Kathryn Trounson
Chairperson
022 174-9110
kathryn@betternz.org

A Best Buy for a BEV with a Big Asterisk

It’s been a long road for the Nissan Leaf. Introduced in 2011, the Leaf was the first mass-market all-electric vehicle and, despite other EV upstarts making gains, the best-selling electric car in history with more than 450,000 sold worldwide. (ed: including being the most registered EV in New Zealand.) It’s won about every award for green automobiles, including the World Green Car award twice.*

* All-new 2018 Nissan LEAF named "2018 World Green Car" by the World Car Awards.

[Full report from Gary Lieber - Clean Technica - 15 Jun 2019] 

Brandenburg Gate, Berlin

The penultimate race in the Voestalpine European Trophy Races was held in Berlin in the historic Tempelhof Airport yesterday.

It is also the fourth to last race in the overall ABB FIA Formula E 2018/19 series.

Premieres at Cannes Film Festival at 18:45 on Thursday, May 23 at the Salle 60eme.

'And We Go Green' is a documentary showcasing how competition drives technological development and how the excitement of sport can have a meaningful social impact and alter perceptions of electric vehicles.

Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVDgoUlzIMU

Is BMW still relevant in 2019?

[editorial by Rachelle Tilsley]

The subject of what’s been happening to BMW’s sustainability focus over the past five years, since they released the fully electric i3, is often debated.

With the release of the i3, they had the lead on their competitors as an electromobility pioneer. Then they seemed to fritter that away with a lack of progression, while other manufacturers charged on ahead.

But is that really the case? Let’s take a closer look at BMW.

2019 MONACO E-PRIX (RD 9)

VERGNE KEEPS ROWLAND AT BAY AROUND MONACO HARBOUR

We're seeing the German "research" recently published in the Brussels Times popping up in media everywhere now. It claims that actually, "Electric Vehicles in Germany Emit More CO2 Than Diesel Ones."  This headline alone is enough to convince those, who would dearly love to see electric vehicles fade away like a bad dream after you turn the lights on. 

It's unfortunate that the article has been reprinted around the world.

A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.

The Better NZ Trust is republishing the following article so that our stance on the matter is clear. In 2015 the NZ government department, EECA, commissioned a life-cycle analysis of the environmental impact of electric vehicles compared to internal combustion engine vehicles using either petrol or diesel. The (peer-reviewed) report confirmed that EVs are better for the New Zealand environment than the fossil fuel powered vehicles, across the life-cycle of the vehicle as well as while in use. And the situation is only getting better as our energy is getting cleaner, and battery tech is improving. Read that report summary here.

Here's what the rest of the world has to say...

2019 ABB FIA Formula E Racing News

2019 PARIS E-PRIX

Frijns Takes First Win in Formula-E after Frantic Race in French Capital

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.

Mitch Wins for NZ and Panasonic Jaguar Racing

The ABB FIA Formula E Championship now heads to Paris for the second instalment of the voestalpine European races on April 27.

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.

All-Electric Car Sales In UK Doubled Again In February 2019

London Wins Right to Host Formula E Next Season

It's Official. While Auckland was twiddling its thumbs on the subject, London has streaked ahead and scored the Series that this year is proving to be so much more popular than it has in the past.

Set to take place around the city's iconic Royal Docks and ExCeL London, the drivers will navigate their way around a one-of-a-kind track indoor/outdoor 2.4km clockwise circuit around Royal Victoria Dock. 

Consisting of 23 corners, the track layout will see the drivers run along the Thames waterfront for the season finale double-header of the 2019/20 campaign on July 25 & 26 2020 - subject to circuit homologation and approval of the FIA World Motor Sport Council.

Timaru 12 Year Old Wins Contest in Protest About Petrol Cars and Bullying

Oli Kirke's protest against petrol cars and bullying has earned him the top prize for his age group in a Department of Conservation writing competition.

The 12-year-old Grantlea Downs School pupil won the age 11-14 category of the summer writing competition hosted by DOC's Arthur's Pass branch, for his short story Goodbye Dino-juice.

The story, set in 2024, follows a 1950s Cadillac named Bailey as he leaks petrol and yearns to stop "destroying this planet". Nople, the latest Tesla Model X, teases him for his "stinky old butt" until he stands up to her - after which she fits him with an electric motor.

Oli said his story was a protest hoped to encourage people to swap their petrol cars for electric, and to put more effort into understanding and helping each other.

Vector and Chargetrip Partner to Ease Anxiety Amongst EV Owners at Busy Charging Stations

New Zealand's EV Owners are getting a welcome boost from New Zealand's largest Energy distributor Vector who has teamed up with Dutch start-up Chargetrip.

Range Anxiety vs Charge Anxiety

Range anxiety is a term often used to describe the stress EV users experience when their destination is or could be further than their car battery’s range, and they fear they could end up stranded on the side of the road. Charge anxiety is caused by the uncertainty of waiting lines at charge stations. Both are considered major barriers keeping people from switching to electric driving.

To put more control and freedom in the hands of EV users, Vector and Chargetrip are adapting a popular EV journey planning app for the New Zealand market, that equips EV drivers with journey planning information that is tailored to them, their trip, and their EV.

Topography and Weather will be taken into account when calculating range

The app is based on the popular Chargetrip service used by more than 50,000 EV drivers in Norway—which has the largest number of EV users per capita in the world. The app will offer Kiwi EV drivers route planning and navigation guidance, suggesting the optimal charge stops along the way.

To help fund the app’s adaptation to the New Zealand market, Vector and Chargetrip have been awarded a grant from Elemental Excelerator (Elemental)—a growth accelerator that has funded more than 50 projects globally.

Vector’s Group Chief Executive Simon Mackenzie said, “We are thrilled to be partnering with Chargetrip, with support from Elemental, to create a tool that improves the overall experience for EV owners, who we know have very different needs compared to drivers of internal combustion engines.

“Vector has long been committed to stimulating and facilitating uptake of EVs in New Zealand and we have a network of EV chargers in Auckland. We have invested in new EV related technologies such as Vehicle-to-Home, which allows EV’s to become mobile sources of energy and we are now excited to be working towards improving the user experience for EV drivers,” Simon said.

The app will also inform people about their CO2 savings per journey and will be compatible with every EV type regardless of make, model or configuration.

The app will include information for public charging locations throughout New Zealand, their availability (to help avoid queues), as well as real-time assessment of the environmental factors that can impact EV batteries, such as topography and temperature.

It will utilise data from NZ Transport Agency’s EVRoam database of public EV charging infrastructure. EVRoam collects data directly from electric vehicle charging infrastructure providers and freely distributes it to a wide range of transport maps, apps and websites.

Chargetrip's CEO Gideon van Dijk said, “Electric mobility is a crucial catalyst in the renewable energy transition. We are excited to partner with Vector and Elemental, who both have an impressive track record at moving the needle. Range anxiety, waiting lines, and complex logistics are some of the biggest hurdles to rapid EV adoption. We are committed to solving these barriers and empowering drivers to make the switch to a cleaner transportation.”

Ramsay Siegal, Elemental Excelerator’s Managing Director said, “We are proud to partner with Vector, a global leader in energy innovation, and help Chargetrip scale its pioneering smart navigation technology. This project is a perfect example of how startups and utilities can collaborate for transformative change, and we're excited to share lessons from New Zealand to support faster EV adoption worldwide.”

ORIX New Zealand has launched a new initiative—ORIX NZ EVi—aimed at pushing electric vehicles into NZ fleets. 

They are now offering a programme where businesses with 16 or more lease vehicles on an ORIX Sole Supply agreement the opportunity to upgrade one of their fleet’s vehicles to a selected electric vehicle at the same lease rate as the fossil fuel equivalent. This has become possible, thanks to co-funding from the Government's Low Emission Vehicles Contestable Fund, administered by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) 

The Orix NZ EVi programme will include the installation of an AC charging unit at the business premises free of charge and provide opening charging credit.

The aim for the project is to remove many of the barriers businesses face when attempting to incorporate an electric vehicle into their fleet.

ORIX has seen increasing interest in adding electric vehicles to fleets but they claim the reality is that the majority of those businesses are reluctant to invest the higher upfront costs. By removing the additional cost of an electric vehicle, the cost of the charging unit and by handling most of the admin, ORIX is hoping to eliminate the barriers. This will integrate electric vehicles into a wider range of businesses over a three year period, giving them the opportunity to experience and fully evaluate an electric vehicle for their organisation.

The Better NZ Trust agrees with Orix and EECA, of the importance of getting electric cars into business fleets. This will ensure a flourishing second-hand EV market in the years to come, making sustainable transport affordable for a wider range of NZers. 

[Rachelle Tilsley - 10 Feb 2019]

image supplied by Orix NZ

Good infrastructure is seen as essential to the promotion of EV sales and use in NZ. 

image PAUL SHERLEY/BMW NZ

[David Linklater - Stuff - 30 Jan 2019]

The latest round of the Government's Low Emission Vehicles Contestable Fund has once again thrown the spotlight on New Zealand's charging infrastructure.

The fund, which provides up to $7 million per year to contribute up to half of project costs to promote the uptake of Electric Vehicles (EVs), named Ngai Tahu Tourism as one of its recipients.

Partnering with ChargeNet, Ngai Tahu will install DC fast chargers at key tourist spots including Franz Josef Glacier, Queenstown and Glenorchy.

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]

Holiday parks in New Zealand are putting their money where their mouth is with the installation of 54 electric vehicle charge points in 24 holiday parks around the country, encouraging the use of electric vehicles.

Fourteen holiday parks in the North Island and 10 in the South Island are now offering 22kW AC charge points, which provide relatively fast charge for vehicles in lieu of installing expensive DC chargers.

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. 

[Alex Stone - Waiheke Weekender - 10 Jan 2019]

The goal for the recently announced initiative on Waiheke, "Electric Island", is for a totally clean island in terms of transport and power supply by 2030.

In an article in Waiheke Weekender, dated 10 January, local EV Owner, Alex Stone, talks to other Islanders including The Better NZ Trust's own Carl Barlev, and the owners of Easy Transport, a (nearly) EV-only taxi service on the island.

Read Full Article here.

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.