Sunday, August 5, 2018

Commentary on Electric Vehicle adoption in NZ

Price is no longer a barrier to electric vehicle (EV) adoption.  In fact, in New Zealand I would argue that price is now a driver for EV adoption if you are willing to look at the numbers.

For city driving, it now makes obvious sense to replace your petrol powered vehicle with an EV.  If you are driving a petrol powered car an average of 70 km per day, 6 days a week, then depending on your vehicle's fuel efficiency, its easy to be spending $50-100 per week on gas (in NZ petrol is currently around $2.30 per litre).

As well as this obvious saving, you will also be saving the wasted time and effort of going to a service station each week when the petrol tank needs topping up (with an EV, you just top up at home each night).

With some second hand EV's from Japan now available for less than $NZ 10,000, savings on petrol can very quickly pay this back (I'll let you do the sums).  Plus if you are buying this EV instead of an equivalent petrol powered car, the savings are immediate.

EV - no need for weekly visits to the service station.
Driving without the concern for the high cost of fuel, driving without the concern for the stinky butt smoke emanating from the rear of your car, driving without the concern of the upcoming or overdue oil change!!? A return to driving just for the fun of it, what's not to like.