New Zealand slow on electric car uptake

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New Zealand slow on electric car uptake

3News NZ

By 3 News online staff

The concept of electric cars may still seem a little like science fiction to some of us.

But New Zealand's Association for the Promotion of Electric Vehicles believes they'll be common place within the next decade.

The Association's hosting this country's first symposia on electric cars and has invited New Zealand-born and California-based expert Ed Kear to attend.

Mr Kear says New Zealand has been slow on the electric car uptake.

“Other parts of the world are more pro-active, but I think that over the last couple of years you’re starting to see more and more interest for electric vehicles here in New Zealand,” he told Firstline this morning.

But he says New Zealand has a good infrastructure which would suit electric cars, and the vehicles themselves are extremely reliable.

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Comments

23/11/2012 12:53:56 a.m.

David wrote:

Hybrid components are manufactured by various sources in various countries and often traverse significant distances by polluting forms of transportation to their final place of assembly. That, of course, is hardly environmentally friendly.

19/11/2012 3:35:22 p.m.

Mike wrote:

Take the price of a new Prius - $50K. The Prius is still the more popular electric hybrid that has been used more and longer than others.

Now take the price of a similar non-electric and your looking around $15K less. Even then the Prius isn't that fuel efficient. Its a party piece to drive up silently.

If take the claimed $2500 typical saving, then the likes of the hybrid electric still more expensive than fuel burner, and it still uses fuel so dont get that much saving.

Take the $15K price difference, even @ 6% thats $900 debt cost more for the hybrid, which lowers the $2500 to $1600 in runing costs a year.

Take the batteries lasting roughly 8 years. Ask any Prius owner with a car 8 years old if they have not replaced bateries, and almost all will say they have had to replace batteies as the batteries haven't lastest 8 years in 'NZ climatic conditions'.

If take the average Kiwi, then even at the 8 year mark, before replacing the batteries, and they haven't recouped the added 'upfront' electric costs and would save money using a fuel burner. Electric car purchase prices need to come down to be worth buying.

If wanting to be greener, I would currently suggest buying a smaller more efficient fuel burner that wont have as large purchse price, cost less to fuel.

I priced up 15 cars for a business last year, and electric/hybrids didn't come close to being cost effective and need to lower in price substantially to become so.

When they introduce electric cars that can be used commercially, be it as a Taxi or other uses, then we will see electric as an alternative. Electric also need to be flexible enough to handle different usage from the short runing to longer without large downtime to re-charge. Eg a Taxi in NY may run multiple shifts 24/7, which is at the extreme use.

PS car motor closer to 15% efficency, its 4 strokes take it down to 25% if it converted its power @ 100%, which it doesn't.

19/11/2012 11:27:40 a.m.

Rob McEwen wrote:

Craig, Actually, whereas it costs between 13 and 22cents per kilometre for fossil fuel (the average NZ car uses 10 litres per 100km and a litre of petrol is around $2.10), it costs only 2-3 cents per kilometre to run your car on electricity. In part this is because whereas only about 25% of the energy in fossil fuels converts into motion at the wheels, electric vehicles are around 90% efficient - in other words three times more efficient than combustion vehicles. Mike, the best application for EVs at this point in time is urban commuting, unless you're looking at the Holden Volt in which case range is no issue as it has a small combustion engine which dramatically increases its range. As far as the batteries, lithium is high value and is recycled. Many batteries are guaranteed for 8 years and in NZ climatic conditions will most likely last considerably longer. It's true that EVs are considerably more expensive to purchase at the moment but within 3 years or so that will change, and most NZ motorists will save at least $2500 per year in operating costs by driving electric versus combustion.

19/11/2012 9:34:23 a.m.

craig wrote:

have you seen your power bill lately is it any wonder we havent started using electric cars it would cost a fortune

19/11/2012 9:32:48 a.m.

common sense wrote:

The problem is that electric cars are, they are overrated and expencive and have no advantage over petrol apart to flunt your green credentials.

19/11/2012 9:15:28 a.m.

Mike wrote:

The electric car curently is an expensive gimick which is not enviromentally friendly.

The batteries on the electrics dont last, and are expensive to replace. If your doing many km's, then the electric will take days longer to get there due to having to stop and re-charge. Typically NZ'rs want a vehicle they can use for a multiple of uses including short and long runing which the electric wont do.

The batteries themselves are expensive and not envriomentally friendly. If take the Prius being the most popular hybrid in NZ with electric, the batteries need replacing and you pay premium price to start with. For the fuel savings, 99/100 prius owners would have spent less if they had purchased a fuel burner vs electric.

Hydrogen burner vs the electric has possibilities. It gets rid of the battery problem, plus it can be filled up so avoids the problems of waiting for a recharge. It uses power (which can be greener) to make the hydrogen in the first place, but its a cleaner vehicle than the electric with no large scale battery disposal or making.

19/11/2012 9:02:01 a.m.

Rob McEwen wrote:

The Symposia Ed will be speaking at are in Auckland Nov 22 at The Cloud and in Wellington Friday Nov 23 at the Town Hall - see www.apev.org.nz/events for details