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Visiting American electric-car missionary Chelsea Sexton is urging New Zealand motorists to demand a greener future from vehicle dealers and importers.
The former General Motors saleswoman, part of a marketing corps in the 1990s for the first production-model electric car in almost a century, has been invited to New Zealand to stir up interest in vehicle trials proposed by Government electricity generator Meridian Energy.
She and a New Zealand-born marketing chief for American electricity giant Southern Californian Edison, Edward Kjaer, are guests at an electric-car and biofuels conference being held in Wellington today by Meridian and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority.
GM soon found its sleek, clean, quiet and zippy two-seater electric coupe, the EV1, in hot demand from enthusiasts in California and Arizona.
But in 2001, after regulators under pressure from oil producers and car-makers e watered down a requirement for 10 per cent of vehicles on Californian roads to be "zero emitters" of pollution, GM started recalling the EV1.
Thousands of people had demanded to go on a waiting list for one.
But they were dismayed when GM rounded up the cars from leaseholders, scrapped all but a few which it disabled and donated to vehicle museums.
Ms Sexton was laid off but continues to promote the idea and technology behind the car as executive director of a consumer and environmental groups coalition, Plug In America.
She said that despite the EV1 setback, the concept was still alive and kicking. She urged New Zealanders to pile pressure on motor companies to supply electric cars.
"Motorists have the right to drive cars which are cleaner," she said. "Car companies will provide what consumers demand, but we'll never see them in show rooms unless people ask for them."
