18 September 2017

Electric car-sharing charges into Auckland

Mercury and Cityhop are offering a new transport alternative that could ultimately help address some of Auckland’s transport challenges.

The addition of electric vehicles (EVs) to Cityhop’s established car sharing platform brings together two parts of the solution to the problems caused by too much city traffic: clean electric-powered vehicles to reduce pollution and noise, and car sharing to reduce the number of vehicles.

“Car sharing and electric vehicles are part of the solution for decongesting Auckland and reducing pollution,” said Mayor Phil Goff who himself drives an electric car.

“Every car share vehicle takes up to 13 cars off our roads and every electric vehicle is one less car sending carbon into our atmosphere.”

Mercury and Cityhop’s EV car-sharing trial is being extended with a second EV available at the Downtown carpark in the CBD – the same location where Mercury installed the Auckland CBD’s first ever EV charger in 2015.

The trial began in May with a Nissan Leaf located in Newmarket. Since that time, it’s been used by 35 different drivers, and travelled over 2,200km. Drivers are impressed by the performance, the convenience of car sharing and the overall experience of going electric. “We’ve had consistent feedback about how easy to drive the car is, and how the Newmarket location suits them,” says Ben Carter, Business Development Manager at Cityhop.

Brett Berquist, a Cityhop driver who used the Leaf early in the trial told us he was intrigued to try out the EV, and he loves the car-sharing model: “I like the convenience. No paying for a parking spot or garage, no car purchase and maintenance fees, proximity of location, and no need to top up petrol for short runs”.

Anna Phillips, another Cityhop driver says “It’s much better for the environment and I don’t have to worry about parking and petrol. I’ve been car-free for 10 years.”

The new car-share vehicle is a Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV), offering the option of a larger SUV while giving drivers another EV model to try. Its location at Downtown car park brings EV car-sharing into the CBD, where over 60,000 people live and around 65,000 work each day, including 1,500 current Cityhop members.

“This partnership between Mercury and Cityhop is about testing innovative and sustainable approaches to ease Auckland’s transport challenges,” says Fraser Whineray, Chief Executive at Mercury. “Mercury has owned and driven EVs since 2013, and we want more people to be able to enjoy the wonderful experience of EVs.”

Ben agrees: “We’re extending the trial to the CBD where the bulk of our business and personal members are. The trial has shown us that the EV is used by Cityhop members for personal use outside of business hours, along with its use as part of the Mercury fleet. The sharing model has been perfect for these two groups of users.”

“We’re all about offering choice and freedom, and it’s great to be able to partner with Cityhop to offer Auckland drivers different electric vehicles to try,” says Fraser.

ENDS

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