mix of EVs, hybrids, petrol, and diesel – arrive in Auckland every month – that’s about 200,000 a year.

But for December last year, only 600 vehicles were EVs.

“A year before that, December 2024, that was over 800, so we are talking about a decrease of around 30 percent for EVs,” Chris Mills, general manager, marine, multi-cargo and cruise at Port of Auckland, tells The Detail.

“And we are also seeing similar numbers, in terms of reductions, around plug-in hybrids.”

He says he’s seen a bump in non-plug-in, self-charging hybrids – the petrol-hybrid equivalent.

“We have seen those numbers really boom. In December, there were 2700 units registered in New Zealand.”

Ed Harvey doesn’t mind hybrids but would still prefer drivers committed to full electric vehicles.

He says they are the future ….. the technology is there, the chargers still work, it’s just that the road ahead is a lot less clear.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Fast changes in wholesale interest rates have seen ASB and Kiwibank become the last of the major bank lenders to hike their longer term fixed home loan rates.

ASB’s increases range between 10 to 20 basis points for loans fixed between 1 and 3 years, while Kiwibank has made adjustments to its 2 to 5 year rates. Both banks have shaved a little off their six month offering.

The changes bring ASB and Kiwibank into line with all other major banks, which have also bumped up rates in recent weeks.

ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley says the switch from talk of cuts to possible interest rate hikes in the Reserve Bank’s latest outlook has compelled markets to adjust pricing.

“We’ve seen for 2 year rates, a good 50 basis point increase in wholesale rates and nearly 60 for the 3 year, since the Reserve Bank’s statement last year, so to date the moves we’ve seen with mortgage rates aren’t really keeping up with that yet.”

Nick Tuffley says all banks are seeing similar impacts on their funding costs, leading them to pass on the increases to borrowers.

“I think the key message for people is that period of really low interest rates, super low interest rates, has gone, but the market’s settling into a reality of the cash rate’s likely to be on hold for most of this year, but we’re past the lows now,”

While tough for borrowers, savers will benefit from higher term deposit rates across the board, with banks looking to attract funding. Term deposit rates beyond the 9 month mark have had a significant adjustment, up anywhere between 5 and 35 basis points.

“Not too long ago, you could get a 2 year mortgage for not less than 4 and 4.5 percent,” says Nick Tuffley.

“Now you can put money on deposit for two years at 4% percent so quite a catch-up.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Former Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran is headed back to the US retail scene with a report that he will be the new chief executive of US retail giant Kroger.

The Wall Street Journal reported he will be named as the new chief executive of Kroger after the previous chief executive was dumped for unacceptable personal conduct.

“Kroger officials have said they wanted to look for a candidate outside the walls of the company’s downtown Cincinnati headquarters who could bring a fresh perspective to the grocer,” The Journal report said.

Kroger operates supermarkets, grocers, jewellery, and hypermarkets with food and pharmaceutical retail sites in its own name and through various US state and regional brands.

It’s regarded as one of the big four US retailers with a turnover last year of about NZ$245 billion, with close to 3,000 outlets, and more than 400,000 staff.

Before his five year tenure at Air New Zealand Foran ran the US operations of retail giant Walmart in which he had a reputation as a demanding boss, who paid attention to customer service and product quality, resulting in increased sales through the group.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Early-stage angel investment in start-up businesses saw positive growth in the amount of capital invested last year, for the first time since 2021.

Angel Association chief executive Bridget Unsworth said new deals attracted 8.6 percent more capital overall, with nearly twice as many new businesses receiving investment.

Deal activity rebounded strongly with a 34 percent increase in the number of deals completed to 167 from 125 in 2024, but with a conservative a 2.7 percent increase in capital to $13.9 million.

Unsworth said it appeared more investors were keeping dollars in reserve for follow-on investment, with the average investment per angel investor down 8 percent to $12,446 from $15,100 in 2024.

“Yes, the cheques are slightly smaller, but more companies are getting seeded,” Unsworth said.

She said the number of angel investors with a portfolio of five or more growth businesses rose 14 percent from 12 percent in 2024.

“I think it’s positive in that we’re seeing diversification across all the sectors,” she said.

“For a long time, software was 50 percent of all the capital that was committed. We’re seeing it spread more evenly across multiple sectors.”

She said deep tech, which focused on ground-breaking technology, was attracting more investment, with an increase of 22 percent over a rolling five-year average to $6.6m from $4.4m the year earlier.

“In a global environment shaped by climate solutions, national capability, and advanced technologies, this trend positions New Zealand well, provided capital and specialist expertise remain aligned,” she said.

“So all in all I think it is it is really positive in terms of how our market is evolving.”

Unsworth said the highlight of the year was a 34 percent increase in the number of active angel investors over the past year to 455 from 328 in 2024.

“We have got great investors coming into the space that are bringing not only their capital, but their breadth of expertise.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Financial mentors say organisations that benefit from their services should be willing to pay a levy.

Fincap, the organisation that represents financial mentors around the country, has made the proposal to the Finance and Expenditure Committee.

Forty-four financial mentor services lost funding in the latest round and Fincap spokesperson Jake Lilley said they are increasingly having to ask staff to take pay cuts or work as volunteers to be able to continue operating.

“We’ve had a lot close,” he told RNZ’s Nine to Noon.

He said it was a concern that the industry was also losing experienced people who knew how to navigate the complex situations that clients would seek help with.

But demand for their services has increased, and Lilley says many organisations rely on their services, including KiwiSaver providers who often suggest people making a hardship application seek help from a mentor.

Lilley said while financial services providers would have their own hardship teams, there were usually limits to what it was appropriate for them to discuss with clients. Financial mentors could look at people’s situations as a whole.

“You can get into a situation where the loudest creditor is the one who is paid when someone hasn’t got the assistance to look at the situation as a whole.”

He said some mentors said it took eight hours of their time to help a client with a KiwiSaver hardship withdrawal application.

Telecommunications and power companies also benefited from mentors’ work, he said.

David Baines, of Christchurch’s Kingdom Resources services, said his organisation lost funding in 2024.

“We were in a situation where government funding provided about 80 percent of our total income.” he said.

Of 11 staff, two became volunteers and four reduced their income, he said. But he said Kingdom Resources still received referrals from government agencies, even though funding had been stopped.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

The rise in home loan rates continues with ASB Bank the latest to increase medium-term fixed mortgages.

It has marginally lowered its six-month rates, but loans for one year through to three years have been raised between 10 and 20 basis points.

ASB Bank said the rises reflected the increase in wholesale interest rates, which had risen more than half a percentage point since the last Reserve Bank decision at the end of last November.

ASB’s six month rate is 4.59 percent, down six basis points. The one year rate has risen to 4.59 percent, the 18-month rate 4.75%, two years now sits at 4.95 percent and the three year rate is 5.19 percent.

All major retail banks have their fixed mortgage rates over the past couple of weeks.

Last week BNZ cut its six-month rate by 20 basis points to 4.49 percent. But the four-year rate lifts by 26 basis points to 5.55 percent and the five-year by 40 basis points to 5.69 percent.

ANZ is reducing its six-month rate by 20 basis points and increasing its two-year and four-year rates by 20. Its five-year rate will increase by 30. That takes its two-year special to 5.49 percent and its five-year special to 5.99 percent.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Townhouses are giving buyers a cheaper way in to even some of the country’s priciest suburbs.

There has been a boom in townhouse construction over recent years, particularly in Auckland and Christchurch. In the past five years there have been a total of just over 48,000 townhouses, flats and units – not including apartments and units in retirement villages – consented in Auckland.

But the cheaper price point of townhouses has made some suburbs accessible to first-home buyers who might previously have been priced out.

Cotality head of research Nick Goodall said the cheapest townhouses in the country compared to the median value of standalone houses were in Herne Bay, usually the country’s most expensive area.

There, townhouses cost a median $936,000 and houses $3.03 million.

That was followed by St Mary’s Bay, at $852,000 and $2.87m and Parnell at $886,000 and $2.87m.

Mt Eden was fourth, with a median townhouse value of $703,000 compared to a median value of $2.13m for houses.

Goodall said the data probably reflected how expensive houses were in those suburbs.

“It’s also reflective of how expensive the land is in those suburbs because they’re close to town and land is more expensive the closer you get to town.

“So that gap widens for a townhouse which doesn’t necessarily get any or much use of land, it’s more about the structure itself. That’s why generally speaking you see a cap on the value of a townhouse.”

He said town houses had been staying on the market for longer and owners and developers had been having to drop their price more to sell during the period that the market had been softer.

Over the past 12 months, standalone houses had seen value falls of -0.7 percent, with -1.7 percent for townhouses, and -4.1 percent for apartments. But since the peak, the price of houses in Auckland was down 23.5 percent compared to 22.2 percent for townhouses and flats.

He said townhouses were a good option for people who wanted to get into the central suburbs and could not otherwise afford it.

“If a buyer is looking at their list of wants and needs and location is on there and that’s more important for a period of time, whether that’s five, seven, 10 years, until you might be thinking about having children or you need a bigger space … even for a young child it’s probably fine, it’s when you get to a bit older you might start thinking about [moving]. It’s all about age and stage and using it to build equity and all those things.”

While apartment values have tended to lag houses, Goodall said that would be less true of townhouses.

“They still seem to be doing pretty well through the cycle whereas with apartments it’s a bit different … you really have no apportionment of land … when you look at the 10 or 20 year performance apartments just do not see that same growth that houses would … with townhouses the difference is much less.”

He said the difference in price movement would be less in a “normal” period where there had not been so much building. “I think you will probably see houses perform better because they have more land and a lot of value is in the land … but townhouses are not completely devoid of it.”

Simplicity chief economist Shamubeel Eaqub agreed the difference was the land. “When you buy houses in New Zealand you’re buying the land. It’ s a land speculation engine, right? When you’ve got townhouses you don’t have a lot of land and also it comes with issues of shared title and whatnot.”

He said there would also be a price difference but it provided options and choices.

“Would I expect those prices to just converge to standalone house prices? No. Will the gap fluctuate over time? Of course.”

He said there could also be a range of quality within the townhouse market. “The concern I have is around the lowest cost to build, the designs are often not good for things like ventilation, noise – a lot of the houses built during the Covid period where inspections weren’t able to be done physically. We don’t know what kind of problems might be stored up there.

“The liveability and reliability are the two things that I worry a little bit about … a lot of that can be fixed by design which I think we will get to but there’ll be a cohort of people who will be in houses that are cheap to buy but uncomfortable to live in.”

The areas with the biggest decline in town house prices the past year were Omokoroa, Western Bay of Plenty, down 17.9 percent to $711,000; Whalers Gate New Plymouth, down 15.3 percent to $437,000; and Waihi Beach, down 14.7 percent to $782,000.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Falling Bitcoin prices have dragged the performance of Koura’s Bitcoin KiwiSaver fund to the bottom of the table.

Morningstar has released its latest KiwiSaver survey, which shows that over the year, the best performer was Kernel’s S&P Global Clean Energy Fund, up 59.9 percent.

The poorest performer was Koura Bitcoin, down 9.7 percent. It was down 22.8 percent over a quarter.

On average, conservative funds returned 5.8 percent over a year, moderate 6.8 percent, balanced 9.5 percent, growth 9.7 percent and aggressive 12.8 percent.

The price of Bitcoin has fallen from more than NZ$200,000 in October to just over NZ$115,000.

Koura founder Rupert Carlyon said he had been pleasantly surprised by the lack of reaction from investors. “We’ve had very minimal outflows over the last kind of four to six weeks as the price continues to fall.”

He said that was for a few reasons, including that people had made a deliberate choice to invest in the fund.

“We make sure that before people get there, they understand the volatility of Bitcoin, that this is kind of part and parcel of being a Bitcoin investor, and then with our limits, it’s not a major, major part of their KiwiSaver accounts.

“Whether it is 3 percent or up to 10 percent it’s meaningful but it’s not as though they’re seeing the whole value of their KiwiSaver drop by 40 percent or 45 percent.”

Koura allows up to 10 percent of an investor’s KiwiSaver balance to be invested in its Bitcoin fund and investments are rebalanced if they reach 15 percent.

He said the price movements seen in recent months were part of the expected cycle.

“We know that it drops. We’ve seen it go up to 70 percent before. Every time this happens we see the same old conversation of Bitcoin is at the start of the end – luckily we haven’t seen that this time but I do firmly believe that the volatility is still there because the liquidity issues haven’t been solved.

“It’s still a small asset without a huge amount of liquidity and therefore you’re always going to see massive price swings.”

This is the first Morningstar survey that includes three years of data for new provider Kernel.

It is top of the cash and high-growth categories, alongside Quay St on most of the other categories.

“What’s coming through clearly is that when markets are chaotic, the controllables start to dominate,” founder Dean Anderson said.

“The last few years haven’t rewarded clever market calls – they’ve rewarded process.

“Kernel’s focus has always been on evidence, transparency and cost discipline, with fees in many cases up to 70 percent below category averages.

“For KiwiSaver members, the takeaway is straightforward. Do the homework. Understand what you own, what you’re paying, and why your portfolio is built the way it is. In uncertain markets, those fundamentals are proving to matter more than ever.

Report author Greg Bunkall noted that the quarter had been positive for most KiwiSaver funds, led by global equities.

New Zealand’s share market was only up modestly while the Australian market was broadly flat.

He said Simplicity had a strong quarter.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

When Kate subscribed to an overseas news website, she did not realise how difficult it would be to cancel.

“It was nightmarish … to the point where I won’t even look at any offers from them. Getting unsubscribed was like getting divorced … I wouldn’t touch them with a 10-foot bargepole, ever again.”

She said she thought she was signing up for a month but was held to a year, and at the end had to remove her credit card details to stop the subscription renewing.

She is not alone – New Zealanders spend millions of dollars a year on subscription services, including ones they no longer use, and they can be tricky to get out of.

Consumer NZ said the design of subscription services meant they often took multiple steps to cancel.

It said almost 30 percent of people report continuing to pay for a service because unsubscribing was too difficult. Its research estimated New Zealanders lost more than $60 million a year to “dark patterns” including unfair subscription models.

It follows earlier ASB research that found 20 percent of subscription-holders were paying for services they did not use. About a third spent more than $100 on subscriptions each month.

Everything from TV and music to the gym and toothbrushes can be bought on subscription.

David Verry, a financial mentor at North Harbour Budgeting Service, said he often dealt with people paying for Sky TV, Netflix and gyms.

“Sky can often be seen as one form of entertainment that is less expensive than going out or they may have an internet package attached.”

But he said it was sometimes worth asking whether people needed all the packages, or subscriptions to both Netflix and Sky.

He said people were often paying for gym memberships at $7 to $10 a week, too, but they were often not used.

“Unfortunately a lot of clients sign up to two-year deals which are collected by Debit Success via direct debiting accounts and there is usually no way out – if the client cancels the direct debit then Debit Success will keep hounding them for the payments and eventually issue a credit default to the credit agencies.

“I had one client who had signed up her three adult children and herself and was in default on all four. Think carefully about what you’re signing up for and the obligations that go with it.”

Westpac said its customers were paying an average of $33 a month on at least one streaming service up from $28 in 2024. Ten percent were spending $70 or more.

Another financial coach, Shula Newland, said people were more aware of how subscriptions could add up now and were able to use banking tools and apps to track where their money was going.

Labour MP Cushla Tangaere-Manuel has submitted a member’s bill that would require subscriptions to be able to be cancelled in the same way that they were taken out.

University of Auckland commercial law professor Alex Sims said people who signed up for a year had agreed to an enforceable contract for a year.

“But sometimes the provider will allow people to exit early by paying a termination fee or cancellation fee. The fee must be a reasonable estimate of the provider’s losses arising from early termination. If it is too high, then legally it is a penalty and it cannot be enforced – but proving that would require going to court, which sensible people aren’t going to do.

“So you would have to work out whether the termination or cancellation fee is higher than the cost of what you would pay for the rest of the subscription time. Normally if there are only two or three months left, it is cheaper to continue to pay the subscription.”

She said people should also watch out for automatic renewals.

“It’s not just a case of the 12 month finishing and it is over. You need to check if it is one that auto-renewals that you cancel it before it renews.”

The law required that people were informed about a subscription rolling over before it happened but Sims said even if a business was not following the law, customers would often have limited options.

“That’s because only the Commerce Commission can enforce the unfair contract terms law. If you are caught out, please make a complaint to the Commerce Commission who will hopefully investigate and force the provider to change its practices.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A woman who was shocked to discover that her insurance company had increased the value of her car at renewal says it is a reminder to people to check what they are agreeing to.

Nicki, who did not want to use her surname, said she had a 2002 Subaru Impreza and a 2012 Suzuki Alto insured with AA Insurance.

But while they were valued at $4000 and $5500 respectively for insurance last year, when it came time to renew this time, the Subaru was proposed to be worth $10,294 and the Suzuki $9600.

She said the maximum excess she was allowed to have had also dropped “massively”.

“We used to be at $2500 per car but the top is now only $1000. I’m unable to get the Subaru’s agreed value reduced back to what it was 12 months ago because they will only insure now for $4375. Allegedly the company feels it must protect us from underinsuring ourselves.”

She was able to reduce the value of the Suzuki.

A higher excess can reduce the premiums that people pay for cover. Nicki was told in an online chat with the insurer that its pricing team had determined $1000 was the most reasonable and accessible amount for customers.

Turners lists a 2009 Subaru Impreza for $5990. A 2014 Suzuki Alto is listed on Trade Me for $5500 and a 2011 model is $4900.

Nicki told the insurer that it was ridiculous that a 24-year-old car would increase in value by two-and-a-half times in a year.

“We cannot be the only ones they’re trying to raise revenue from in these three ways – sum insured increase, excess reduction, refusal to set sum insured appropriately low.”

A spokesperson for AA Insurance said it had recently updated its excess options to ensure that they were “simple and easy for customers to select”.

“Consistent with common industry practice, we rely on an independent third party data provider to provide vehicle values. From time to time, this provider updates their methodology and data sources to ensure the valuations reflect the most accurate and up to date market conditions.

“When this happens, customers may see changes, either increases or decreases, in their proposed agreed values at renewal. We encourage customers to get in touch if they would like to discuss their proposed value or agree on a different value with us.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand