Plugging EVs around the country

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

Another successful annual Leading the Charge Great EV Road Trip is over after nearly 28 days travelling around New Zealand, which organisers estimate engaged about 6000 people.

One of the biggest events was the stop-over at Smales Farm in Takapuna on Auckland’s North Shore about two days before the road trip’s end at Cape Reinga which attracted nearly 600 people, more than 50 riding in an EV and a further 28 driving one.

Getting people to try an EV is one of the main aims of the event organised by the Better NZ Trust which promotes EVs as a sustainable transport option.

And many visitors at similar stops around the country wanted to know more detail about EVs and how an EV would help in their lives, says trust chairperson Kathryn Trounson who, with husband Greg, did the entire road trip in a Hyundai Kona Electric and clocked up 6375km.

“It’s been fun – we get to meet a lot of EV owners up and down the country,” says Trounson, who adds that turnouts were very good.

“I have people come up to me and say: ‘I bought an EV as a result of you being here last year and that’s just been lovely’,” she says.

“It makes you realise we are doing something.
In Bayfair , there were three sets of people who arrived just to tell us they had bought an EV as a result of us being there in a previous year.”

In Palmerston North, nearly 100 people rode in an EV – including a new Jaguar I-Pace – a special moment for people who were able to ride in a car they would have never have otherwise bought, Trounson says.

EV owners, like the one with the I-Pace in Palmerston North, would bring their cars along with many offering visitors rides.

“If you like cars so much, you want other people to experience them.”

One EV owner told EVtalk at Smales Farm he saved about $10,000 on petrol in the last two years.

A diesel driver at the event says he loses about $10,000 annually in taxes and fuel, hence his new interest in EVs.

“I would rather use that on a holiday,” says Tony Murrell, who took a test ride in the Jaguar I-Pace.

Leading the Charge volunteer Margaret Baker, who also did the entire road trip, says it costs around $5 per 100km in her Nissan Leaf.

“The aim of the game is to increase EV uptake – people need to understand what they are and what their capabilities are before they can consider getting one,” Greg Trounson says.

“They’ll get a pleasant surprise when they take one for a drive, they will tell their friends, and word will spread.”

Trounson says the only way to correct any misconceptions people may have about EVs is to take them for a ride in one.

“We want people to be thinking about what they want to get for their next car,” he says.

“We’re not trying to get them out of their current car.

When they are ready to change, they may get one .”

“I would like to see the government announce a target, to set a vision for the future.

The current government have set a target for the country to become carbon neutral by 2050, like everybody else.
I would like to see the same with cars, but I understand it’s tricky to do.
If they were setting a restriction like that, they would be favouring some manufacturers over others.”

Next year, sponsorship will be investigated further to keep the event going for a sixth year, as Kathryn Trounson estimates it costs about $30,000 to have all their volunteers along for the entire road trip.

The volunteers at Leading the Charge have day jobs and take annual leave to travel the country promoting EVs.

The Trounsons hope to return for the 2020 trip.

They began driving EVs on the last day of 2014.
“We got a BMW i3.That’s when we started and we slowly transitioned,” Greg Trounson says.

They’ve been staunch EV advocates ever since.

Visit www.leadingthecharge.org.nz for more information.