Kathryn Trounson
Chairperson
022 174-9110
[email protected]

How would an EV fair attempting the Targa Rally?

Graeme Fenemor decided to find out and wrote this account of this experience.

Auckland kicked off what we hope will be many meetups for any EV interested humans this month.

Our thanks to Auckland City Electric Vehicles for hosting this month and putting on the fancy supper.

The 2022 RoadTrip - 18 -23^rd April; 7 adults and 2 children in 6 EVs drove a Northland loop from Auckland and back, covering just under 1,000 km in 6 days.  The Hamilton based car, an Ioniq 5 owned by Vanessa and Robert Nicholls, managed 1,250km by the time it returned to its base! the other travellers were Mark Buckingham in his Model 3, Sean and new tripper Adrian in Model S’s and Margaret Baker and myself in Konas.

Several years ago EV drivers fitted into only a small number of categories. The largest probably either a fanatical enthusiast or devout greenie.

And you would never find one available through a rental company. Those days are gone, people from any group you may think of, except the diehard petrol heads, of course, are likely to be EV owners.

If you are used to driving an EV, it is highly likely you would be looking for one to rent to get around on holiday. Who wants to go back to expensive to run, noisy vibrating vehicles after you have had an EV any period of time.

The Ministry of Transport is currently re-visiting the RUC legislation, in light of the uptake of EVs in NZ and the need for all road users to contribute to the National Land Transport Fund, which maintains the country's roading network.

EVs have been exempt and will only start paying something on 1st April 2024. Obviously owners of petrol cars contribute excise duty to the NLTF and diesel owners pay RUC at $76/1,000km as their contribution.

The Trust wants to submit some RUC ideas, but felt that surveying whether EV owners considered the exemption helped their buying decision, would assist us in that endeavour. 

*** UPDATE ***

Thank you to everyone that completed the survey. We received over 500 responses.

A summary of the answers is provided in this PDF attachment.

Survey Results (PDF)

As a member of GEVA the Trust gets to experience the EV landscape from all around the world.  In the last meeting Patrick Renau from Catalonia showed a map of Europe with EVs/100,000 head of population.

As we would all expect Norway is head and shoulders ahead of the pack, but I immediately wanted to work out the NZ figure as a comparison. We are at 727 - using 37,000 EVs and a population of 5,084,000 (2020 figure), which I think is pretty good considering our distance from everywhere!

Many thanks to Patrick at the 'Catalan Association for Electric Vehicles' for allowing me to share this schematic.

A trip by William Stewart. 

I just got back to Christchurch from a trip to Nelson and I made a video about bridging the gap of 200km between fast chargers in the Lewis pass in my Nissan Leaf.

Usually, with my electric vehicle road trip videos, I like to show how easy it is to drive with an electric car. This is not that, we took the road less travelled, which resulted in a total charging time greater than the trip itself! But the reason for that is that it's about the journey, not just the time it takes you to get there.

Andy Bassett, A Leaf owner from Taranaki, has put together a great article to show all those supposed barriers to EV adoption are really more perception than reality!  But then most EV owners would know that - but sometimes a cogently written article is easier to point to, when you are in an EV discussion!  This is that article!

With many thanks to both Andy and Live magazine where this article was originally published late last year!

The reason Andy bought a Leaf was via the redoubtable Margaret Baker and her 2020 RoadTrip travelling companion Sheri O'Neill, Andy's singing partner who lives in Northland! At the RoadTrip Sunday breakfast meet, organised by Stephen Hobo-Tuck, Andy experienced an EV ride and the resulting chat! Convinced by that chat Andy bought his Leaf. 

In another '2 degrees of separation' moment the article was published by Live, which is published by Irena Brooks, Stephen's sister! Proving yet again, if proof were needed, that NZ is just a largish village!

https://livemagazine.co.nz/evs-demystified/

The total, (or gross) capacity of a battery pack is the amount of energy it can store when it's fully charged to 100% The usable capacity is how much energy the user is allowed to access. The usable capacity vs. the total capacity can vary depending on the battery chemistry as some types of lithium-ion batteries are better suited to be charged to 100%, while others will degrade faster if the battery is frequently charged to 100%

National Park Rangers on Loch Lomond can now be seen but not heard – as they cruise the water on a new fully electric boat.  The zero direct emissions vessel is the latest addition to the National Park Authority’s marine fleet and is believed to be the first of its kind in the UK.

In March this year, Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park Authority committed to becoming a net zero organisation by 2030.  Unlike the distinctive hum heard from a traditional diesel powered boat, the electric maintenance boat is almost silent as it moves across the loch, creating less disturbance to surrounding wildlife and zero water pollution.

The boat is three times more efficient than a traditional petrol or diesel boat.

This is the submission the Trust made to the Clean Car Package proposals:-

The Better NZ Trust is very much in favour of NZ adopting the Clean Car Package proposed in this Amendment Bill. However we suggest that the proposed annual emission targets within this legislation could and should be more ambitious. The time for slow and steady action has passed; we acknowledge that ambitious targets will mean that many elements of our society will feel some of the pain.

For Type A vehicles we feel that the initial figure of 145 gm/km from January 2023 is just not low enough to achieve the emissions reductions we seek.  The new figures are less drastic than those offered in the 2019 proposal, and the Trust would suggest that such weaker target figures cannot help but drag out the transition we need.

Please return to the 2019 proposed figures for emission targets in the transport sector – or better if possible.

The first leg on this year’s Better NZ Trust's #LeadingtheCharge Roadtrip started quietly, as EVs tend to do, on the morning of the 6th of October. Clouds of uncertainty, both metaphorical and literal,  surrounded the trip with the spectre of COVID lingering in the air to the north.  The lockdown measures slowing the spread of COVID have had many impacts, in this case resulting in a non-stop drive though the Auckland region for a number of our comrades, and the absence of many.

The weather Gods turned on a glorious Hawke’s Bay morning for us as we prepared to leave Gisborne for the East Cape leg of the Better NZ Trust Leading The Charge EV Road Trip 2021.

Gisborne to Te Kaha, 260km.

This was the 5th day of a trip, somewhat curtailed due to Covid, that had started in Taupo. Our remaining crew consisted of myself (Margaret Baker in EEEVEE the famous Hyundai Kona), Peter Karl (Tesla Model 3), Mark Buckingham (Tesla Model 3) and his daughter Snow (5), Tim Gutteridge and Phil Pingram (Tesla Model X) and Jasper the dog (English Pointer).

We started the day with a short drive to the top of the Titirangi Scenic Reserve and the WWII Gun Emplacement for spectacular views of the bay, Young Nick’s Head, Mahia Peninsula and beyond. By now it was well and truly time for breakfast so we popped in to Zephyr Wainui for what was the healthiest meal we had eaten all trip - and delicious. And vegan.

Malcolm Macpherson recently purchased a new Ioniq 5 from Central Otago Hyundai in Cromwell.

We asked him to give us his impressions.

The South Island loop concludes...

Cromwell to Naseby/Ranfurly

A beautiful morning from Kinloch and an awesome road to Cromwell.

From Te Anau or Lumsden to Kinloch...

Te Anau to Milford and Lumsden...

From Bluff to Te Anau today...

Declaration: (you can also sign it here)

Global EV Drivers’ Alliance Challenge to World Leaders

We, the undersigned electric vehicle drivers from around the world, are calling on leaders from the 26 countries represented in the Global EV Drivers’ Alliance to commit that 100% of sales of new light-duty vehicles will be battery electric or plug-in hybrid by 2030. We make this challenge as global leaders prepare for the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow from 31 October to 12 November 2021. 

Climate change is already having a devastating impact on our planet, causing glaciers to melt, sea levels to rise, harsher droughts and heat waves, and stronger tropical cyclones and hurricanes. This has led to significant loss of life, impacts on human health and environmental destruction which will only get worse in the coming years. We must take action now to mitigate the effects of greenhouse gas emissions.

Transportation accounts for 24% of global CO2 emissions, with road vehicles accounting for nearly 75% of that. We must shift from burning fossil fuels to vehicles running on clean, renewable electricity. This has never been more urgent than it is today.

We urge leaders to commit to 100% of new light-duty vehicles being powered by electricity by the end of this decade. Plug-in vehicles do not have a tailpipe and do not emit dangerous greenhouse gases, making them much healthier for our communities and our planet.

This target is entirely achievable. Automakers are investing now to rapidly shift to EVs. In fact, EVs have quickly gained more than 10% market share in many European countries and enjoy a 60% market share in Norway. Supportive policies, including purchase incentives and robust charging infrastructure, are necessary to help consumers switch to plug-in electric vehicles.

Our planet and its inhabitants will not survive if we do not take urgent, decisive action now, when we are gathered in Glasgow. We simply cannot wait. 

Commit to a plug on every light-duty vehicle by 2030.

Will Hunter has set out to implode the myth that EVs can't tow by demonstrating the towing capabilities of the Nissan Leaf - truly a workhorse of an EV!

It can't be emphasised enough, though, that towing anything with any car, be it petrol diesel or electric, does reduce the range - and if you think about it that is an absolute given - the laws of physics do not and cannot lie! 

Watch them go in this video!

Lithium is crucial for the transition to renewables, but mining it has been environmentally costly.

Now a more sustainable source of lithium has been found deep beneath the ground in the UK.

21 June 2021

The NZDF plugging into more electric vehicles 

The NZDF is boosting its fleet of civilian electric vehicles (EVs). The Government’s State Sector Decarbonisation Fund recently announced $13.1 million of funding for more EVs.

Driving an EV changes the way you live in more ways than one

Global EV Drivers’ Alliance formed by 37 EV driver associations around the world

Electric car use is one of the cornerstones of the Climate Commission's advice to the government on how to become carbon neutral, but how feasible is it?

This was the question posed by  RNZ reporter, Harry Lock, last week, in the run up to the Govt announcements regarding the new 'feebate' system of yesterday.

I show the article in full, with some comments rebutting many of the opinions featured.

A new EV podcast, created by Martin Kane and Alex Shepherd is collecting stories from New Zealand Tesla owners and is aiming to add the human side to the Social Media profile pics.