Election 2023: Greens' James Shaw takes shot at National's plan to cut Clean Car Discount

Anyone looking to get a discount on their new EV should do so quickly, because if National gets into power that scheme is on the scrap heap.

But National is promising to supercharge electric vehicle infrastructure by delivering 10,000 new chargers by 2030.

The political race is on and, of course, that means a stop at Christchurch's Rollickin Gelato. 

It wasn't just scoops Christopher Luxon was serving up, there were also election sweeteners - more EV chargers. 

"We have one public EV charger for every 95 EVs in the country. That, to put it in prospective (sic), is the worst in the OECD," Luxon said.

He is promising to spend $257 million on 10,000 new chargers by 2030.

"The biggest issue and concern is actually range anxiety about, will I be able to travel a country like New Zealand."

But the scheme to discount electric cars would be made more redundant than a hair net on a bald man.

The scheme is paid for by taxing polluters and the Nats want to scrap that tax, which means no more discounted Teslas - like the one Luxon's wife bought.

"Why should people who can afford to pay actually get a subsidy for an EV," Luxon said.

But Greens co-leader James Shaw called it "Orwellian to say that you are intending to hit net zero by 2050 and at the same time roll back the most successful policies that are reducing our emissions right now".

He said that was "bonkers". 

The Clean Car Discount has smashed it out of the park for increasing EV uptake. Last month, 61 percent of new cars were electric or hybrids and the emissions profile of new cars has dropped by a third.

Our future depends on reducing emissions. We've made international promises to do so by 2030 under the Paris Agreement.

"We'll look at the NDC target around 2030 but our major commitment is around net zero 2050," Luxon said. 

2030 is actually more important than 2050. It's crucial we hit, because it's baked into our trade agreement with the EU and we could face sanctions if we break the promise.

If New Zealand doesn't reduce our carbon emissions we will have to make up the difference with offshore carbon credits, that could cost us $24 billion.

Luxon eventually said National would meet climate commitments signed up to globally. 

But National is yet to lay out its detailed plan for how it intends to meet our targets.