SMC Briefing: Electric car technology

Electric vehicles are now a global reality, but what are the market and regulatory challenges we face in creating an infrastructure to support them?

The Science Media Centre held a media briefing exploring the reality and potential of electric vehicles in  New Zealand ahead of the APEC Electric Vehicle Connectivity Workshop and expert meeting at Te Papa in Wellington.

The APEC Electric Vehicle Connectivity Workshop aims to:

  • improve understanding of how electric vehicles (EV) connect and interact with electricity grids
  • look into the readiness of the electricity grids and the standards and policies that affect EV connectivity  across APEC
  • identify opportunities where harmonisation of standards and policies can increase the diffusion of EV technologies across national boundaries

For more information on the APEC Electric Vehicle Connectivity Workshop, see EECA’s site here.

You can listen to the full briefing here:

Briefing Participants:
Prof C.C. Chan has acted as an expert advisor on electric vehicles to industry giants and Asian governments, as well as authoring several books and hundreds of technical papers on the subject. Currently he is an Honorary Professor at Hong Kong University and a fellow at several other Universities. In the briefing, Prof Chan discusses the global picture for electric vehicles.

Will Charles – UniServices, Auckland University – is a founding director of HaloIPT, a company developing wireless charging technology for electric vehicles, recently purchased by Qualcomm. He out lines the process of going global with this technological innovation.

Elizabeth Yeaman – M.Eng.(renewable energy engineering) – EECA Transport Partnerships Manager discusses the potential for electric vehicle uptake in New Zealand.

Energy and Resources Minster Hon Phil Heatley also spoke to media ahead of the workshop, audio* of his speech is available here:

*Audio quality is variable as the recordings were taken at a live event.