Group representing local EV owners echoes call from new international organisation.

REPLENISHABLE electric impetus should be mandated for every new light vehicle sold by the end of this decade, according to a local group representing electric vehicle owners.

The call comes with announcement that the national spokesbody for owners, Better New Zealand Trust, has joined into an international organisation involving 36 other like-minded organisations.

The Global EV Drivers’ Alliance (GEVA) intends to represent the voice of EV drivers around the globe in leading the shift to clean electric transportation.

The alliance’s first public call is for a fast-paced shift to battery impetus-involved light vehicles; with plug-in recharging.

It’s expression of belief that this needs to happen by 2030 coincides with release of the Climate Change Commission’s final report laying out the roadmap for the country to slash emissions and become carbon neutral by 2050.

Chief among its transport recommendations is that nearly all cars imported by 2035 must be electric vehicles.

The Government has until the end of the year to respond to the commission's climate roadmap with its own Emissions Reduction Plan.

A release from Better NZ Trust chair Kathryn Trounson says the alliance’s call is for every country it has representation in.

“A shift to electric transportation is essential to quickly reducing greenhouse gas emissions, avoiding dangerous climate change, improving local air quality and reducing respiratory diseases in cities around the world,” the release says.

“With the rapid improvements in EV technology and the new vehicles coming into the market over the coming months, it is entirely achievable.

“A rapid shift to electric transportation can be achieved through supportive policies in the respective countries.”

It offers as example that the market share for plug-in vehicles in Germany grew from three percent in 2019 to 13.5 percent in 2020. The market in the United Kingdom went from 3.2 percent to 10.7 percent in the same period.

One of the first joint activities of the Global EV Drivers’ Alliance will be participation in the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26, which will be held in Glasgow in November.

In connection with the event, associations connected with GEVA plan to organise events in their own countries and to organise a rally in Scotland to promote electromobility as an important element in addressing climate change.

The release says the global shift to electric vehicles is increasing exponentially, with more than 3.24 million EVs sold worldwide in 2020, compared to 2.26 million in 2019, despite the Covid pandemic and accompanying economic downturn.

Aside from NZ, the alliance represents organizations from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain (Catalonia), Croatia, Denmark, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, and United States.

The commonality with Better NZ Trust is that they are non-profits that aspire to collect best practices, inspiration and information from EV driver associations and their members to help, inform and inspire each other to accelerate electric mobility.

Better NZ Trust has run numerous national EV events for the last five years, many offering the public the opportunity to talk about EVs with those who already drive them, and to offer rides and drives - the best way, it says, to convince advantages over internal combustion cars.