Vehicle rental company GO Rentals was given $180,000 from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority [EECA] to go towards an electric vehicle [EV] trial at the two airports.
GO Rentals managing director James Dalglish said he hoped to have the cars available to rent from about May or June this year.
"The main focus of our proposal was to enable mainstream customers to be able to experience EVs across New Zealand but with a particular focus on the lower South.
"We recognise that within the current market it isn’t easy to rent an EV for a cost-effective daily rental rate. The core reason for that is the vehicle price ... is still substantial. They’re still very, very expensive to buy."
The company had chosen the Hyundai IONIQ as the electric vehicle people would be able to hire.
"We’ve done that based on our great relationship with Hyundai but also we’re seeing that they’ve got some of the greater range within the market.
"From a rental perspective, there is still a little bit of what they call ‘range anxiety’ around EV use and we wanted to make sure we had a vehicle that could address that problem.
"In the end going with Hyundai and the IONIQ was a no-brainer."
A percentage of the grant goes towards the cost of the vehicles and also to infrastructure at the locations where the cars will be.
GO Rentals will also install a public charging station at Queenstown Airport.
"It takes a few months to work through, particularly the electrical assessment for each site.
"That’s the stuff that takes a bit of time."
The rate to hire the cars would be in the middle of the range of the rental car market, Mr Dalglish said.
"Part of our agreement with EECA is that we would essentially discount back the daily rate based on the contribution, so we’re still working through exactly what that’s going to look like.
"We’re confident we’re going to be closer to... mid-range rentals than a high-end rental.
"At the moment I’m seeing EVs in the market with other businesses at somewhere between 120 and 150 [dollars] a day. We want to bring it in significantly under that."
