Your June 2023 Mobile Newsletter

June 2023

Kia ora!

When we had visitors in April, we experienced temperatures and weather that were quite pleasant, even if they were leaning a bit towards the cool side of things. When inside, we tried occasionally turning on the air conditioner when warm (it made it too cold for us) and even the heater when we were cold (it easily made it too hot) – but neither was satisfactory. As for the past month, all the signals of cooler weather have decisively arrived: more rain, clouds, and chilly nights. And to us, the most clear signal of all? Wanting to turn the heat pump on and that it actually feels comfortable instead of feeling like you’re being smothered with humid air.

Even though winter is on its way here in the southern hemisphere, the month of June still makes us think of summertime back in the States. A common summer pastime for us is going on road trips during the long summer break – for many, especially fellow Americans, this is likely an activity you grew up doing as well. After moving to Aotearoa New Zealand early last year, we knew we wanted to go on a roadie (the local lingo for road trip) and started early planning of our summer holiday around this time of year. We also purchased our first ever electric vehicle (EV) after arriving and it’s definitely changed our approach to getting around. Whether you prefer petrol or electric, hopefully the sharing of our EV experience will be helpful in some way, shape, or form.

As always, feel free to reach out if there is a particular topic you’d like to hear more about. We’re here to help.

Elizabeth
Newsletter Editor

EVs in NZ: Our Experience Buying & Driving

Hiya, it’s your editor, Elizabeth. Before moving on, I wanted to write a quick note. For the record, I’m sharing our electric vehicle (EV) experience with the goal of providing information to those who have been wondering about purchasing an EV and/or might be curious as to what life is like with one in New Zealand – and not at all to shame or look down on those who have petrol vehicles. Everyone has different priorities and resources, and yet I still hope you find a tidbit or two as informative and possibly even helpful in your search for a vehicle or when you’re ready to consider a future one.

Coming from a car-centric country, my partner and I decided early on that we would buy a vehicle soon after arriving in New Zealand. Even though we’d only ever owned petrol cars before, my partner has followed the EV industry for years because of his interest in reducing our carbon footprint. With both of these factors added together, we knew we wanted to put our environmental-friendly beliefs into action and see what we could do so that our first vehicle in Aotearoa would be an EV.

These days, the average person likely thinks of the Tesla brand when they hear the phrase electric vehicle. Even though that was technically a possibility, we wanted to explore all EV brand options but weren’t sure which car dealers in town would actually be helpful. Using the input from our very knowledgeable and connected Resettlement Advisor in Hamilton, we were able to narrow down which dealers we wanted to visit first in order to explore their EV options. After visiting a couple of locations, we ended up choosing a lightly used EV that was the previous year’s model. Side note: maybe we’re too used to the stereotypical pushy car salesperson back in the US, but we found the overall experience to be quite pleasant and everyone seemed genuinely helpful.

Ever since then, we’ve used our EV for everything from the mundane grocery trip to adventures throughout Aotearoa. From the weekly commute for work, to day trips over the weekend, to even road trips to the south end of the country and back, our electric vehicle has definitely changed how we drive and think about driving. While it’s strange to consider that we haven’t had to fill up at a petrol station ever since March last year, we do have to remember to plug in our car at home once every few days and especially before a long drive on the weekend. We have to consider that our EV’s total range will decrease when it’s colder outside, or we have our cargo box on top, or use the air conditioner/heater in the car – though to be fair, this also happens with a petrol car. On longer drives, we make sure there’s leeway in our driving time for when we have to use a charging station or even if we have to (usually only) slightly change our route to use a different charger.

When it comes to using charging stations, we’re grateful a network like ChargeNet exists. As New Zealand’s largest EV charging network, they’ve simplified charging on the road and done reasonably well at making it accessible. While there are various ways to activate ChargeNet stations, most people use the app on their smartphone to do so. What’s the average cost of a charging session? It ranges from $5 to $30 depending on the charger and the size of your vehicle’s battery – a significant difference from $80 to $100+ at the petrol pump. Additionally, depending on how much range you need from a charging session, it can take anywhere from 5 to 50 minutes to charge your vehicle. If you’re on a long road trip, we’ve found these forced breaks to be quite helpful – it encourages us to get up and move around after sitting for so long.

What about charging at home? In essence, it’s even cheaper than using a charging station. While you can plug into the wall outlet, it will take much longer (possibly an entire day) to fully charge your EV. Thankfully the purchase of our car included a home wall charger plus its complimentary installation, and using it has significantly decreased charging time. Because our driving habits are mostly based around home, we’ve been able to take advantage of the free hours of power that our electrical plan, which has contributed even further to lowering our EV costs.

With all the driving we’ve done with our car the past year and a couple months – a weekly total work commute of over 115 km (130+ mi), long day trips on weekends, and a long summer roadie distance of about 2,660 km (1,652 mi) – we are amazed when we realize how simple owning an EV in New Zealand has been as well as flabbergasted that we’ve spent less than $550 total on charging during this time frame. While we understand that the large initial upfront cost of an electric vehicle can be a barrier, it may be helpful to know that the New Zealand Government offers a sizeable Clean Car Discount. Also, from what we can tell with our experience and what we’ve read, the long term costs and maintenance of owning an EV are quite cost effective.

In the end, hopefully this sheds some light on the EV experience in New Zealand and to let you know that it can be easily done as well.

Related links:

Sometimes it’s helpful to have a refresher on whether you should buy or lease a vehicle. You can read a quick overview here (fun fact: the term “used car” is also known as “ex-lease/ex-rental car” in New Zealand)

Looking for an automobile association? Check out New Zealand AA for membership, benefits, and services, including international licence conversion and pre-purchase vehicle inspections if you’re not sure about a particular used car

Want to take a road trip with an EV? Here are 10 tips for consideration

Travelling Through Cook Strait

Ah, ferries. For the majority of us who don’t take a ferry on a regular basis, using a boat as a means of travel carries an element of excitement and adventure. Even though I sometimes have issues with motion sickness and am not really a swimmer, I can’t help but find travelling over water as invigorating. (Keep in mind, this is coming from a landlubber who will only choose to be on a boat in reasonable weather, ha.)

Cook Strait (Te Moana-o-Raukawa) is what separates the north and south islands of New Zealand with the Tasman Sea on the northwest and the South Pacific Ocean on the southeast. Even though the islands are technically not too far from each other – 22 kilometers (14 mi) at their closest point – it still takes about 3.5 hours to make the full crossing between Wellington in the north and Picton in the south. While the strait is considered as “dangerous and unpredictable”, I want to assure you that those experiences are rare and that ferry operators will cancel a sailing when necessary. Even so, if it’s still helpful to know, only half of the crossing is on open water, while the other half is through bays that provide protection from the open sea. More likely than not, you’re going to have a good trip. On our summer roadie between the islands, we crossed Cook Strait twice and, while we wouldn’t say the sea was “as calm as glass”, we also had two definite good sailings.

If you get the opportunity to sail through Cook Strait, it’s worth experiencing at least once in your lifetime. While it understandably costs more to take your vehicle on board, people also walk on to the ferries as passengers. What if you still need to drive around after the sailing? A friend of ours has told us that instead of taking her car on the ferry, it’s cheaper for her to drive or fly to Wellington, walk onto the ferry for a reasonable ticket price, then rent a car on arrival in Picton. There are definitely a few different ways to approach travelling the strait!

Looking for more?

Here are the two ferry companies that sail Cook Strait – the Interislander and Bluebridge

This slightly older blog post may not have updated prices although it has a nicely detailed experience of everything regarding crossing Cook Strait

What kinds of water travel can you find in New Zealand? The tourism website has an excellent overview page on ferries and water taxis that you can see here.

Local Lingo: Sweet As (and a bonus)

This phrase is often used as a positive response to something, whether by verbally replying to a person or simply as a reaction to anything. It can mean “thank you”, “no problem”, “it’s all good”, “that’s cool”, “OK”, and more.

Examples:
“I’ll pick you up at 7 tonight, yeah?”
“Sweet as” (translation: OK/sounds good)

“Can I borrow your car?”
“Sweet as” (translation: sure/go ahead)

BONUS: the word “as” is commonly used as an amplifier to the preceding adjective. It may sound funny to your ears at first, but you quickly get used to it and join the club of tacking on “as” before you even realize what’s happening.

Example:
“Did you get any good deals at the shops?”“Yeah, these shoes I’m wearing – they were cheap as! ” (translation: they were very cheap, i.e. a really good deal)