GREAT EV ROAD TRIP 2019 - THE DIARY

[by Rachelle Tilsley and guest contributors]

CONTENTS

Click the read more link to scroll through each days' diary entry.

The automotive world is changing and some commercial entities are quickly recognising the opportunities that this will bring. One of these businesses is Repco New Zealand.

Repco New Zealand is proudly supporting the #LeadingTheCharge 2019 Great EV Road Trip.

"Now in its 5^th season, this is a fantastic annual event for Repco to be part of," says Richelle Ashman, Marketing Manager NZ. "Repco recognises Electric vehicles (EVs) are becoming a popular choice for New Zealand drivers."

Repco has been providing New Zealanders with what they need to get their vehicle road ready for over 95 years. Repco leads the charge in the automotive parts aftermarket, which makes Repco a fitting partner to the #LeadingTheCharge 2019 Great EV Road Trip.

If you are coming along to a Leading The Charge event in Dunedin, Christchurch, Palmerston North, Auckland and Whangarei, be sure to pick up a Repco voucher to save on your next purchase at you nearest Repco store.

I used my voucher to buy seat covers for my BMW. Thanks Repco.

Taupo turned on glorious weather for the 2019 Road Trippers.

After the cancellation of the Rotorua Night Market due to inclement weather, the Great EV Road Trip 2019 began at stop 2 – Taupo – on the Colonel Roberts Reserve, right in the heart of the eating quarter of Taupo – and on the waterfront. 

BREAKING NEWS: AFTER A PENALTY, THERE HAS BEEN A CHANGE IN PODIUM PLACINGS (SEE END)

Race 5 of the season was the 50^th Formula E race and it was therefore fitting that the series was back in China where the very first Formula E race was held. Although that race was in Beijing while this 5^th race of Season 5 was on the waterfront streets of downtown Hong Kong. It was also the 50^th Formula E race for veteran Brazilian driver, Lucas di Grassi (Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler)

The rain held off yet again, but the track was in various degrees of wet and dry from an earlier downpour, making driving tricky especially over the painted areas of the street track which become like ice when wet.  The track had 10 turns, six to the right and four to the left with mixed surfaces.

It was a game of cat and mouse between German, Andre Lotterer driving for DS Techeetah and Briton Sam Bird of Envision Virgin Racing, which ultimately ended in contact with Bird's claws causing a tyre blow-out.

British driver Sam Bird wins at Santiago for the Envision Virgin Racing team, making him the only driver to have a win in every season of Formula E.  Unaware that he was under investigation for being underweight during his post-race weigh-in, he accepted his trophy and fortunately was eventually cleared.

On the podium it was (1^st) Sam Bird (Envisage Virgin Racing), (2^nd) Pascal Wehrlein (Mahindra Racing), (3^rd) Daniel Abt (Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler). Abt also got the points for fastest lap, and received one of the five fanboosts.

EV-Sales is a blog created by Jose Pontes, which tracks plug-in (PEV) sales all over the world, ranking countries and manufacturers by sales.

It's a labour-intensive job, with some countries, like NZ, freely publishing this raw data, but in others the data can sometimes be very difficult to come by. Nevertheless, he manages to produce data on about 80 models in 40 markets, twice a year.  When the #LeadingTheCharge team are looking for sales data of NZ-new PEV, this has been a major source of information for us, and therefore probably of interest to our 13,000 registered members.

Leading The Charge now boasts a Membership of 13,000.

NZ's 2018 EOY has just been published at EV-Sales. In summary, New Zealand is +31% for December 2018 compared to December 2017, and +56% for yr-2018 compared to yr-2017. I'll transcribe the New Zealand specific results in full below this introduction. 

Meanwhile, the EV-Sales blog is a subset of EV-Volumes. EV-Volumes, based in Sweden, collects data on more than just sales. They are tracking: Products, prices, batteries, charging infrastructure, regulations and incentives globally. A quote from their website, reads:

"We share a passion for EVs and their ability to make life easier and more sustainable.  EVs offer unmatched energy efficiency, operating cost and cleanness. We believe in their potential to make automobiles the most entertaining, comfortable, purposeful and affordable we ever had.

"Finding the facts in this emerging, dynamic industry can be very time consuming, often impossible. And it is not likely to be your core business either. We made it ours and want to share our knowledge with you."

 

Just a few important notes to keep in mind when reading this data.

1. It is important to differentiate between sales and total fleet numbers. This is a record of sales year-on-year, not total fleet numbers. So while NZ may be heading towards a 3% of national fleet in new registrations, that does not necessarily mean we have 3% of the total fleet. 

2. NZ's vehicle market is largely driven by used imports. Our biggest selling PEV is the Nissan LEAF. In 2018, these were 100% imported, so don't win a podium spot. Though rumour has it that Nissan will begin selling NZ-new LEAFs in mid-late 2019.

3. While to NZ'ers low-speed vehicles may seem unimportant, from a global climate POV, they are terribly important when used in high population density countries like China and India. The shift to electric NEV in these huge numbers is gradually making a positive impact on inner-city pollution in China. This is especially so, in those regions of China which generate largely renewable sources of electricity to power them.

[Rachelle Tilsley - Leading The Charge - 26 Jan 2019]

It was anybody's game in Marrakesh during the 2nd Race of the 2019 ABB FIA Formula E Series last night. 

Attack Activation Zone in the forefront of this image of the Marrakesh Street Track. Drivers need to turn on attack mode and activate it by taking the corner wide passing over the red and blue lines. Attack mode at Marrakesh lasts 4 minutes and gives an extra 25kW power.

New Zealander, Mitch Evans, got off to a great start, winning a practice race and breaking the track record with a time of 1.17.22. While he didn’t get the extra series point that he would have if he’d won fastest lap during the main race, it was enough for him to comfortably make it into the top six for the qualifying races. In these he just managed to retain a spot in the top six and was therefore eligible to compete in the Julius Baer Super Pole shoot out.

From that point on nothing went right for the Panasonic Jaguar team. In the Super Pole race, Evans overshot the braking-point unable to make the corner at turn six and driving off track into the skate way. By the time he got back on track, he trailed a miserable 17+ seconds behind the pole position. Having already qualified in the top six, Evans still retained his third-row starting post alongside BMW i Andretti Motorsport's Alex Sims who made good time but placed 5th in the Super Pole.

Evan's teammate, Brazilian Nelson Piquet Jn was starting in ninth position followed by Mahindra Racing's Jerome d'Ambrosio.

WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW

Unable to wait on government, Vector has begun publishing its own series of Guides on EV Charging. The first much-needed guide will be aimed at multi-dwelling complexes. This how-to guide is designed to make it easier for tenants and residents of business, commercial and apartment buildings to install EV charging facilities. 

Lines company, Vector Limited is New Zealand's leading electricity distributor and is largely owned by Auckland householders, via Entrust.

“EV popularity continues to skyrocket, with the number of EVs on New Zealand roads almost doubling year-on-year,” said Vector’s Head of Engineering, Cristiano Marantes.

“By demystifying the process and making it easier for people to charge their EVs, we expect to see to see more businesses adopt them as part of their company fleet,” he said. 

NZ EV Registrations: Just Shy of 12K mark

Figures released yesterday by the Ministry of Transport have final numbers of electric vehicles registered in NZ as of 2018 year-end at 11,748. This comfortably exceeds the Government's target of 8,000. 

Continuing the trend, light electric far outweighs heavy EV. Interestingly though, BEV has more than double the number of registrations as PHEV on an increasing trend year on year.

It is apparent that 2019 will be an exciting year for EV releases in LHD and some, in RHD, hopefully filtering down to the NZ market.

But even more exciting in 2019, will be the expected announcements of delivery dates for a whole raft of BEVs likely to be released in 2020/21. Experts predict that 2020/21 will be when EV finally becomes a viable alternative for the bulk of the driving population because there will be an EV model suited to almost anybody. That's not to say the bulk of the market will choose an EV, but that there will be less holding them back.

Before then, we have a few new cars hitting the international market and a few notable models finally reaching NZ in 2019.

VW Buzz (concept), due to go on sale in 2022

First up, let's look at those models that have already been released, but to the best of our knowledge are expected to reach NZ shores in 2019.

[Rachelle Tilsley - Better NZ Trust - 31/12/18]