Getting behind the wheel of an electric vehicle
Nelson Mail Journalist Samantha Gee with the Nissan Leaf Electric Vehicle
Disclaimer: I've never driven an electric car.
The Car Company Nelson's Ryan Horncastle assures me it's easier than driving a normal car. It's so easy in fact, that he hands me the keys and tells me to have fun before I suggest that maybe it would be good to run through the basics.
Like how do I know when it is on? And how do I plug the thing in to charge?
There are a few things that I'm unsure about. What if I forget it's already turned on? Or that I drive somewhere and run the battery flat miles away from an electricity source.
AA spokesman Liam Baldwin puts those fears to rest by telling me an AA member with an electric vehicle would be towed to the nearest charging point or home if EVs ran out of battery.
I'd imagined that someone would show up with a generator I could plug into. While possible, Baldwin said that would be a "very slow" and take hours to charge.
As I drive away from the dealer, I think I can just hear a faint whirr as the is car running. But once I get to work, I realise that sound is actually just the air conditioning on the lowest setting.
One of the first things I notice, is it is zippy. Like whip-round-the-corner-fast zippy. Maybe just because it seems crazy to be beetling along at 50 kilometres an hour in silence.
For an about-town car, I think I could get used to this.
I'm told while it can get up to 50km/h mighty quick, it wouldn't be any good at towing. In fact, I'm told it couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding.
I offer a few colleagues a look inside and a few laps around the block. Except the car doesn't making the usual noises when I push the on button. For a good five minutes I'm sure I've somehow broken it, before remembering the car won't start without the foot brake engaged.
It certainly gets people talking. While parked up to charge at the Network Tasman fast-charging station near Nelson's Maitai River, I field questions from four people who wander over to quiz me on it.
Where's the battery? How long does it take to charge? How far can you take it?
The batteries are located underneath the seats Google tells me, fast charging at a station takes around 30 minutes or overnight at home when plugged into a standard 230V socket. The figures on the dash tell me I would get about 140 km/h on a full charge.
To give it a bit more of a run over the weekend, I offer to take the family to Mapua for lunch. A 60-kilometre or so return trip with a decent 100km/h stretch of road.
That's when I learn the odometer appears to overstate the number of kilometres left as we seem to be losing available kms on the dash faster than we are covering them in real time. I certainly wouldn't be able to trust it over long distances.
The Car Company Richmond sales manager Ben Brownie said they began selling electric vehicles last year. So far this year, they've sold 12 Nissan Leaf's and a couple of people in Golden Bay have purchased them.
A 2011 Nissan Leaf was priced from $14,997. It's main demographic were the over 50s and those wanting a vehicle to commute around town.
The kids are intrigued by the silent car. The eldest calls it "freaky" on several occasions.
The youngest, who has a penchant for all things motorsport but would rather a supercar over an electric one, can't wait to get inside and turn it on and off.
When we plug it in to charge, three blue lights on the dashboard flash to indicate it is connected. Just like a mobile phone, apparently.
"This is the craziest car ever," he tells me. "It's like the future, kind of."
- Stuff
References
- ^ Ad Feedback (stuff.co.nz)
