Electric Power Alternative

Welcome to the Web pages of the Electric Power Alternative association. The Electric Power Alternative association is part of EPA Inc. and fits well into the aims of the EPA. It is a non profit incorporated society that is dedicated to supporting the protection of our environment (at home, work or at leisure) and the wider environment by identifying risks posed to both human health and to our ecosystems. One of these risks is associated with vehicle emissions, especially in the urban environment. Electric cars have no emission themselves and when the power is derived from hydro, solar or wind power the total system will have zero-emissions.

Electric cars are also more energy efficient on a ‘well to wheel' basis. Surprisingly even when the electricity is produced from some form of fossil fuel the total emissions and the CO2 produced is a lot less compared to running a car on diesel or worse, on petrol. Battery technology is improving rapidly with new battery types coming on the market.

Driving an electric car is also much cheaper compared to running a car on diesel or petrol. Petrol contains about 8 kW per liter, however is roughly 4 times less efficient than an electric motor. A liter of petrol costs about $NZ 1.60 / liter or 80 cts per effective kW. Electricity costs between 9 and 20 cts / kW depending where you live and time of day you use it. So driving a car on electricity charged at your own home overnight will be 4 – 10 times cheaper compared to driving on petrol.

In addition owning an electric car allows you to be totally independent of energy suppliers. Using photovoltaic cells or wind power you can charge your car without the need of grid power or service stations.

And finally electric cars are more durable! The brushless, permanent magnet motors last as long as their bearings, often around 50,000 hours, far longer than petrol cars (only around 6000 hours, assuming 50 km/hr average with 300,000 km life span).

The Electric Power Alternative association is introducing to New Zealand a number of home or office based mobility solutions. Cars, vans, light commercial vehicles and 2 wheelers. Most are plug-in electrical and thus can be charged from ordinary 240 Volt sockets. Some have on-board fuel powered charging facility.

The Electric Power Alternative association will be making an inventory of electric cars available world-wide during 2009 .

For more information e-mail us at chair@epa.org.nz

A photo impression of current and future electric cars will be loaded on this website in the coming weeks.