Car share scheme closer
Car sharing schemes are a step closer in Nelson after councillors approved a draft policy allowing the free use of up to 42 car parking spaces for the service.
Nelson City Council climate change manager David Measures told councillors that car sharing was a different model to car rentals, with cars rented hourly rather than daily.
He said car sharing allowed people to take a car further afield, which would be too expensive to do by taxi.
But the concept sparked debate in the council chambers on Friday. Councillor Matthew Benge was concerned it “flies in the face of our new bus service”, and may affect taxis. “It doesn’t always pay to be a pioneer … it’s often better to stand back and watch for a bit.”
Councillor Tim Skinner said car parks were tough to come by, and that the council already provided spots for carpooling.
“The headline should be in the paper, ‘Council wants to reduce car ownership’ … it sounds to me like a World Economic Forum policy that we are moving into here.”
Skinner said providing the car parking free of charge for a commercial company would result in $22,000 to $71,000 of lost revenue.
Measures said the figure of 42 car parks would be if the companies reached maximum capacity. Nine car parks would be provided at the start, six of which would be for EVs, and as the companies expanded, they would be allocated more car parking spaces. One car share vehicle could potentially get 10 other vehicles off the road, freeing up car parking spaces, Measures said.
Councillor Matty Anderson was more enthused about the scheme. Anderson said he had been thinking about moving towards becoming a one vehicle household, but as the owner of a $6000 Mazda “loser cruiser” with a one-star energy rating, he couldn’t afford an EV.
Both the founders of Mevo were from Nelson, he said, and the city was “lucky” that they wanted to set up here.
Group manager strategy and communications Nicky McDonald said the draft policy was not a contract with any companies. Anyone who wants can come and take advantage of what the policy allows.”
McDonald told councillors that in a workshop on the policy, the preference was not to include internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, and that the draft policy only referred to EVs and hybrids.
However, that meant it would be “very unlikely” for a car sharing scheme to establish, as there was very little charging infrastructure. Staff put forward a recommendation that would allow ICE vehicles to be part of the fleet for the first two years of their operation. Even if these vehicles were not predominately EVs, there was still some benefit to Nelson, as users swapped out old vehicles for new ones, lowering emissions, McDonald said.
Measures said said staff had spoken to the two major car sharing companies – Cityhop and Mevo – which had reported the cost of renting an EV was higher than an entry level ICE vehicle.
That meant those in the lowest socio economic group would not be able to afford an EV, but could afford an entry level ICE vehicle, with a 36% reduction in emissions compared to the average vehicle, he said.
Deputy mayor Rohan O’Neill-Stevens attempted to move an amendment removing the requirement for the shared vehicles to be EVs or hybrids, and asking for the policy to be reviewed after two years, and at least every five years subsequently.
O’Neill-Stevens said it felt “weird to be arguing for ICEs”, but the reason for that was to support this mode to succeed.
Smith spoke against the amendment, arguing that there was some “confused thinking” around it.
“I think we should stick to our guns and have a very clear direction in our car sharing policy that we want to move to zero emission vehicles as quickly as possible, and with the two year’s grace, there’s ample capacity to do that.”
The amendment was lost six to seven.