EV service ready for use
The EVs are here and they’re ready for tenants to use.
ŌCHT commercial and development manager Ed Leeson with one of the Zilch-managed EVs.
The ŌCHT/Zilch EV ride share scheme has started and tenants are encouraged to sign up.
The scheme’s two 24kw Gen 2 Nissan Leafs are based at charging stations at Karoro Lane, part of ŌCHT’s 90-home Brougham St development.
They can be booked using Zilch’s online booking portal. All would-be users need to do is join Zilch’s service.
Learn more about the service on Zilch’s website: www.zilch.nz
Email Zilch at support@zilch.nz
Call Zilch at 0800 2 ZILCH (0800 294 524)
ŌCHT is supplying and maintaining the cars and is subsidising the cost to tenants for the duration of the two-year trial.
The service is managed by Zilch.
The rates are $8 an hour, $25 overnight and $50 for 24 hours, which are lower than standard commercial rates.
ŌCHT commercial and development manager Ed Leeson says the trial complements sustainable and affordable housing with sustainable and affordable travel.
“Motoring costs – buying a car, registration, petrol, servicing, tyres and insurance – mount up and cut into household budgets, and we want to see if people will use alternatives,” he says.
Ed says it does not cost anything to sign up to use the cars. Tenants can register by visiting Zilch online at www.zilch.nz/joining-zilch.
The cars are charged from a pair of charging points at Karoro Lane.
Zilch will process applications and send tenants an access card, which is used to open and start driving the car.
Once tenants have signed up, they can make bookings online.
The project’s booking platform will gather data to establish demand patterns, feedback and user engagement.
University researchers are also looking at transport habits, as part of work on how housing can be designed to make it easier to for tenants to get around.
The basket of research will help ŌCHT understand how tenants get about and whether they have any difficulties in getting to places they need to go.
The work will help identify the barriers to choosing alternative transport and what might be done to eliminate them.
It will also help explore how many vehicles are needed for a large-scale community housing development, what trips they’re used for and how tenants might work together to use them.
Ed says the research will also help ŌCHT consider how low carbon, shared transport might be applied elsewhere and even how it might affect new communities.
“We hope to learn from this project if our future developments can be designed differently, for example with fewer carparks offset by larger communal areas, to improve the amenity values of our housing developments.”
The cars are available to any ŌCHT tenant enrolled in the service.
The nearest ŌCHT homes are at Karoro Lane, Karoro Lane, Hoiho Lane, Korimako Lane, Waltham Courts, Tommy Taylor Courts, and Hastings Street East.
The project has co-funding from the Government’s Low Emissions Vehicles Contestable Fund, which is administered by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority.
The fund is one of a range of initiatives in the Government’s Electric Vehicles Programme, which aims to accelerate the uptake of electric vehicles in New Zealand.
ŌCHT is an independent charitable trust. The scheme is not paid from local council rates.
The EV pilot was completed in November 2023.