Electric cars hit town

My battery’s about to die’ is not something you want to be saying about your new electric car

By Sam Eichblatt

There’s a new hot ticket item set to replace the Prius on the Christmas list of the conscientious Hollywood A-lister this year. Rumours about all-electric cars have been circulating for some time, and over the last couple of years they’ve been rolling out, mostly in Europe and Japan. This month Mitsubishi has released its version, the iMiev inNew Zealand, followed by the arrival of the Nissan LEAF in 2012.
The idea of quiet city streets full of clean-energy cars seems almost to good to be true. For sprawling cities like Auckland with a deeply embedded car culture, electric vehicles do seem a logical next step. It’s driving, but without the downsides of dizzily escalating petrol prices, exhaust fumes and the roar of the motorway. 
But is it as simple as that? In advance of the public launch, Wellington City Council has been trialling the iMiev since last September, putting eight of the electric cars through their paces with partners New Zealand Post and The Wellington Company, a property development firm with tenants that include the Department of Conservation. “We saw it as an opportunity to support a developing technology, and understand what was necessary for infrastructure,” says Chris Cameron, the Council’s principle advisor for climate change. He says various factors made the New Zealand market attractive to Japanese manufacturers; our reliance on private cars, coupled with increasing fuel prices and awareness of greenhouse gases and carbon emissions, and the fact around 79 per cent of New Zealand’s power is from renewable sources.
The adjustment to electric vehicles, when it comes, will be about more than consumers simply swapping one car for another. With a 15-amp socket, which costs $100 to install and comes free with the new car, the iMiev’s battery takes seven hours to completely recharge and costs about $5 at current power prices. Depending on driving conditions, a “full tank” takes you about 150km. The iMiev’s publicity puts this at half the cost (six cents per kilometre, or six dollars per 100 kilometres) of an average small car. Servicing costs are also lower, as there is no oil and fewer moving parts.
When it comes to performance, says Cameron, the cars – which have a top speed of 130km – are very quiet. “One of the things that surprises people is the acceleration, and smoothness of it, as there’s no gearbox.”
The iMiev was designed for urban commuters with an average travel distance of 32km a day, so the idea is that owners charge it overnight. However, people do use their cars for more than commuting. If the way we use mobile phones is anything to go by, the phrase, “My battery’s about to die,” could spell more trouble than a communications failure. 
Z Energy, which runs Shell in New Zealand, has installed a free 15-amp charging post at one of its inner-city service stations as part of the trial. Better yet, fast-charging technology is becoming available overseas allowing cars to charge in 20 minutes. There is also induction charging, which in New Zealand is being developed by new company Halo IPT. This, says Cameron, is the most likely medium-term solution; a plate in the ground that matches a plate beneath the car to charge it while parked. 
Another technology, still in development, could line motorways with charging pads – christened ‘e-ways’ – that allow cars to charge while moving. International pundits predict a surge forward as new electric models that qualify for government subsidies come onto the market over the coming months.“As battery technology evolves, you’ll get a lot more mileage out of the cars and won’t have to charge as often, so there will be less need for infrastructure and what exists will be discreet,” says Cameron. Still open for debate, however, is how this infrastructure is likely to be funded.
PLUGGED IN
According to a Centre for Advanced Engineering report commissioned by Transpower, in a high-uptake electric vehicle scenario which sees over 390,000 electric vehicles onNew Zealandroads by 2025, a maximum of only 180 MW of additional generation capacity would be needed – that’s the size 
of two West Wind wind farms.

COMMON GOOD
Public reception for electric cars abroad is so far mixed. Charging time is generally cited as the main barrier to uptake. However, is also clear that currently electric vehicles bring a greater benefit to society than their owners, and therefore some form of governmental assistance may be necessary in New Zealand as well.
Germany recently doubled federal subsidies for research into EVs, most of which aims to improve battery life. Britain’s government also provides a subsidy of up to £5,000 for buyers;London, which introduced a congestion charge for carbon-emitting vehicles in 2003, now has more EVs on its streets than any other city in the world exceptOslo— which, along withTrondheimandBergen, uses its congestion charge scheme as capital investment in transport infrastructure.
The Chinese government announced in May that it too will give grants to the tune of US$9,200 for electric cars, and subsidise 30 percent of the building cost of new charging stations.