A group of electric vehicles and their proud owners covered some serious mileage (approximately 2,131km) across the length of New Zealand over the course of two weeks. This wasn’t just any road trip. It was part of the #LeadingTheCharge movement, dedicated to accelerating the Electric Vehicle (EV) uptake in New Zealand.
This movement is great in terms of sustainability as 80% of New Zealand’s electricity is produced from renewable sources.
The push to reduce and even eliminate our dependency on fossil fuels couldn’t be more important with New Zealand’s Climate Change Minister, Paula Bennett, having signed the Paris agreement on 22 April 2016, World Earth Day. New Zealand has a 2030 target of reducing emissions to 30% below 2005 levels.
So what does the Otago Museum have to do with it?
Well, we now have our own 100% Electric Vehicle; an adorable Nissan Leaf! It’s great for Museum stuff who are regularly out and about around Dunedin, and it aligns with our commitment to operate sustainably across all avenues – economically, socially and environmentally.
As Museum representatives, Full Dome Producer Oana Jones and I joined a convoy of other electric vehicles (plug-in hybrids and full EVs) in the Octagon on 21 April to welcome the #LeadingTheCharge group.
These EV enthusiasts showed off their prized possessions, with members of the public even getting a quick spin around the Octagon to test it out for themselves!
The stars of the show, however, were the trio of Teslas. These cars glistened as they were plugged into the power source at the Octagon, juicing up before the last leg of the trip to Invercargill and Bluff.
We got a cheeky trip inside one of the Tesla cars, and look at our faces.
Those cheesy smiles were because the Tesla Model S can go from 0 to 97 km/h in 4.2 seconds, and we even got to have a taste of the fast life down SH1 to Mosgiel.
It was an incredibly smooth ride.