EVs part of sustainability journey

A new survey shows early EV adopters bought them for environmental reasons and values, but the switch to electric has driven them further along a sustainable path.

These findings come from the latest monthly survey by Flip the Fleet, a citizen science coalition of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle owners that upload vehicle data to a communal database.

Over half (59%) of the 312 respondents “strongly agreed” or “agreed” owning an EV spurred them to take other steps towards a more sustainable life, like reducing waste, planting trees, reducing air travel and especially installing solar panels.

“Mainly environmentalists have bought electric vehicles so far, but even these committed greenies have gone harder to reduce their environmental footprint since buying their EVs,” Flip the Fleet co-founder Professor Henrik Moller says.

He says the biggest challenge ahead for New Zealand “is to convince people to buy EVs for their other benefits, such as low running costs”.
“Once mainstream families and businesses buy EVs, they also start to become more aware of other ways that they can help the environment at the same time as scoring a cheap, reliable, and really good drive.

“Installing solar panels is a natural next step once you have an EV, or a good added reason to buy one in the first place. Reducing personal air travel is a lot harder for many.”

Flip the Fleet calculates the monthly savings of greenhouse gas emissions from each family’s car, and the equivalent in terms of off-setting air travel.

“My wife and I blew four years of the savings in greenhouse gas emissions from owning our electric car by going to Europe for a holiday last year – that was a real wake-up call for us to reduce our air miles,” one respondent says.

The way EV owners drive their conventional cars changes too. Survey respondents say; “We now drive it slow and steady” and “When some petrol head barrels past us up the hills, we snigger. If they only knew how much they added to their fuel bill by driving like teenagers they might slow down”.

Many other owners see buying an EV as the end of a well-advanced journey to become more sustainable.

“It was the other way around for me. Becoming less wasteful, then installing solar, spurred me towards getting an electric car,” one says.

The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) says the survey results are encouraging and energywise.govt.nz

has information about transitioning to a more efficient, warmer and lower carbon lifestyle. The site includes a solar calculator.

Visit flipthefleet.org

for more information.