Electric vehicles will be the topic of conversation at Café Scientifique Tauranga's monthly meeting at the Tauranga Yacht & Power Boat Club tonight.

Flip the Fleet is a 'citizen science” coalition of EV owners who submit data to a communal database each month to measure the constraints and benefits of electric vehicles in New Zealand conditions. Flip the Fleet's purpose is to accelerate electric vehicle update using citizen science.

Monday evening's talk will first highlight opportunities for EVs to revolutionise transport and the economy.

It will then examine the strengths and weaknesses of citizen science as a research, education and advocacy tool to encourage sustainability transitions and innovation.

The speakers include Professor Henrik Moller, an ecologist who has transitioned to transdisciplinary research, often involving community-led sustainability themes. Dima Ivanov is a business benchmarking and IT specialist, who co-founded Flip the Fleet with Henrik in July 2016.

It now has over 800 electric vehicle owners from throughout New Zealand. Dr Monica Peters, a citizen science motivator joined the Flip the Fleet team this year to guide the public outreach and social networking component of the project.

There will be EVs available for test drives at the Tauranga Yacht & Power Boat Club from 6 pm - 7pm with the presentation starting at 7pm.