Government funds Flip the Fleet

Great news!  Flip the Fleet has received funding from the Government’s Low Emission Vehicles Contestable Fund in 2018 to spread the word on just how good electric vehicles are for our purses, the planet and sheer driving pleasure.

Flip the Fleet was one of 20 projects funded in the latest round of the Low Emission Vehicles Contestable Fund (a full list of the successful projects can be downloaded from https://www.eeca.govt.nz/assets/Resources-EECA/LEV-Contestable-Fund/LEVCF-approved-projects-round-3.pdf).

Flip the Fleet will use their grant to:

• Make it easier for people to sign-up and contribute data by providing more guides and videos, and to maintain our ‘Help Desk’
• Improve the software to allow calculation of long-term averages for each car (a lot more varied and interesting indicators can then be calculated)
• Test automated data collection for whole fleets by providing equipment to upload near continuous data from each car as it is driven around, charged or parked for the night
• And share the lessons learnt from existing EV owners with prospective EV buyers.

It’s this last outreach goal that is particularly important.  Flip the Fleet needs to make sure it just doesn’t “preach to the converted”.  Our work is summarised in the following two diagrams.

Key ways that we will spread your news include:

• Making the data more visible to prospective EV purchasers and EV owners that have not signed up to Flip the Fleet (don’t worry, the software will be modified to make sure all data remains completely anonymous)
• Presenting to at least 10 non-EV groups that are most likely to have an interest and capacity to switch to electric (we would love to hear from you about events or meetings in your locale that you think we should present at)
• Becoming more active on several social media platforms, not just the EV owners’ groups (please let us know about your own discussion groups, or blog on Flip the Fleet’s behalf)
• Distributing monthly Media Releases featuring some aspect of your data and responses to the 1-click surveys (keep the 1-click survey responses coming … your personal comments bring the data alive!)

All this new work means that we have recruited some wonderful new team members.

Dr Monica Peters:  Monica has a passion for citizen science, community-based sustainability initiatives and communication. As an active social media user, she will share lessons from Flip the Fleet via channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), stimulate debate and encourage wider LEV uptake.

Morgan Knoesen: As an ex-military pilot, Morgan has a great passion for leading edge machines and technology. His love for the environment has guided him in influencing others to lighten their footprint on the planet by educating them about renewable energy and EV’s. He has recruited over 22 new Central Otago EV owners to join the national fleet and zooms around Southern New Zealand in his Gen 1 Leaf (sometimes with his hang glider strapped to the roof!) to give talks to schools and public groups.

Dr Daniel Myall: Daniel is Flip the Fleet’s statistician.  Mostly he builds statistical models of diseases and health needs (he works for the NZ Brain Research Institute in Christchurch).  Since buying a Gen 2 Leaf he has turned his skills to modelling how well EV batteries last and how much they cost their owners (or actually how much they don’t cost their owners compared to ICEs). Daniel will prepare some of the analyses we feature in our monthly media releases.

So let’s do it!

Henrik, Dima, Danial, Monica & Morgan.