Electric cars & New Lynn

Did you know in an unassuming corner of the Westfield Shopping Centre in New Lynn is a brilliant and eco-friendly boost to our neighbourhood

Some time ago in a bid to get a decent park in the  melee  while construction for the new cinema took place in New Lynn, I saw some empty spots near the Farmer’s entrance. They were not marked for mother and baby, but had a strange battery pack on the wall and a cheerful mural. As I scanned the scene, a great, big smile appeared on my face as I realised what it was. Yes, I had lost out on a possible park space even though it was empty, but had stumbled on a free charging station for electric cars. FREE and green, two brilliant combinations.

A couple of weeks ago whilst moving between my two favourite radio stations George, (love Kara Rickard fellow Westie), and the BBC World Service, I chanced upon a podcast about electric cars and how other governments  help and actively promote to make their countries run largely on electric cars using tax benefits and other motivations

Norway is the largest number of plug-in cars per capita in the world, with Oslo recognized as the EV capital of the world. As of 2016, the market consisted of 21.5 registered plug-in cars per 1,000 people, 14.2 times higher than the U.S., then the world’s largest country market. Norway’s fleet of electric cars is one of the cleanest in the world because 98% of the electricity generated in the country comes from hydropower.

Not only that, among the existing government incentives, all-electric cars and vans are exempt in Norway from all non-recurring vehicle fees, including purchase taxes, and 25% VAT on the purchase.  Together these make electric car purchase much more price competitive with conventional cars. Also, local authorities were granted the right to decide whether electric cars can park for free and use public transport lanes, like the 2 people in athe car rule for transit lanes rules here.

Why am I raising this? Norway has striking similarities with New Zealand with a population around 4 million, so that popular cry of “we don’t have the numbers to make a change here” is redundant. We just need the choice by and incentives from the  Government in this clean, green NZ, to do it.

On the same podcast was the amazing efforts  China is doing to make its country greener. I know they have massive pollution problems and not always the best green reputation, but they have realised they need to make a change and some of their schemes to clean-up and change are on a scale seen nowhere else in the world. When China decides a nationwide movement, it goes into effect.

As I stood only for a couple of minutes taking the pics you see here, behind me, and yes very silently, a car was waiting to take the place I stood in. The lady driver rolled down the window and almost apologetically asked me to move to let her in and acknowledging the quietness of her car. Cheerfully, the driver, Leone Vito, who turned out to work in Business Development for Green Gorilla, told me that their entire fleet of all vans, garbage trucks and management cars were electric.  To find out more about their decision to have an electric fleet CLICK HERE   

For further reading

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csv3dy

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-36402942

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05g6k91

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_electric_vehicles_in_Norway