Green Business: Clean Green Cars - five years on

The Clean Green Car Company's Stephen Pollard. Photo / Greg Bowker.

An ethical attitude towards business motivated a former advertising manager to get out of the corporate game and open a second hand car yard specialising in hybrid vehicles.

Stephen Pollard opened The Clean Green Car Company in Auckland five years ago.

Since then he has sold over 600 - mainly Toyota - hybrid cars.

"I wanted to do something that would fulfill me in other ways apart from just making money," he said. "Also, I saw there were huge opportunities in so-called green business."

But he said breaking into the hybrid market had not been easy, especially through the recession.

"The past twelve months have been the toughest we've had in business, but it's picked up lately."

His business recently moved premises from Parnell to a new site at Wairau Rd, on the North Shore, to reduce overheads.

He said sourcing second hand hybrids was another challenge he faced.

"Even Toyota only gets given so many hybrid cars to sell each month, and they've got a waiting list on them.

"For second hand cars that means the price is quite elevated - there's more demand than supply."

Pollard said he tried to overcome this problem by sourcing and importing his own second hand hybrids from Japan.

Getting past the misconceptions Kiwi's had about hybrids was also a challenge, he said.

"People think you've got to plug them in and you've got to replace the batteries all the time, which you don't," he said. "They also think they might be unreliable and gutless - all of which is incorrect."

Motoring commentators such as Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson - who had "an instinctive dislike of hybrids" - compounded these misconceptions, said Pollard.

He said his customers were motivated to buy hybrids for a variety of reasons.

"People are increasingly motivated by environmental concerns," he said. "But they are primarily motivated by saving money on petrol."

Customer feedback indicated his customers often halved their fuel bill after purchasing a hybrid, he added.

Pollard said he tried to make other aspects of his business sustainable, such as installing low energy lighting.

"That's saved me more than $400 a month in power," he said. "The thing about doing business in a more environmentally sound way is that it typically saves you money - it's a no brainer."

He had big plans for his business, and hopes to begin importing electric cars in the near future.

"We've approached a few companies we know that make electric cars overseas and have quite a good product."

He said New Zealanders' attitudes towards hybrid vehicles were changing.

"The misconceptions about hybrids are slowly getting overtaken by the reality that people experience when driving them."