The trip summary

Buying from Auto Court was the right thing for us.  There were only two of this model of van around for sale in NZ and the one we chose was the lowest mileage.  The guys there have sold a number of electric vehicles and have a skilled EV mechanic on staff so they are very experienced with EVs.   Our vehicle came with a NZ dash, converter for the Japanese radio and an English manual.  They weren’t familiar with the onboard 100v AC inverter, but you can’t hold that against them.  

The only negative point about the van we bought was a slight amount of surface rust on the roof where the plugs that blank off the roof rack threads are located. Mind you, we found them only when we climbed a step to install the roof rack, and they should not be too difficult to resolve.

As a van, it’s pleasant to drive and travel in.  A definite improvement on the Toyota Hiace that we drove from London to Calcutta and then down the east coast of Australia, before coming home.

As a camper, it’s a bit of a squeeze. We brought down to Dunedin too much in the way of camping gear as we didn’t know how well the holiday parks are set up today.  The air bed allowed us to sleep in the back, but isn’t taylored for the space and as a result, you can’t pump it up hard.  That makes things difficult when getting in and out of the van, because the bed is not firm enough.  A simple platform at wheel arch level will provide a large sleeping platform and a mattress can be made to measure.  There will then be permanent storage under the sleeping platform that we can access.  Travelling with the bench seat removed will also help.  

Bubble wrap on the windows helped control the condensation but the front and back windows are large.  We will make some better ones later.  Lighting in the back, for camping, needs an improvement but is quite easy to sort out with all the LED technology that is available from eBay.

The roof rack and the piece of timber that Jim fitted, solved the awning issues and the awning was great at giving us a little more dry space.  Just a simple tarp and a couple of extendable poles from Bunnings.

As a rechargeable vehicle, the e-NV200 is very good in the cities, where you either charge at home or there are alternative fast chargers.  You can run at normal city speeds, including motorway speeds, without much concern.  From what we have seen, a city milage of well over 100 km should be the norm at 50kph.

For longer distances, 80km is a good range between chargers and most are placed closer than that, or there will be chargers there in the next year or so.  You need to be running in the Eco mode with B regeneration switched on.  Hills do make a definite difference, so slow down on them and enjoy the scenery.  Going up the hills at 60kph, instead of blasting up them at full speed, certainly extends the battery range.  We travelled between 60 and 80 kph on the longer and hillier sections and got through.  Most hills have a down side which, provided you are in the B Mode, gives a surprising gain in energy.  Our longest trek, between Kaikoura and Seddon, was at about 60kph to give us the battery capacity to cover 103 km and the hills.  

Range Anxiety does exist but if you take it easy and remember that hills generally do go down, you can regenerate quite a lot of power on the downhill run.  On our total trip, we generated over 50kWH of power, which is roughly five stops for charging.  

Your driving style also changes as you go along.  When we started out, we were using 20.8 kWH of power per 100km.  By learning to drive up and down hills at speeds that suited an EV, and accepting that you need to drive with the minimum amount of power consumption, while still keeping up with the traffic, at the end of the trip, we were using just 18.0 kWH for the same distance.

Charging at caravan parks is easy if you are staying overnight but can be a tedious if you have to charge to reach the next fast charger.  Compared to a fast charger you don't get much battery charge per hour but it's better than none.  We spent a couple of three or four hour sessions in caravan parks.

Only once did we encounter another EV at a fast charger, and we were there first.  He had experienced just three 20 minute waits at other sites in his 18 month experience of owning an EV.  New charging sites are coming on each year and more and more will be required as the EV numbers grow.  In Japan, they are often found outside convenience stores (dairies), but it will be a few years before we see that here in NZ.

When the chargers in Tokoroa and Taihape are installed, it will be much better getting from Palmerston North to Taupo, although we would still plan to go from Waiouru to Turangi via National Park, because of the hills.  

Note that these long distance range comments apply only to the e-NV200, as the Nissan Leaf has about 30% better performance due to its reduced weight and better aerodynamic design.

We travelled a total of 1737 km in 13 days and stayed in the same location on three separate days.  Our average speed was around 35kph, which suited us just fine.  We charged 45 times and almost half of those were slow charges.  We had 13 "free" charges where we either charged at friends or relations, or the cost of charging was included in the camping charge.  

To cover the same distance in the Suzuki Nomade that the EV is replacing, which averages around 10km per litre would have cost between $338 (cheapest price for fuel was $1.95 at one spot in the Waikato) to $475 (Waiheke prices.)  Just checked our ChargeNet account and it looks like we have a bill coming for just under $119, which if added to the $18 we paid for charging at caravan parks along the way, really does show the the difference between the two fuels.

It will be a lot cheaper from now on as today we topped up, while the sun was shining, with power that we generated from our own solar panels.  We are looking forward to the warmer climate changes because that means more sun and lower outgoing costs.