The project now sits alongside some seriously big players, including New Zealand Post, Mercury and Auckland Transport, in the running to win the Smarter Transport category of the awards.
“We’ve put a tonne of work into Flip the Fleet for the last year, on a gut-feel that we’re doing the right thing,” says Dima Ivanov at PowerStats, who runs the project with Henrik Moller, an ecologist at Otago University’s Centre for Sustainability.
“Having it chosen as a finalist confirms that the selection panel thinks that we are doing the right thing and that our project has impact. It’s easy for Henrik and me to think we’re doing well – so it’s very rewarding to know that other people think we’re doing well too!”
Flip the Fleet aims to have 1000 electric vehicle (EV) owners uploading and exploring data about electric vehicle performance, such as cost to run and mileage per battery charge. So far over 330 have already registered their EVs with the project, which is funded through the Otago Participatory Science Platform.
The study is the first of its kind and will help paint a more realistic picture of how EVs perform in New Zealand, since potential EV buyers currently have to make decisions using less relevant data from overseas. It will also reveal over time whether these vehicles cost New Zealanders less effort and money as well as being greener than petrol, diesel or hybrid vehicles.
“It’s great to see 'people power' mixing it amongst leading businesses to work for a sustainable New Zealand,” Henrik says. “It’s been a satisfying journey to turn ordinary electric vehicle owners into an army of citizen scientists to help speed up the switch to smarter transport for us all.”
Find out more on the Sustainable Business Network website
Read the story about Flip the Fleet
Participatory Science Platform
The Participatory Science Platform supports collaborative projects that bring together communities and scientists or technologists on research investigating a locally-important question or problem.