Leading the charge can be tiring

This story first appeared in the May issue of EVTalk – CLICK HERE to download the magazine FREE

Touring around the country in a group of electric cars sounds lovely, especially when they are top of the line Teslas.

But it really is just tiring.

I joined the Leading the Charge tour – heading from the top of New Zealand to the bottom last month – at the behest of BMW New Zealand, driving their excellent little i3 plug-in vehicle for two days – joining early on a crisp Palmerston North morning and taking the car through to Wellington.

The travel itself was the easy bit. The cars – with the help of the range of extender in the case of the BMW – easily make the kind of distances we had to cover. It was the interest, and volume of questions from an interested public – that take the time.

Most wanted to know how much the cars cost, how far they go, and how long they took to charge. A few just wanted to try them out for size.

Admittedly the Otaki, Levin and Kapiti Coast events come with a skewed older-demographic, but it was interesting to note the interest from older members of the community in the vehicles. It makes sense when you consider many are keen to eliminate running costs, yet have strong capital on hand, and travel relatively short distances.

Others were generally well educated with young families – again logical when you think of what works in the envelope of a Nissan Leaf.

Visiting wellington with an EV? The CQ Hotels in Cuba Street appear to be the place to be, with enough charging facilities fitted to cater for the entire tour party.

Getting up at 5am to clean a car is no fun, but seven live crosses for breakfast television made it worthwhile for tour organisers. Breakfast’s Sam Wallace is far too enthusiastic in the morning, but it appeared he had genuinely bitten the bug.

If there is a last observation I would make is that grass roots efforts like this by Steve and Dee West’s Better NZ Trust deserve more industry support. BMW New Zealand and Mitsubishi New Zealand supplied tour vehicles, and Renault New Zealand went to great effort to get the new Zoe to Wellington – but aside from a dealer and importer making cars available for display in Wellington there was little else.

Maybe next year and hopefully I will be there, but a little more rested to see it.