http://www.elmoto-cycles.com/

Inventors from Stuttgart in Germany have crossed a mountain bike with an electric scooter. Looks great and should be the ideal thing for Kiwis. Goes 45km/h and has a radius of over 60km. Costs about a $1 per 100km. This is something I could see myself on. Probably even good for off the road. Have a look at the pictures and videos on the site. The concept is sound by the looks of it. Currently still a bit pricey at $8500+ but that’s bound to drop.

The constructors seem to have really splurged on good quality parts and got the design right. Remains to be seen what kind of vehicle class this would be in NZ. Could be all you need is a cycle helmet…

Long story short…no worse than before!

As before we’re still using walking, buses and taxi as our main source of movement. We use the bus every working day and have about 2-4 up-the-hill taxi trips a week which is mainly dependent on weather. In the winter it’s bound to be more.

About once a month we’re using Cityhop to get around. One thing about that that I’m noticing is that this is either on a weekend or after hours during the week (utilising the 6PM-8AM $30 special). But I do see that we’re using Citihop not quite as intended. We’re usually booking it for more than a few hours i.e. using it more like a day-rental. For that it seems to be a bit expensive. Maybe there’s better solutions out there… I’d definitely like to see a service where the car does not need to be brought back to the originating place after use. Mercedes is doing that successfully with Smart cars in a few towns in Germany.  The point of origin issue is certainly the most annoying with Cityhop or any other rental car shop.

As for missing a car…I drive to Petone a lot less now (although it has a good bus connection). But that also saves a bit on food expenses . From a money/saving perspectiveit looks like we’re starting to feel the benefits. There’s more of it left at the end of a fortnight. Which is a good thing in this time.

We’ve also got a scooter for those small trips that no other form of transport will do cost effectively. But we have noticed that it’s use is also less than once a week. It might get a bit more in summer but from a use perspective it’s not really necessary. At some point we might contemplate getting rid of it again.

From what we’ve experienced we would now appreciate:

1. More buses on weekend that have the odd service up to midnight
2. Buses that travel between suburbs not only to the city center
3. Cycle lanes
4. More Cityhop cars at several stations with returns wherever
5. Wellington bus-tunnel fare for 50ct or $1
6. A tunnel through Mt Vic for pedestrians that has no car fumes
7. Conversion of more Wellington central streets into malls
8. Less cars i.e. stop all planned roading extensions and subsidise public transport as an option

One thing I do probably have to admit is that a car is practicable what you have a child. I do know what I’d like to have when that becomes the case. I’d like to have an all electric vehicle that has two passenger seats and a small boot, can go about 100km/h, have a guaranteed radius of 70-90km per charge and cost no more than $20.000-$25.000 new.  Four seats is fine too but not really necessary at least in the first years (don’t forget I have no kiddie-experience so I might be totally wrong about this!). Oh I think I just described a Smart-4-2. Or this thing… http://tinyurl.com/pvyflb.

The site seems cleanly designed and easy to use. Only personal caveat I have ist that it doesn’t use the Government Logon Service. Would have been a nicer option one logon ‘n all.

Now we only need better public transport and we’re set to save some serious CO2.

Because the diesel engine is used for electricity generation only it can run at it’s optimal efficiency while the electric engines deal with peak power and low power. The buses use about a quarter of the diesel fuel of pure diesel vehicles. The electric engines are built directly into the wheels making them as efficient as possible (no power loss to transmission of power through gears).

The concept also uses smart GPS technology to save diesel. It recognises when it needs power and when not by sensing the congestion on the streets. I still don’t quite understand how it does that but the idea’s great.

I think until pure electric buses come our way (10 years? Batteries are still not really up to whole day use) this is a very good option and I’m sure you’d be able to retrofit later. I can also imagine that these buses need less repair than their pure diesel counterparts because the “complex” diesel engine is not that stressed and electric engines are by far less maintenance intensive. So all in all this would be a good bet.

Let’s have these things on Wellington roads please!