More than three-quarters of owners who took part in a new "Flip the Fleet" poll believed cash incentives would be needed if more than half of new vehicle registrations were to be electric by 2025.
Of more than 66,000 new or used light vehicle registrations in the first three months of this year, just over 800 were EVs.
As at last month, New Zealand's EV fleet stood at 9,241 - although that was still a big leap from the 206 EVs recorded at the same time five years ago.
At exactly 197 km from Christchurch and a 100 m steep ascent from the nearest fast charger, Maruia was going to be a challenging test of range for an electric vehicle. I emailed Maruia Hot Springs, who were more than happy for me to plug my car in to charge during our overnight stay, so that took care of the return journey; we just had to get there. ...
Find out in this latest blog by Will Hunter.
[Medium - Will Hunter - 24 Aug 2018]
This week, Opel has revealed its concept car and renewed their intention to release four BEV/PHEV by 2020 and an ambitious complete electrification of its lineup by 2024.
Earlier this year, Opel announced plans to build its own electric cars as its Chevy Bolt EV deal with GM isn’t working out.
The newly unveiled concept car will be released in the competitive Compact SUV segment of the market.
Read Full Article and view more images
[Fred Lambert - Electrek - 23 Aug 2018]
Two of the founders of the Better NZ Trust, Steve and Dee West, were recognised at EV World 2018 for the outstanding work they have put into the EV space in New Zealand.
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One of the most relevant topics for the Better NZ Trust’s #LeadingTheCharge campaign at the EV World conference was the Leaders Panel: Driving Collaboration and Overcoming the Barriers for EV Adoption.
Because if there are legitimate, insurmountable obstacles preventing people from purchasing electric vehicles, then the work the Better NZ Trust carries out, would be as frustrating and futile as taking a child window shopping in a candy store.
The first step in overcoming barriers in EV Adoption is to identify them. And the first speaker in this session was David Vincent who has been doing just that in his role on the government initiated EV Leadership Group. The group is an amalgam of government departments and the industry sector. An initial mandate instilled by former Minister of Transport, Simon Bridges, and reinforced by the Associate Minister of Transport, Julie Anne Genter, was ‘to identify the impediments for the uptake of EVs and make recommendations as to how to get over them.’
Read the full transcripts from the panel discussion below.
To summarise, the main barrier to EV Adoption is in the heavy fleet area, with lithium-ion batteries being impractical for high payload vehicles like tractors. Although stop/start vehicles like rubbish trucks and buses or long-haul semi-trucks are slowly and successfully being introduced.
The second major issue is the high initial purchase price. Used imports are driving uptake and stocks are unlikely to dwindle in the near future, but will eventually be joined by ex-fleet vehicles, buoying the second-hand market.
Other issues that are often touted as prime barriers, such as lack of off-street parking or multi-dwelling buildings will not be a problem with technology already available to overcome these issues or tech that will be available by the time mass adoption occurs.
In the past year, customer EV-IQ has increased with intelligent questions being asked and industry representatives report that their own response to these questions has improved with ongoing training. A recent survey of Mercury customers around the country indicates that nearly 50% of people are seriously considering an EV for their next vehicle purchase.
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Read the 6th part of our series "Busting EV Myths" by clicking this link here
Topics Covered:
Myth: Batteries Have Short Life Spans
Myth: Batteries Can Not Be Recycled
Myth: Lithium is Rare
Professor John Goodenough, celebrated his 95th birthday last year An immigrant to the United States, a World War II veteran, a graduate from Yale University, a physics doctorate from the University of Chicago, a research scientist at MIT, a tenured departmental head at Oxford University, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, an emeritus professor at the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas, Austin, a multi-award recipient, and a multi-society active and honorary member, has been involved in lithium batteries since at least 1980 when he was 57-years of age. Now, at the tender age of 96-years old he continues to develop the field.
A low-cost, safe, high-energy-density, long-life, and low-degradation battery has been designed in a paper co-authored by John Goodenough, Maria Helena Braga, Chandrasekar M Subramaniya, Andrew J. Murchison (all four from the Texas Materials Institute and the Materials Science and Engineering Program at The University of Texas at Austin) and Maria Helena Braga (from LAETA, Engineering Physics Department, FEUP, at the University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.)
It overcomes every single problem of current battery technology. In my (Eric Cosak) opinion, this happens as a result of overcoming both the lithium-ion SEI (solid electrolyte interphase) battery problem and material degradation due to volume expansion.
[Eric Cosak - EV Obsession - 23 July 2018]
