Energy
Wednesday, June 29th, 2022 5:00 am EDT
EV Alternative is the first all-electric car service on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland. Our mission is to cut emissions by taking a petrol car off the road, to educate and showcase the benefits of living with an electric vehicle, and to be proactive when it comes to climate change.
I have a background in ethical retail, and had a goal to lower my carbon footprint and live a more sustainable life. When I started to feel guilty about cruising around our beautiful sunny coast in my petrol convertible, I knew it was time to go electric.
Studies show that people are twice as likely to buy an electric vehicle after being in one. So it made sense to start chauffeuring people and parcels around the Coast, while encouraging everyone to tread lightly on our beautiful region.
In time, we hope EV Alternative will be proof of concept, showing that it’s possible to alleviate range anxiety objections and run a profitable, sustainable business with Australia’s cheapest EVs, and hopefully encourage others to join us.
Customers will often say “I haven’t got $80,000–$100,000 to buy a Tesla,” and use that as an excuse for not going electric. By starting EV Alternative with the MG ZS EV, it proves that not only is it adorable, its great value for money, and I want to give everyone who is thinking of spending $40,000+ on a car every reason to make it electric!
Customers are genuinely worried about range anxiety, and one customer was concerned that they didn’t have the ability to plug in and charge at home, and I reminded them that they don’t have a petrol station at home either.
Another customer made me smile when she was worried that we would run out of battery life as we were caught in a traffic jam, I reassured her that we weren’t moving, so we weren’t consuming electricity. Crisis adverted.
Going electric is a mind switch. It’s about changing the way we think about getting from A to B. Most of the time we don’t think, we just go. With an EV, you become aware that you must make good, conscious, deliberate, often calculated decisions, and that is a really good thing!
In fact, we should be thinking this way about everything in life. … How we live, travel, and what we spend our money on if we are wanting to protect our planet.
Most of the time I charge at home with green energy, but on busy days I can top up at any of the fast or rapid charging stations around the coast for a few dollars, and sometimes for free!
EV Alternative offers all the usual services:
- Airport transfers.
- Bespoke experiences to explore the Coast’s attractions and hidden gems.
- A door to door electric option for everyone to get done what they need to get done, and for businesses looking to lower their carbon footprint.
I haven’t been doing this long, but as well as getting to spread the word about how good and viable having an electric vehicle can be, I love the feedback we are getting — like from Jess from Melbourne who wrote to us thanking EV Alternative for making her airport pickup feel like an extra day’s holiday. So far, I’ve done just over 18,000 km in Clipper. Jess had a few hours to kill before hotel check-in, and not being familiar with the coast, she left it up to me! She was pleasantly surprised to experience the Coast to the hinterland as we headed to the beach with coffee and pastries to stretch the legs; cruised around the Coast, up the range, stopping at scenic spots for photo opportunities; and even grabbed some last-minute shopping all before being dropped off. Treading lightly while moving around the Sunny Coast never felt so good!
After chatting with you at the Noosa EV Expo and doing some research, we now have an Atto 3 on order, and we’re super excited that we will have a second EV on the road in September.
Check out our brand new E-Bike Guide. If you’re curious about electric bikes, this is the best place to start your e-mobility journey!
Appreciate CleanTechnica’s originality and cleantech news coverage? Consider becoming a CleanTechnica Member, Supporter, Technician, or Ambassador — or a patron on Patreon.
Advertisement
This post has been syndicated from a third-party source. View the original article here.
