FROM THE EDITOR

Sometimes I wonder if it is just me, either marching to a different beat to everyone else, or – as I prefer to think of it – travelling in the same direction, and doing so at the same, or at least a very similar pace, just doing so on a (roughly parallel) path of my own choosing, rather than the heavily trafficked main one everyone else is obviously using.

Case in point, the way ‘everyone’ these days seems to be talking about electricity being the ‘fuel’ of our vehicle fleet ‘in the future.’

I started out as an arch critic of the whole ‘everything electric’ thing though I am definitely coming around to the idea that electricity has its place.

You might have seen (on TV) heard (over the radio) or read (in the NZ Herald newspaper, NZ Performance Car magazine, or on local motorsport website Talk Motorsport) about local rally ace Hayden Paddon building a ‘radical new’ EV (Electric Vehicle) rally car.

Coincidentally the launch of the all-new, purpose-built WRC-style machine based loosely on Hyundai’s all-electric Kona SUV, was held in Auckland just a week after I had returned from the official launch of the all-new (and I must say very good) Gen-3 Isuzu D-Max utility at High Peak Station in the foothills of the Southern Alps, west of Ashburton.

There, our host, Simon Guild spoke passionately about how suitable, how ‘fit-for-purpose’ if you like, a modern-day TD DC (Turbo-Diesel, Double Cab) ute is for a business like his.

High Peak Station is more than just a large farm where sheep and cattle are fattened for sale, you see, Simon having built up and now running a trophy hunting operation on a dedicated block in the rugged, scrubby bush ‘n tussock ‘hill block’ part of the property.

To get the ‘high net worth’ hunters to and from the block you have to traverse the ‘Three or Four Day’ track, a pukka 15 or so km slog which zig-zags its way up and up and up to the tops before plunging down roller-coaster style to a creek and – eventually a hut from which most hunting trips are based.

While the trip could be completed in any 4x4 vehicle – from a race-style UTV to a luxury Land Rover Defender, Simon reckons the current-generation of TD DC utes do it best.

To which all I can do is wholeheartedly agree, but wonder – idly – how much better a 100 percent electric version would be.

OK, I can’t see electric Rangers, Hiluxes, Tritons, D-Maxes and Amaroks taking over from current turbo-diesel models any time soon. But I’d bet good money they are already on the drawing board.

And for a bloke like Simon they would be perfect. Think about it. With a fast charger or two on the walls of the old stables building on the property, he could whisk silently the

– 100 or so km – from the Station turn-off at the aptly-named Windwhistle on Highway 77 to Christchurch International Airport, grab a quick recharge while he waits for his clients to clear customs, then impress the hell out of them with the fact that the ‘clean, green’ electricity the vehicle they are in is consuming was generated ‘just down the road’ by the Benmore Dam.

Once back on the property he could then simply plug in the fast charger and be ready come first light to drive – again in virtual silence – the 30 or kms to and from ‘The Hut.’

As rally ace Hayden Paddon said at the official launch of his new EV rally car, “Finding the way to move forward with EV technology is something we identify as being especially important for the future of our sport, not only in New Zealand but globally. If the sport does not respond, it will be left behind commercially and technologically compared to other motorsports.”

Replace the words ‘sport’ and ‘motorsports’ with ‘business’ and the end result could well be the same. ROSS MACKAY EDITOR