A revolution is taking place in the Coromandel that will allow people to drive their electric vehicles around the Thames-Kopu area.
Just south of Thames off State Highway 25 is The Kopu Café, which has recently installed the first commercial electric vehicles charging point on the Coromandel Peninsula.
Transition Town Thames' John Leeman showing how easy it is to charge an electric car at The Kopu Café south of Thames. The cafe recently installed the first commercial electric vehicle charge point on the Coromandel. Photo: TCDC
Electric cars have a range of 120km to 140km, and take between 30 minutes and 5 hours to charge, depending on the car and charger.
To charge up your electric car at The Kopu Cafe will cost $2.50/per hour.
Transition Town Thames (T3) member John Leeman is excited by the development, saying it's just the first step in the network of EV charging stations around the Coromandel.
Apart from the Kopu Cafe charging point, T3 is also sponsoring an EV charging station for the Thames township, which will be installed once a suitable site is located.
'The idea of the Thames and Kopu chargers is to allow owners of EVs to travel outside Auckland and ‘top up' their EV's,” says john, who is also an EV owner and enthusiast.
'So there is not so much worry about ‘range anxiety', caused when you fret about running out of juice. The power comes from the grid and is totally safe.”
Electric cars have no clutch or gears, and accelerate more quickly and smoothly when compared to typical petrol cars.
A fully electric engine has fewer moving parts, no spark plugs or engine oil, and requires less maintenance than a petrol equivalent.
Such cars are extremely quiet and reduce noise pollution, while travelling down hills or braking recharges the batteries and is known as regenerative braking.
'The reason I am so enthusiastic about EV is because it is the simplest way to make a personal contribution to saving the planet. Switching to an electric car means 2.125 tonnes less CO² per car pouring into the atmosphere each year,” adds John.
For more information on electric vehicles and the differences between them and hybrid vehicles visit the Energy Wise website at: www.energywise.govt.nz/on-the-road/electric-vehicles/
Thames-Coromandel District deputy mayor Peter French checking out John's Nissan Leaf electric car. Photo: TCDC
4 comments
Counting Carbon
Posted on 19-01-2016 10:29 | By Gigilo
A little research for a balanced view shows when taking all inputs, manufacture, materials and power generation into account the saving is known to be 12 percent on average for a similar type of vehicle in this country. So in fact a similar sized conventional vehicle to that shown is at this time far more efficient and cost effective to the normal user. Granted you cannot fault the emissions, but the electric era has not yet arrived. Sorry John, a novelty that will be a couple of decades from reality.
Very Progressive Thinking
Posted on 19-01-2016 14:33 | By carpedeum
WELL DONE
@Gigilo
Posted on 19-01-2016 14:50 | By yourthumb
Except that most "normal users" don't sit down and calculate the pre-purchase emissions, power generation, pollutants, etc. Most "normal users" just want to get to work and the supermarket and pay less for it.
Thought Leader!
Posted on 09-02-2016 14:38 | By check1963
Good move that! Why pollute if we dont have to , but we need enthusiasts like John to help push us all towards the obvious, that we cant keep dumping crap into the atmosphere endlessly. Wakey wakey guys. More of Clean , green NZ please, less of the "its not my problem"!
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