A major missing piece of the picture here is the introduction of Road User Charges (RUC) for EVs. RUC are a tax levied on diesel vehicles in NZ. The idea being that the cost of maintaining roads is built into petrol taxes, but many (most?) diesel vehicles don't use the roads. Think farm tractors, construction equipment, etc. So the road tax is levied on diesel vehicles based on the distance they travel. You need to buy RUC credits to pay for your use of the roads.

Until recently EVs were exempt from RUC and so were extra cheap to operate. Now there is the double whammy of the removal of the subsidy and the extra cost of having to pay RUC.

You can argue that this is fair and expected, EV owners should pay for the roads they use, same as every one else. But the question remains as to whether the trade off of more ICEs vs EVs in the NZ vehicle fleet is worth it.