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] 

FRIDAY 2nd May 2019, 9AM - 5PM

TRADE DAY
DAY 2 CONFERENCE

EV World will throw open its doors on the Friday to industry and trade. 

If you work in the automotive or related fields, media, or you make fleet decisions, come along today, when the halls will be quieter and you can get a chance to speak one-on-one with the stand holders.

Better NZ Trust will have a manned stand in the main exhibition hall near the main doors. Come and talk to us about us visiting your workplace, so your staff can experience driving an EV.

We will also be offering free rides and drives near Gate 3, so you can experience the difference driving or riding in an electric powered car yourself.

Entrance is free on the Friday, but pre-registration is expected. For more information and to register your attendance go here https://www.conferenz.co.nz/events/evworld-nz-2019 Entrance into the Trade Expo does not gain you entrance into the Industry Conference being held elsewhere in the facility.

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LEADING THE CHARGE VOLUNTEERS - WE NEED YOU TODAY
Please register your interest on our Facebook event listing.

2019 MONACO E-PRIX (RD 9)

VERGNE KEEPS ROWLAND AT BAY AROUND MONACO HARBOUR

2019 ABB FIA Formula E Racing News

2019 PARIS E-PRIX

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

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.

All-Electric Car Sales In UK Doubled Again In February 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

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]