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Mercury meets fleet EV target

Posted on 07 November, 2017

Mercury has announced that it has converted all possible vehicles in its fleet to electric, one year ahead of schedule. Mercury's corporate fleet now has over 70 per cent fully electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles. The target was set back in 2014 at the company's Annual Shareholders' Meeting.  Fraser Whineray, Chief Executive, announced today that the company has changed every vehicle that can be practically transitioned to electric models currently available. “We saw that using home-grown electricity to fuel transport was a stunning opportunity for New Zealand and New Zealanders, and it also made total sense for us as a business,” says Fraser. “We’ve made our company fleet as electric as it can be right now. It’s powered at a fraction of the cost of fossil fuels and is clearly better for the environment.” Mercury has worked with other New Zealand organisations to encourage widespread uptake of EVs including a landmark commitment by over 30 New Zealand companies to transition at least 30 percent of their company vehicles to electric by 2019. Mercury was one of the main players to help bring the Electric Highway to New Zealand with the EV charger location app, ‘Plugshare’. There is also support across all major political parties to electrify their vehicles with the current coalition Government aiming to make their vehicle fleet emissions-free by 2025 to 2026.  “There’s still a long way to go, but we are confident that the transition of New Zealand’s vehicle fleet to electric will be well supported by business and Government. It’s 30 cents per litre, a 3-pin plug will power it up, and there’s plenty of renewable electricity to support the charge,” says Fraser.