EV owners ‘think globally, act locally’
Environment tops reasons for New Zealanders buying electric cars
Kscience iwi electric vehicle owners have cited everything from cheap running costs to Donald Trump in explaining why they’d made the switch.
The latest findings from the ongoing Flip the Fleet citizen science project, which regularly polls hundreds of EV owners nationwide, revealed a range of fascinating motivations for walking away from petrol and diesel-driven cars.
One owner even referred to the role oil had played in conflicts since World War II.
“EV owners tend to think globally and act locally,” said Pam McKinlay, a spokeswoman for the project, which is partly funded by the Government’s Low Emission Vehicles Contestable Fund (LEVCF).
This month’s poll asked EV owners their main reason for buying their cars.
Nearly half of respondents had bought an EV for its green credentials. Many felt a personal and global responsibility to curb greenhouse gas emissions — and one singled out US President Donald Trump as a reason people couldn’t rely upon politicians to combat climate change.
Others expressed a sense of urgency and figured that buying an EV was one of the most practical ways families and businesses could act for our children’s future.
Low running costs was the main attraction for a third of respondents.
The smart technology was the EV’s main pull for 7 per cent of respondents, and 4 per cent, among them an elderly hearing-impaired couple, simply liked the quiet.
“Women and men are equally likely to buy electric, but they tend to do so for different reasons,” Mckinlay said. “Our survey showed that women were more likely to choose EVs for their green credentials, and men were more likely to rate low running costs and the smart technology as their main [attraction].”
Meanwhile, a separate study co-led by Kiwi researchers has found EVs don’t interfere with pacemakers.
Electromagnetic interference (EMI) was known to disrupt the normal function of cardiac implantable electronic devices — causing effects such as resets and unwanted jolts — and EVs had been considered a potential source.
But a study by Wellington Hospital and the German Heart Centre of the Technical University of Munich found no such risk from EVs.
The researchers recruited 108 patients and paired them with one of four electric cars with the largest European market share: the BMW i3, Nissan Leaf, Tesla Model 85S, or the Volkswagen e-up!.
The researchers measured magnetic field strength in and around the cars as participants sat in them during the testing, while two cardiologists independently analysed electrocardiograms to check the pacemakers were functioning properly.
They found no evidence of disruption — something that might owe to shielding designed to prevent interference with onboard computer systems, and could explain the low field strength in the cars.