A journey around the South Island in a fully Electric Vehicle

Friday, 21 April 2017 - Keep the date free to visit the #LeadingTheCharge EV roadshow in Timaru!

The 2017 Roadshow starts in Bluff this year on April 19 and concludes at Cape Reinga on 9 May. Because of the large number of EVs available for the roadshow, the route will split at Invercargill with half the fleet heading up the West Coast and the other heading up the East Coast, meeting again at Greymouth. In the North Island, the team splits at Palmerston North with one group going via Napier and the other via New Plymouth.

Time will be limited in Timaru for test drives (depends on sponsorship), so if you're keen to try an EV, let us know early.

Considering purchasing an EV in South Canterbury? Feel free to contact me for advice based on lessons learned.

Now concluded:
#EVtripNZ 2016 - the electric journey around the South Island
Completed on 12 January using 190.9kW over 1492km (that's $40 of fuel!)

Live Updates - Facebook

Live Updates - Twitter

ITINERARY

IF YOU ARE FOLLOWING THE #EVTRIP VEHICLE - It's nice to see you - please overtake when safe to do so to allow all traffic to flow smoothly. The Electric Car will be traveling around 80km/h and staying as far left as possible (but hopefully not so far as would shower your car with gravel and rubbish from the side of the road!). Visit the NZTA website here for rules about overtaking in New Zealand.

WHY IS THE EV TRAVELING SLOWLY? - Because of the current long distances between the charging points, the car must limit braking and acceleration, reduce wind resistance and therefore consider making it easy for others (including large vehicles) to overtake by traveling at a constant and predictable speed. The EV can travel around 100km on a flat, dry, straight road at 85km/h however this range reduces slightly towards 100km/h. The Nissan LEAF is not promoted as a long-distance electric car at the present time - it is aimed at the city commuter.

I'VE GOT SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT ELECTRIC VEHICLES - Feel free to catch up and have a chat at one of the vehicle charge points along the route (see the Itinerary link above). Alternatively a question posted on the Facebook Page or Twitter (with "#evtripnz") will be addressed once I've got Internet coverage and have stopped driving.

WHERE DOES THE CAR CHARGE UP? - The South Island currently has no fast chargers installed - they're coming soon though. For this trip, we are charging usually once in the day at Camping Grounds primarily, and also at the overnight stops. Camping Ground outlets (16A, 240V) allow us to charge from empty (which we don't really want to reach) to full (which we will use occasionally) in 5 hours. Night time charging will be usually by a standard 10A plug and takes about 8 hours if the battery is empty.

I'VE HEARD ELECTRIC CARS DO NOT REDUCE EMISSIONS! - There are a number of myths about Electric Cars which can be easily refuted. New Zealand produces some of the highest levels of renewable electric energy in the world locally (83% currently) and imports a bulk of its oil, therefore it is one of the countries to benefit most from Electric Vehicles. Electric cars will ultimately save New Zealand money. The NZ power grid could easily cope with fleet transfer - it is estimated that if half the light vehicle fleet in New Zealand was to become electric then it would use 5% of the available electricity in New Zealand. In comparison, Tiwai Point Aluminum Smelter uses 14%.

BIG THANK YOU TO OUR SUPPORTERS!

This trip would obviously be impossible without the support of electricity supply, so in exchange for their plugs (www.plugshare.com), can we give our own "plug" to the following supporters - if you're traveling around the country pop in and see these folk who are actively supporting this journey (and therefore the uptake of Electric Vehicles in NZ):

Friday, 21 April 2017 - Keep the date free to visit the #LeadingTheCharge EV roadshow in Timaru!

Considering purchasing an EV in South Canterbury? Feel free to contact me for advice based on lessons learned.

Now concluded:#EVtripNZ 2016 - the electric journey around the South IslandCompleted on 12 January using 190.9kW over 1492km (that's $40 of fuel!)

BIG THANK YOU TO OUR SUPPORTERS!

Now concluded:
#EVtripNZ 2016 - the electric journey around the South Island
Completed on 12 January using 190.9kW over 1492km (that's $40 of fuel!)