Electric tour plugs benefits
High-profile American electric vehicle advocate Chelsea Sexton does not own an EV.
Surrounded by different models of the vehicles on Tuesday in Nelson, Sexton confessed she still had a petrol car.
‘‘I actually do a lot of volunteer time so I’m still saving for my first electric car but I also only drive about 50 miles [80km] in a month so I’m the one who’s on the verge of getting rid of the car ... rather than necessarily buying another one. I live in a squaremile town and I walk a lot.
‘‘I won’t buy any more petrol cars but I’m sort of eking out my 15-year-old petrol car and then my next one will be electric.’’
Sexton was in the Nelsontasman region as part of the fourth annual Leading the Charge EV tour from Bluff to Cape Reinga, organised by Better NZ Trust.
Vehicles in the 2018 tour include the Hyundai Ioniq, BMW i3, Nissan Leaf and Tesla. A Renault Zoe was also part of the lineup in Nelson along with an electric campervan.
Sexton was also part of the 2016 tour and said both the number and variety of EVS in New Zealand had grown.
The Government also ‘‘seemed interested’’ in education and awareness of EVS, ‘‘supporting events like this, getting the word out, making brochures’’.
‘‘People can’t buy and they can’t try what they don’t know about,’’ Sexton said. ‘‘Product availability is challenge number one and education and awareness is challenge number two and that’s where the Government really seems to have gotten behind that effort.’’
Around the world, the EV revolution had been led by consumers and advocates more than by industry or government.
‘‘It’s one of the only cases in the auto industry or even any retail product in which that’s true,’’ Sexton said. ‘‘The auto makers mostly say: When we see demand for electric cars, we’ll start to build them. And yet, you’d never have had Steve Jobs saying that about an iphone.’’
If a government used EVS for its fleet, it could have a huge effect.
‘‘It makes auto makers more comfortable because from their standpoint, they see it as a guaranteed sale, it supports the idea of building more cars ... and it’s a leadership visibility aspect from the public standpoint so the more people see these cars running around, no matter who’s driving them, the more they accept them as normal,’’ Sexton said.
Better NZ Trust chairwoman Kathryn Trounson said that when the tour started in 2015, it involved three cars and four people. In 2018, seven vehicles and 10 people were taking part in the entire tour with others joining for different legs.
‘‘It’s just a way of showing people that electric vehicles can go anywhere and everywhere,’’ Trounson said of the tour. ‘‘People can go for a ride in a Tesla but we also want the general public to drive either the Ioniq or the Leaf or the little Renault Zoe because we realise the only way to get people to understand how great they are is to drive them.’’
Trounson and her husband got an EV three years ago – a BMW i3 first.
‘‘Then we got the Tesla and ... they are just so amazing.’’ There was also a ‘‘feel good’’ factor because the cars were not pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Trounson said she believed there were more than 7000 EVS nationally, up from about 38 in 2013.