A Far North man attempting to make motoring history by driving his electric car from Cape Reinga to Bluff and back is on his return journey and should be home by Christmas.
Craig Salmon started his journey on November 21 in his 2012 Nissan Leaf electric car and made it to Bluff last Friday - possibly making him the first person to drive a production-model, 100 per cent electric car the length of the country. He now hopes to be back home in Paihia in time for Christmas after finishing his journey at the Cape.
One of the barriers to wider use of electric cars has been the lack of public charging facilities but Mr Salmon hopes to show nationwide travel is already possible, even in some of New Zealand's more out-of-the-way places. When the Northern Advocate caught up with him over the weekend Mr Salmon was in Wellington, waiting to charge his car up ahead of heading north after completing 4000km at a total cost of $200 of power.
The beekeeper and IT worker said he did not work for a car company but wanted to prove a few points, including that fully electric cars are available, reliable and cheap to run - about $5 per 100km, depending on the power company and what time you charge up.
While he was always confident his trip was possible, he said New Zealand needed more public charging facilities. Supermarkets, councils, libraries, movie theatres and car parks, for example, should be installing charge stations to attract people to stop and shop.