http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/76827606/.html On-street parking riskier proposition if electric vehicles take-off February 15 2016 TOM PULLAR-STRECKER
[image] The number of electric cars on New Zealand roads has now hit four-figures. DAVID MANNING/REUTERS Unless you are a multimillionaire, buying a house in New Zealand is likely to mean making a few compromises. But settling for house without a garage or off-street parking could be one compromise you don't want to make, if electric vehicles take-off as expected over the next 10 or 20 years. Transport Minister Simon Bridges said New Zealand was well-placed to switch to electric vehicles in part because a high proportion of Kiwi homes had off-street parking which enabled "easy overnight charging". [image] Transport Minister Simon Bridges has highlighted the importance of off-street parking in EV take-up. About 85 per cent of Kiwi homes have off-street parking, according to property information company QV. But Bridges observation raises a red flag for the 15 per cent of homeowners who rely on on-street parking and who might have no way to securely recharge an "EV", other than relying on potentially busy public charging stations. The number of electric vehicles registered in New Zealand has just ticked over 1000. Many of them are fleet vehicles as EVs can add-up for business owners that run up very high mileage on lots of short trips. Take-up among consumers has been hampered by the initial outlay and their limited range. One of the most popular electric cars, the Nissan Leaf, retails for $39,000 new or about $20,000 for three-to-four-year-old second-hand models. The International Energy Authority forecasts demand will take-off worldwide once the price of electric cars drops below that of equivalent petrol-driven cars in about 2020. Harcourts Wellington sales director Antonia Brown said EVs were too futurist for charging issues to figure high on home-buyers' agenda now. But she said that could change, noting other tech trends had quickly fed through to the property market. "Certainly people want to know if a street has got fast broadband now, when five years ago' people were still getting to grips with that." Brown said it was fair to say that anyone in Wellington who could put a garage on their property probably had already. "They are a very desirable commodity in the sloping suburbs and if electric cars become more prevalent those houses with them will become more desirable." Bridges said in October that the Government hoped to announce a package of measures by the end of last year to "support and encourage the uptake of electric vehicles". A spokeswoman for the minister said the package was still being worked on but Bridges hoped to take a paper to the Cabinet in the near future. Lines company Vector extended its public-charging network with the installation of two "rapid charging" stations in the Auckland suburb of Newmarket on Friday morning. These are capable of recharging EV batteries in between 15 and 30 minutes, but only if there is no queue for their use. In comparison, it takes about 90 seconds to fill an average-sized fuel tank with petrol. Garages may eventually return to their prime function of storing all the junk you can no longer squeeze into your house; Google's ultimate vision is that no-one need own a car and that self-driving cars will instead come around to your place when you need one. [© stuff.co.nz] ... [dated] http://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/news/75069769/Electric-vehicle-wins-over-Wellington-man-Sigurd-Magnusson Electric vehicle wins over Wellington man Sigurd Magnusson For EVLN EV-newswire posts use: http://evdl.org/evln/ {brucedp.150m.com} -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/NZ-street-charging-a-red-flag-for-the-15-non-home-owners-tp4680538.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
