EV owners enjoy filling up at home

For one small but growing group of Kiwi motorists, filling up at the petrol station has become a thing of the past.

The latest findings of an ongoing survey of electric vehicle owners has found 92 per cent opt to charge up at home, which they find fast, reliable and easily fitting into their daily schedules.

Hundreds of EV owners sharing data as part of the “Flip the Fleet” citizen science reported how charging could quickly become habit.

“It’s just as easy as charging my phone each night,” one said. “The whole act of filling up is so time consuming — getting into the car, driving to the station, filling up, paying . . . it’s like the old days of having to go to the Post Office to make a telephone call,” wrote another.

The Flip the Fleet project, partly funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Curious Minds initiative, aims to dispel myths about EVs by collecting data from owners from around the country.

Participants receive monthly emails reminding them to upload mileage, charging patterns, the last trip taken and other data.

Wellington EV Owners Group member Sigurd Magnusson has also polled owners on how and where they charge their vehicles.

“EV owners particularly enjoy not having to interrupt their drive home or make a special trip to a petrol station,” he said.

As at May, there were more than 3500 EVs in New Zealand, compared with fewer than 200 four years before, and pure EVs were now outselling plug-in hybrids.