The idea is you plug in the Founder’s Series Streetdog battery for charging at night, right next to your phone. And in the morning, it’s good to go. Is this the pinnacle of carefree Kiwi living?  

The Founder’s Series Streetdog is classified as a moped in New Zealand, so you need a driver’s license to ride the bike. Described as “beautiful, stress-free and minimal”, FTN Motion says it’s an electric bike that genuinely competes with petrol models. 

Undoubtedly, a local trend in purchasing electric will only increase, with the New Zealand government getting behind the cause, building a fully electric government fleet last December. And as we already know, we are in a critical phase of climate change. Cutting down oil and petrol reliance is vital to conserve the earth for future generations. 

And with more investment in the EV space, this will eventually mean a bigger and better selection for New Zealanders. We’ve already seen this in the car industry with Tesla paving the way, and the likes of Volvo following suit with beautifully designed and highly desirable electric vehicles. 

FTN Motion’s initial beta launch quickly sold out purely by word-of-mouth. Initially, with no money to spend on advertising, as Sinclair explains, “we hit the streets and just showed the bike off! It was great to get so much traction without spending any money. It really helped prove we were onto something. People just love the design and there’s nothing out there like it!”

And after pitching the unique electric motorbikes to key private investors and angels clubs up and down New Zealand, FTN Motion closed a recent successful investment round of NZD 500,000, oversubscribed by at least $60K. 

This initial investment will be used by FTN Motion for R&D to bring the existing Streetdog prototype model to a full certifiable model, make the start-up’s first key hires, and develop ten Beta units to sell to Wellington-based businesses in July 2021. 

FTN Motion has also launched a limited early adopter sale of 100 Founder’s Series Streetdog bikes (with over 80 sold at the time of this article) to be produced by the end of 2021. 

But that’s not all; Bristow and Sinclair have also brought on Saskia Thornton to direct global expansion, having 11 years of experience developing international brands and products. Thornton was the founder of the Mad Millie cheesemaking kits and led the development of the market-disrupting Grainfather brand, which introduced the first affordable at-home electric brewing system to the world. She currently lives in Amsterdam, where she’s fully immersed herself in a world of bike and moped culture. 

Thornton says, “being all new to the world of raising money, we learnt a lot about capital raising and the value of having some market validation as early as possible to get investors over the line faster.”

In the spirit of Kiwi ingenuity, FTN Motion’s bikes will eventually offer a unique opportunity for customisation: the bikes bodies becoming blank canvases ready for personalisation for customers and brands. It’s a new way of thinking about what a motorbike can be by turning bikes into stunning works of art while also providing an exciting and fresh marketing opportunity for local businesses. They are currently negotiating with some of New Zealand’s most iconic brands and renowned local and international artists.

Find out more at ftnmotion.com. 

“Tell ‘em ‘e’s dreamin’” – Darryl Kerrigan, The Castle 1997

As I’ve mentioned previously, I think people are bad drivers.

I can’t wait until level 3, 4 & 5 autonomous vehicles take over on our motorways and in our cities.

I imagine many will react negatively to those two sentences.

They think that their driving is great and it’s the other idiots on the roads that are at fault. They say the problem is just the BAD drivers, rather than the other GOOD drivers. The fact is we’re all bad drivers. I drive very conservatively and I’m a bad driver. I don’t know how you drive, but I hazard to guess that compared to a decent level 2 or 3 autonomous system you suck as much as I do on the motorway.

Individually, on an open road, with no other cars around us we would probably be fine drivers. But mixed in with 20,000 others in daily traffic we are collectively awful. It’s not your fault, it’s not their fault, it’s all of us together.

People are erratic and often switch lanes, self-driving cars do not. If you reduce the lane switching you remove the traffic compressions from the sudden braking that occurs after the switch. You stop nose to tail accidents and the associated traffic jams.

People txt, talk on phones (without handsfree), read maps, change the radio station, shout at kids in the back seat, shout at Hosking on the radio, drop cigarettes, do their make-up, have a shave, spill coffee, forget to blow on pies and burn themselves while driving with their knees. Autonomous vehicles, on the other hand, do none of that. They just concentrate on the road and the vehicles around them, always looking for pedestrians and cyclists – 100% of the time.

People speed and drive badly, self-driving cars don’t. Stop the poor overtaking and speeding and you save lives. Autonomous cars, even at level 2, will save lots of lives in NZ every year and traffic will be much better.

Many people say, “we have a car culture”, “people are addicted to cars”, that “they love driving”. My response is “Really, why do we spend so much time complaining about traffic if we love driving so much?”. Not only do we complain about traffic, we complain about gas prices, service costs, and insurance.

Maybe it’s because people like to have something to complain about that they like the car so much.

People do not love the daily commute. There are far more productive things we can do than being stuck in a car for two hours of our waking day. If you’re in business in Auckland, you (or some of your staff and collegues) probably have to spend large chunks of work life sitting in traffic. In Auckland, you can spend 2 hours getting to and from a ½ hr meeting or job. There is nothing to love about that. People might like a Sunday drive, but most of the time the traffic on the weekend is worse than the weekdays. Yes, I have a very Auckland-centric view and that is a city or urban perspective, but that’s where most people live. If we want to solve the big issues of emissions and traffic we need to start with the easy stuff, and that is in the cities.

We have built our cities around accomodating the car. It’s estimated that 1/3 – 1/2 of all the land in our cities is taken up on roads, driveways, gargages, parking and servicing cars. It’s incredible that we waste so much space (and money) on something that mostly gets used 2-3 hrs a day. 

New house builders spend tens of thousands of dollars to build a garage to house their car. Probably more on the garage than on the car, does that sound sane? Sure, it’s an investment!

It’s not just private investment either, the government spend $5.2 billion of our tax money on transport. It’s fourth on the national budget after the Grey Power kick backs, Education and Health budgets.

We spend far too much money on cars and gas, and there are far more important things we could spend that money on. We just accept that this is the way it is, like we have no other choice. However, there is another choice and I think someone else will make that choice for us. It won’t be altruism, they will do it for survival.

Vehicle manufacturers have a long term plan to stay alive, and increase their profits.

Audi is bring out a Level 3 autonomous driving system next year, but others are bypassing Level 2 and Level 3 systems and going straight to Level 4. If they achieve that soon the petrol problem might dissappear.

Some people say that Level 4/5 vehicles will add to the traffic problem. They think that people will own their own autonomous vehicle. It will drop them off and pick them up, making two trips instead of one.

I don’t believe that’s how the vehicle manfacturers see it in the long term. I think they see a subscription model were they run thousands of automated taxis. It’ll be EV Uber, direct from the manufacturer. You subscribe to their service, they don’t sell you cars. A taxi picks up kids for school runs, drops you off to work (or more likely the new AV Bus Hub), and then goes and picks up others. Teens don’t own cars, they subscribe, no more teenage deaths from inexperienced drivers. If you’re well off you could subscribe to Audi’s, BMW’s or Tesla’s service. Regular punters could subscribe to Ford, Toyota, Waymo (Google), or whoever is left standing.

Subscribing to a car sharing service will cost a 10^th of owning a vehicle and be 100% reliable. No low income families buying old used cars that break down and blow their budget, so they can’t afford food this week. No need to pay for parking. No need for that big garage. No need for giant car parks at shopping malls. No two or three cars per household – far fewer cars on the road. Also, the cars will last a LONG time. EV’s require far less maintenance and it’ll be in the manufacturers’ interest to build vehicles that last as long as possible. They will not be changing models every three years, just gradually improving the stock. The car makers will (eventually) save billions and have a captive market. The change over to autonomous vehicles will be fast (within a couple of decades once it starts), and immense.

A guy called Tony Seba has been pushing this narrative for a while and belives it will occur by 2030.

Unlike his horse and cart comparison, there wasn’t trillion dollar Horse and Cart (& Hay) industries fighting the move to Automobiles. However, the more recent comparisions for disruptions in other industries do stand up well. Look at photography (film to digital), music (physical media to streaming), video (physical to streaming), PC’s (home desktops to mobiles/tablets) and phone (faxes/homelines/deskphones/feature phones to smartphones) and retail (bricks and mortar to online). The iphone was introduced in 2007, eleven years later smartphones have killed off numerous industries directly, and the apps on them are killing off many more. Apple is the richest company in the world, a long way from being saved by Microsoft in 1997. No car manufacturer wants to be the next Kodak, Blockbuster, Compaq, Nokia, Blackberry or Sears. They know how that plays out. They are investing heavily in research and development into AEV’s because the first company to get approval for it will be the next Apple, the rest will be a Nokia or Blackberry.

There’s also the case that we (everyone on the planet) actually need to make the change, as highlighted again by the IPCC report on Climate Change. A revolution in transport would be a giant step forward for reducing our carbon footprint. Won’t someone think of the children?

Cheap renewable energy + AEVs will bring affordably sustainable energy and mobility to large parts of the world that have none at present. It will be a game changer, doing for energy security what Norman Borlaugs first green revolution in the 60’s did for food security. It might not save a billion lives, but it will make life a lot easier and connect a lot of communities. We will slowly be raising the population through Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs.

It can’t happen in NZ!

Well, actually it already is.  Christchurch Airport is running AV shuttle trails already. Christchurch also has had EV car sharing since Feb from Yoogo. Yoogo recently started in Auckland CBD and Wellington has the Mevo service. A report from KPMG earlier this year ranks NZ quite well in terms of readiness. As mentioned in my earlier artcle, NZ is very suitable for EV’s, even the Ministry of Transport says so.

But I love my car.

I think, once you’re not the driver of the vehicle you are in, you don’t have the same attachment to it. You don’t attach your self image to the brand of your taxi (unless you’re an MP in a government limo), like you do with a car you own. I really don’t care what model my taxi is. I just want it large enough for the number of people travelling with me, clean, and with a driver who isn’t crazy – but maybe that’s just me.

How will I tow my boat, go off-road, take the kids camping?

It is amazing how often these come up as a reason not to convert to an EV. Like everyone in NZ has a boat and goes fishing every weekend. Most of the people I know with boats might use them once a month – a little more over summer, but a lot less over winter. Regardless, I’m talking about commuting – going to work, doing the shopping, doing the school or sport run, etc. Many NZ households have two or three cars. If AEV’s take over, the average number of cars per (urban) household will probably drop to around 0.5. You’ll still have one if you really need to tow something.

There will be a few that might also keep a classic V8 (or two) in the garage, but they’ll find that the costs for running them sky rocket. Insurance companies will want to charge a lot to cover “manual” drivers in old “unsafe” cars, and gas stations will become as hard to find as an EV charger is now. With all the money you save by not owning a car you could just join a car club with a fleet of high end classics and book one of those out for the weekend drive. Think your Haydon Paddon, Brendon Hartley or Shane Van Gisbergen? Then use the money you save to get a proper Targa or Track car and race properly – not on suburban streets and state highways. Why drive a 4×4 in the city anyway? Consider joining a proper 4×4 club. Hire an electric RV to go camping once or twice a year, you will still save money.

People vote with their wallets and this will save them a lot of money; we will see how much they love their car then.

It’s not all roses, though. Governments love a petrol tax, and they make up a significant revenue stream that will need to be replaced. We’ll also need to figure out how to fund roads. Charging separate RUCs is expensive and cumbersome. Maybe there will be an app to track the charges; I’m sure the multi nationals running the AEV taxis would love to pay their fair share. We will be saving money in health costs but there will still be a lot of infrastructure change to pay for. There will also be lot of ICE vehicles to be recycled. If we can’t recycle a plastic milk bottle, how are we going to recycle our 4 million ICE cars? Maybe we will have a use for that old smelter after all.

There will be a lot of people out of work when AEVs arrive. There are a lot of people  that won’t be needed; drivers (freight/couriers/buses, etc), car dealers, mechanics, garages, carpark attendants, car washes, parts’ retailers, large sections of the oil and mining industry. Lots of car brands will be dead and so will all their suppliers. AEVs will make couriers dirt cheap, which will increase the move to online retail. If it costs next to nothing to get it delivered or picked up for exchange/return, then there is no downside for the consumer. Amazon and online retailers will really push into the market share of bricks and mortar retailers. Mass loss of jobs has happened in the past, argriculture and manufacturing as examples. New jobs in new industries have emerged to replace them. This one might be harder and require a societal change.

Lastly, I’m not sure that the property market will be ready for a extra third of city space suddenly being freed up. Many people like to believe the property market can’t crash. They are lying, have no experience, or very short memories.

Rurally people we will still probably need to own vehicles. They might have Hydrogen EVs, BEVs or PHEVs, but in the cities and large towns the era of car ownership will largely be over.

Imagine a city with 70% less vehicles. No air pollution from ICE vehicles, greatly reduced noise pollution, too. Take back the car parks and streets for pedestrians, bikes, and Lime Scooters.

No need to move the Cortina, Camira, or Torana to get to the Commodore.

“How’s the serenity?…. So much serenity.” – Darryl Kerrigan, The Castle 1997

• Read Zephyr’s previous columns in this series, ‘Could EVs be the key to super commuting? Here’s how I found driving the Hyundai Kona EV for a week‘ here, and ‘Are you worried about range anxiety in an EV? Here’s why it’s all in the mind‘ here.

The first step on the path to beating addiction is recognising you have a problem. 

“Here in my car 
I feel safest of all 
I can lock all my doors 
It’s the only way to live 
In cars.” 

The growing scarcity of – and environmental problems with – fossil fuels is now well understood and there is a powerful and growing movement towards lower emission energy technology.

But it’s bigger than a simple shift from the combustion engine to electric. While the way people fuel their journey is set to change, just how we get from A to B is likely to represent an even more radical shift.

Currently occupying prime-position on the hype cycle are autonomous electric vehicles. While the idea of driverless tech may still feel like science fiction, it is, in fact, rapidly developing technology. Estimates vary between 2018 and 2030 as to when we’ll see fully autonomous cars, but the money is certainly flowing in that direction. Consultancy Frost & Sullivan estimates key automakers will spend US$345 billion on autonomous, connectivity and electrification R&D by 2025 and many mainstream car brands have recently acquired companies focused on self-driving technology.

While new car sales have been on the rise for a few years, individual car ownership has significant costs – the price of purchase, insurance, servicing, parking – and, with cars remaining unused for 95 percent of their life and parking taking up between 30 to 40 percent of urban space in big cities, autonomous advocates are quick to mention its inefficiency. Driverless on-demand options claim to eliminate these financial burdens and efficiency issues in one fell swoop.

“There are certainly key advantages with autonomous, on-demand transport,” says Chris Durno, corporate strategy manager for Z Energy. “There are economic advantages of course, but accessibility plays a big part too. You can call upon it when you need it, it’s cheaper and it’s safer too.”

And that shift may be closer than you think. After all, earlier this year Kiwi company Ohmio quietly announced a US$20 million investment deal to establish a manufacturing plant for autonomous vehicles in China. Those vehicles are doing the rounds at Christchurch airport as we speak (Zephyr Airworks, a subsidiary of Larry Page’s Kitty Hawk, is even testing a self-piloted air taxi called Cora in Christchurch, so roads may soon be obsolete).

But while change is inevitable, a radical shift in New Zealand transport is still going to take some effort. So what can we learn from overseas players who are leading the charge?

“If you look at countries that have done it really well you always come back to Norway,” says Andy Sinclair, General Manager of Hyundai New Zealand.

When you change to any new technology people generally stick with what they know. They need an incentive to change otherwise they’ll continue to do what they’ve always done.  — Andy Sinclair, , General Manager, Hyundai New Zealand

Norway’s key advantage, he says, is its willingness to incentivise the shift from old-school, fossil fuel-based tech, to cleaner, greener solutions.

“With electric vehicles in particular, there are a lot of incentives in place – tax benefits, company tax benefits, toll exemptions, free parking for electric vehicles and priority bus lane usage for EV drivers.”

“When you change to any new technology people generally stick with what they know. They need an incentive to change otherwise they’ll continue to do what they’ve always done.”

New Zealand currently has around 9,000 electric vehicles on the road and the 2018 target of 8,000 set by the government was met in May. The Energy, Efficiency & Conservation Authority (EECA) has a goal of seeing 64,000 electric vehicles on our roads by 2021, but even with growing interest in the technology, a number of new models, better range and improving charging infrastructure, Sinclair says reaching that goal is not yet a certainty, especially without incentives.

“It’s not one step, it’s a lot of small steps,” says Sinclair. “Certainly if there was no fringe benefit tax that would help a lot of companies to go fully electric. If there was parking solely for electric vehicles – that’s always at a premium – that would encourage more electric vehicles into our cities.”

“There are lots of things we could be doing to encourage that growth. It’s just a case of actually doing it.”

For more information on electric vehicles visit hyundai.co.nz/electric-cars or call 0800 493 640.

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (HFCVs) produce only two byproducts during the energy production process – heat and water – making emissions-free driving a reality; they can be refueled at high-pressure hydrogen filling stations in just minutes, rather than the minimum 30 minutes required for EVs; and they offer significantly increased range over standard EVs.

With one projection seeing hydrogen powering between 10 and 15 million cars and half a million trucks worldwide by 2030, manufacturers are starting to place their bets too. Gavin Young, technical manager at Hyundai New Zealand, says that while we’ve only just scratched the surface of what HFCVs can do, it’s already apparent that the potential is huge.

Think of large fleets of trucks, buses and passenger vehicles or even forklifts, all running on fuel cell powertrains. All of this hydrogen could be produced at a main depot facility and they wouldn’t even need to visit fuel stations.

— Gavin Young 

“Hyundai has invested billions of dollars in R&D into the fuel cell space – and achieved some amazing things in a very short space of time,” he says. “Other manufacturers are investing as well and alternative powertrains are definitely the next space that everyone should be thinking in.”

One of the great opportunities is the bus and coach industry. While electric buses (with their 100-150 kilometre range) are fine for city runs, charging during longer trips soon becomes an issue. Using fuel cell technology, we can expect to see bus fleets running in excess of 400 to 500 kilometres before needing to refuel.

“There’s huge potential for the tourism, public transport and heavy commercial trucking industries to benefit from fuel cell technology,” says Young. “Think of large fleets of trucks, buses and passenger vehicles or even forklifts, all running on fuel cell powertrains. All of this hydrogen could be produced at a main depot facility and they wouldn’t even need to visit fuel stations. They could do it all themselves.”

But it’s not just the workhorses of industry that stand to gain. In January, Hyundai unveiled its purpose-built consumer option, the Hyundai NEXO Fuel Cell SUV. This is the company’s first dedicated fuel-cell platform and it has a range of 600-plus kilometres between refuels.

Researcher and One World Consulting director Dr Linda Wright was part of a Kiwi contingent that flew to Korea to test the vehicle and to see just what the technology could do.

“Driving the Level 4 autonomous NEXO was an incredible experience for me,” she says. “An otherworldly, ‘out there’ experience. Imagine speeding down the road in this beautiful vehicle, nobody with their hands on the wheel, and seeing it responding at traffic lights and going around roundabouts, watching the sensitivities of it navigating the open road and the busy traffic of the city. It’s just incredible technology. And all with zero emissions, of course.”

So when can we expect the hydrogen fuel cell passenger vehicle to gain mainstream acceptance in New Zealand? Well, that’s a slightly trickier proposition.

“The biggest hurdle for hydrogen as an option is infrastructure,” says Young. “The commissioning of hydrogen refueling stations is expensive, potentially running into a few million dollars depending on the size, so it’s currently about finding how we can best implement an infrastructure in New Zealand that can meet the needs of drivers and get the maximum value from that investment.”

Expensive or not, however, Wright says that where there’s a will, there’s definitely a way.

“The Japanese are investing trillions of yen in a hydrogen economy and Germany will be the first country with an interconnected network of refueling stations, so it’s now about New Zealand realising the opportunities we have here, especially in terms of our renewable energy advantage.”

She says the next step for New Zealand is about starting at a reasonable scale, demonstrating the value of the infrastructure and then working with the government to make sure we’re all working to the same international standards.

“It all already exists globally,” she says. “But we need adopt the right standards and to collaborate to deliver on the promise. It’s achievable and luckily the government is very open, supportive and understanding to what’s going on.”

For more information on electric vehicles visit hyundai.co.nz/electric-cars or call 0800 493 640.

While it was a fun experience, May says she also knew the car was well out of her price range, so she wanted to find an EV more suited to her.

So, late last year, she started doing research around what was available, with her key concerns being price, looks and range.

“We looked around for a while and when I found the IONIQ, it was just the clear winner. In terms of design, in terms of range and the price point was really good too. I got in touch with Hyundai and now I’m driving it.”

“People still seem to think that you’re losing something switching to an electric vehicle, as if it’s a compromise in some way – but I just don’t really think that’s true at all.” 

She’s certainly not the only one. More than 250 Hyundai IONIQ’s have been sold in New Zealand since the model was introduced last year – making it the country’s best selling EV – and Westpac has just added a further 65 new IONIQ electric and plug-in hybrids to its corporate fleet.

Though much of the dialogue around EVs is future-focused, it seems that the electric vehicle future is already here.

“For example, people have the perception of EVs being slow, but the IONIQ is not something you have to drive around slowly – it goes really fast. It has all the bells and whistles of any good car, but you don’t have to pollute the environment to drive it.”

“People still seem to think that you’re losing something switching to an electric vehicle, as if it’s a compromise in some way – but I just don’t really think that’s true at all.” 

May says that she’s still discovering the benefits that an EV vehicle offers. “During the week I never go to a petrol station,” she says. “I just charge it at home during the night. And I only have to do that once a week.” 

Add to that preferential parking at a growing number of locations, as well as access to fast transit lanes on the motorway, and EVs offer Kiwi drivers more than simply a clean, green vehicle option.

And now that she’s got some time behind the wheel, how has she coped with that classic (but increasingly irrelevant) issue of range anxiety?

“I don’t worry at all,” she says. “I can get from Auckland to Tauranga in one charge, so I don’t need to even think about it most of the time.”

And when it comes to longer trips, May insists it’s just a case of planning ahead, just as you would on any trip.

“From Auckland, we go up north a lot and there are plenty of options,” she says. “We will usually stop in Warkworth and we’ll go down to the nearby river while the car charges. It takes about 20 minutes to charge fully, so it doesn’t even add time to the trip, especially if you have kids.”

So, what about those looking to make the leap? Any advice for the EV curious?

“Just do your research, know what’s out there and go for a drive in one,” she says. “That will dispel any myths you’ve got around electric vehicles.

“It brings a lightness and a fun to driving around. Doing the right thing can sometimes feel a bit heavy. But doing good stuff shouldn’t be that way. It should be exciting and you should be uplifted by it, and that’s what this is. So yes, you could say I’m convinced.” 

For more information on Electric Vehicles call Hyundai on 0800 493 640 or visit www.hyundai.co.nz/electric-cars. 

Although it’s still well behind EV-leading nations like Norway, it’s a good start. And, more importantly, it’s not just government that’s ready for the switch. Corporate New Zealand is increasingly investing in walking the socially-responsible talk.

“The reasons for upgrading to EV fleets – and the challenges – vary from company to company,” says Andy Sinclair, GM of Hyundai New Zealand. “For some, it will depend greatly on exactly what their usage is. For others, the value it has is from a marketing perspective and the understanding of long-term cost savings against the up-front purchase price.”

Sinclair says that when it comes to EV fleet rollouts in New Zealand, the electricity industry is part of the advance guard, with all of the major players in the space pro-actively pursuing brand-friendly EV options.

Procurement manager at Meridian Energy Nick Robilliard says its first steps into an EV fleet transition shows just what’s possible for Kiwi corporates looking to do the right thing. “We looked at it for about a year before we hit go,” he says. “We wanted to be in the game, but in the early days we really had nothing that showed it made sense.”

That changed when Robilliard crunched data from the company’s fleet GPS system and realised the distances being travelled by staff were well within the capabilities of current EVs. The company purchased four Hyundai IONIQs. The PR department could easily see the benefits, but the bean counters needed to be convinced too.

“In terms of capital, we didn’t have to do anything silly around spending money that we hadn’t forecast in the budget,” says Robilliard.

“It was equitable with what we would have spent on the replacement of normal combustion engine vehicles anyway, so I didn’t have to go and ask for special money for it. We had the numbers, we had the interest and then we had that fruit. “It was a quality, safe product with good range. That made it a really nice fit, even before taking the brand alignment with Hyundai into consideration. I think we largely nailed it.”

And the energy industry isn’t the only sector recognising the brand-value benefits. The Department of Conservation has recently taken its first steps into EV terrain.

“We didn’t want to be leading edge, but we definitely wanted to be taking advantage of the technology as part of our own sustainability push,” says Rex Ambler, fleet manager at DOC.

The organisation focused on securing company-wide buy-in when upgrading last year, creating a bespoke induction exercise designed to familiarise staff with the new tech.

“People can be apprehensive about new technology so we decided to go through an induction process and actually educate staff about what we were doing,” he says.

Ambler says the number of charging networks around New Zealand is growing rapidly, so range isn’t the issue people think it is.

“We’re still learning as we go, but the feedback we’ve had is that once you’ve had a little bit of training and you’ve had a little time in the driver’s seat, it’s so simple. We’ve now got staff that are very keen on making the most of new technology and making environmentally friendly choices, so it’s been a real success in that respect. For us, the future is electric,” he says.

If you’re a business wanting to understand how you can make the first steps in electrifying your fleet, call Hyundai New Zealand on 0800 493 640, or visit www.hyundai.co.nz/electric-cars. 

So where does New Zealand fit in all this? Right now we’re doing okay: this time last year, New Zealand had 3,187 electric cars on the road (including plug-in hybrids and used imports). This year, the Ministry of Transport says that has more than doubled to 7,233. 

So could there be more impressive EV growth to come? There’s no reason why not: 85 percent of New Zealand’s energy generation is from renewable sources, which is #3 in the world by global standards, but it’s important in this revolution because it means that when you charge an EV in New Zealand, it really is the clean, green alternative. That’s something not many countries – and certainly not Australia, with its coal-heavy energy industry – can replicate.