Zilch - NZ-Owned Zero Emission Cars

Mobility is for a business 20 to 40% of carbon emissions. Hi, I'm Kirsten from Zilch. Today we're going to go for a drive in one of our pure electric EVs and have a chat about mobility, so let's get going.

Zilch is a zero-emission car-sharing service. We launched in Christchurch in 2018 and since then we've expanded into Auckland, and we will expand further into Auckland and Wellington this year, which is really exciting.

The neat thing about car-sharing is it saves you time and money, and it saves carbon with our service. Customers don't need to own a car. We've got business customers and private customers, and so it's very similar to a Lime scooter or a Jump scooter except we have hubs that you return them to. We've got charging stations as well.

New Zealand does have a propensity to own. We do like to own - starting with that quarter acre section - and certainly we do have the fourth highest car ownership rate in the OECD. But when you look at how often the cars are used, the majority of cars sit idle for 95% of the time. You've got to ask; is that really a smart decision to have all of that capital tied up in a depreciating asset?

Auckland Central at the moment has the worst record of black carbon levels since they started recording. If we can make a difference by increasing the uptake of zero-emission pure electric vehicles in Auckland, that will have a real positive effect on equality, which is fantastic - not to mention the broader situation.