Winners snap up micro-EVs

This story first appeared in the October issue of EVtalk – CLICK HERE to download the magazine FREE

Our two micro-EV winners have been found.

More than 600 entries were received in the lucky draw at the EVtalk stand during the first two-day evworld New Zealand conference and show in Auckland last month.

Michael Short won the JackHot electric scooter prize, kindly donated by Henry Tan and the team at Scoozzi, and Maurice Andrews won the HaloCity e-bike.

North shore based Short runs about 8.5km to his work at Action Manufacturing in Albany, currently producing a prototype EV campervan, and he’s using the e-scooter to get home on the days he runs in.

Wife Belinda drops the e-scooter back in for him as she helps out at the business too. The e-scooter is foldable and weighs just 7.3kg so it’s easy to load in the car boot.

Of course, she likes to use it herself in riding with their three children on their own bikes about 1.5km to school, and back. The kids are keen to try it too and the e-scooter has a speed safety feature especially for such a purpose.

Short’s never had an e-scooter before and his first try around his work’s car park brought big smiles from both him and his colleagues who also wanted to try it.

“I’ve already done about 80km on it,” he says.

Short finds it handy too for popping down the road to his local café.
The JackHot is worth about $1400, has a 25kmmh top speed and a 35km range, fully charging in just two hours.

Andrews, in his 70s, initially wondered what he’d do with the HaloCity e-bike he’d won.

He didn’t have to think too hard – he’ll be using it for 3km trips into Takapuna every second day for shopping and coffee with friends and will put the fold-up e-bike in the boot of his Lotus 7 when he takes that out.

The bike weighs 15kgs and can travel up to 35km on a single charge. That means Andrews can take it on trips to Ellerslie to visit his four-year-old grandson.

He’ll be riding 4km then taking the bus to the city, the train from Britomart, with another 4km journey from the Ellerslie train station.
“It’s going to be useful when travelling too,” Andrews says. He’s planning to carry it in his campervan – once he buys one.

HaloCity says it created the bike, worth about $3000, to assist with all urban mobile needs – amply demonstrated by Andrews.