Operation Laser Kiwi: help us take New Zealand-made energy on the road
It's quiet. It's comfy. And it's fast. Those are the things Sky Ryan loves about the Deepway electric truck, which recently dropped off 123 boxes of cherries to all our MPs as part of The Great Electric Cherry Migration. Her dad Jamie is the general manager of Etrucks, a company bringing lots of big electric kit into the country, and when we talked to her the pair were about to embark on a roadtrip back to Auckland after a successful stint in Parliament grounds. Understandably, she was most looking forward to the multiple ice cream stops along the way and we're pleased to report she got two triple-scoopers.
To many of the young'uns we deal with, cleaner, cheaper electric machines that are run with locally-made energy makes much more sense than smoky machines that are run with imported energy. Baselines shift over time. What's entirely normal for the younger generation may be a confronting technology shift for those living through it. We reckon electric transport is inevitable. But for the benefit of Sky and other kids like her, we hope this transition picks up speed, because we need to do all we can for them.
Australia reaches a milestone in August, with more new electric cars sold than petrol cars; another new study shows EV batteries last longer than the myths have made out; Heart Aerospace sends the world's heaviest electric plane skywards; China's massive mining machine hits the dirt; and we've fully embraced heat pumps to warm the air, now they're coming for our water.
Read moreDownloadNew Zealand spends about as much on petrol and diesel as it earns exporting concentrated milk. Mike Casey says that money leaves the country, and most of it does not have to. He runs a cherry orchard in Central Otago on 21 electric machines, and a $50,000 diesel bill became a $25,000 revenue stream before financing costs. What I Asked Mike👉 How much money does New Zealand lose every year buying fuel from offshore?👉 What did it actually cost to electrify 21 machines?👉 What is the real payback period, machine by machine?👉 What can you do if you lease your building and cannot touch the roof?👉 Who should not do this?
Read moreDownloadA pinch and a punch (and a big bunch of new EVs) for the first of the month. The Rewiring gang is always pretty jazzed about the release of the new car sales numbers each month and, while the short-term stats tend to bounce around a bit, the long-term trend is clear: sales of new EVs are up by 150% year to date and sales of new petrol vehicles are down by 15% in the same period.
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