On the road to electric dreams

Transport Minister Simon Bridges

The future of electric vehicles is quickly becoming a reality as Tauranga business owners show a keen interest in hybrid cars.

The Tauranga Carbon Reduction Group held a presentation on Tuesday evening where businesses and fleet managers were given an insight to the world of electric vehicles.

Jo Wills, Sustainability Options development manager, said now was the time for Tauranga to be part of the drive for electric vehicles.

"Tauranga is a perfect spot to establish this, we're a tourist destination and a commuting destination with people travelling from Hamilton, Rotorua and Auckland," Ms Wills said.

"New Zealand has one of the highest rates of transport emissions per capita, so the amount of emissions that will be reduced by people driving electric vehicles instead of combustion engines is quite significant." She said public charging stations for electric vehicles would be established in Tauranga in the near future, and the group was working with other organisations to achieve this.

"There will be public charging stations in Tauranga which is the project we're currently working on with other organisations."

She said public charging stations in the Bay would encourage people to change to electric vehicle transport and bring in electric vehicle drivers from out of town.

Minister of Transport Simon Bridges was convinced electric vehicles would be the "car of the future" for New Zealanders.

He said it would be only a matter of time before public charging stations would pop up around the country, including Tauranga, as electric vehicles hit the roads.

Nationally rapid DC charging stations were being installed progressively.