When petrol prices surge, the national conversation usually focuses on motorists. But the real economic risk isn’t the family car, it’s the systems that keep the country moving.
With oil prices having doubled since the start of 2026, much of the commentary about pain at the pump has centred on motorists. Petrol prices jump, politicians argue about EV rebates and fuel taxes, and people wince as they fill their tanks. But focusing only on cars misses a much bigger and more urgent picture. Oil shocks don’t just hurt drivers. They disrupt entire economies.
Oil price shocks ripple through entire supply chains. As fuel costs climb, the prices of freight, food, logistics, and infrastructure rise with them. Every item on a supermarket shelf carries a diesel cost. Delivery trucks and port cranes depend on imported fuel. New Zealand’s real vulnerability isn’t the family car – it’s the systems that keep our country moving.
Yet the real absurdity of our oil dependence becomes clear when you look at the physics. Petrol internal combustion engines convert only about 20 percent of fuel into motion, with roughly 80 percent lost as heat. At today’s prices, many New Zealand businesses are paying more than $2.5 a litre to generate heat, and barely 50 cents to actually move.
To add to the absurdity, the Government is reportedly considering Muldoon-era measures such as car-free days and fuel rationing to address the immediate pain at the pump in the name of “economic security”. Yet at the same time, it appears unwilling to consider the more obvious question: How can New Zealand insulate itself from oil shocks in the first place and protect the systems that keep the country moving?
Electrification at scale – of the systems that move food, goods and people around the country – isn’t a hard hill to climb. In fact, New Zealand holds a structural advantage that many countries envy. More than 80 percent of our electricity already comes from renewable sources, including hydro, wind and geothermal generated right here at home. Few nations can power transport, industry and infrastructure with locally produced energy the way we can. But instead of strengthening that advantage, we seem determined to double down on fossil fuels and refuse to consider policies that would make electrification viable at scale.
The proposed LNG import terminal is one example – a costly investment that would expose New Zealand businesses to global gas markets for decades. At a time when other countries are investing in energy storage and smart electricity systems to strengthen resilience, with tax benefits to businesses, we risk locking ourselves into the volatility we should be trying to escape. Around the world, governments are moving quickly to build the infrastructure needed for a more stable energy system.
By the end of 2025, Australia had committed to 74 battery storage projects, with $1.7 billion in investment reaching financial close. In the second half of that year alone, Australians installed more than 183,000 home batteries. These investments are not driven by ideology. They are driven by economics and policy.
Battery storage, smart charging and flexible energy systems protect businesses from volatile fuel prices while strengthening national energy security. Here in New Zealand, parts of the infrastructure sector are already moving in that direction.
Airports across the country – many of which we have worked with – are electrifying ground fleets and investing in smarter energy systems. Wellington and Auckland Airport has built large-scale charging infrastructure, and New Plymouth Airport is installing solar generation, battery storage and smart charging systems designed to manage electricity demand intelligently and ensure its resilience. For infrastructure operators like airports, electrification isn’t about climate branding. It’s about business continuity for its ground transport services.
Airports, ports, and logistics networks cannot afford fuel shortages or price shocks; nor can the consumers they serve. Electrification, paired with smart energy management, allows these systems to operate using locally generated electricity rather than globally traded fuels. That shift has enormous implications for New Zealand’s economic resilience in an increasingly fragile world. Many want to make the move, but they need the signal from government to get started.
If we invest in future-focused policies and incentives, energy storage, smarter electricity markets and fleet electrification, we can strengthen our economic resilience and protect businesses from the next oil shock. If we don’t, we will continue importing fuels we don’t produce, paying prices we can’t control, and watching other countries build the energy independence we once had within reach.
