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Drive Electric expansion

Posted on 03 May, 2017

Drive Electric's board has increased from eight to 12. The not-for-profit organisation exists in order to work towards a future where electric vehicle (EV) ownership will be mainstream in New Zealand. The new board members include Westpac head of asset finance Gary Nalder, ABB’s MD Ewan Morris, Powerco commercial manager Eric Pellicer, sgFleet’s MD Geoff Tipene, EMD’s AUDI GM Dean Sheed, ChargeNet CE Steve West, ARUP Country Manager Mark Lusis and Meridian’s head of customer Neal Barclay. “You can’t have one person that is an independent expert across all sectors. It is impossible,” Drive Electric chairman Mark Gilbert says. “Now we can contribute to the sector from the new and used car, banking and finance, power and charging infrastructure perspectives.” Drive Electric has many functions, from lobbying the government, to continue setting ambitious targets for electric vehicle uptake, to helping educate the public and companies about the benefits of EVs. With more than 3,000 EVs registered in New Zealand and a government goal of 64,000 on the road by 2021, the team at Drive Electric is very positive about the future of EV uptake in New Zealand. “As a country, we’ve really got to embrace electric vehicles and talk about them in the same breath as petrol and diesel ones,” Gilbert says. “We have 85% renewable energy in New Zealand. There’s a lot of potential in that.”