Kirstin Corson: Drive Electric chair says retirement village EV ban is unreasonable

An Auckland retirement village is looking to ban electric vehicles because of safety.

Forty-seven residents at Fairview Lifestyle Village in Albany have got into a row with management over the decision.

One resident told our newsroom the village claims EV's are a fire risk.

Drive Electric chair Kirstin Corson told Heather Du Plessis-Allan that it's completely unreasonable.

She says EV's are 25 percent less likely to catch fire than a petrol or diesel vehicle.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here the duplessy Ella.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Yeah, the Deborah may be talking rubbish, but she does
have a wonderful speaking voice. We're going to focus on
the positives today. Nineteen past five. Now, what about this?
A retirement village on Auckland's north shore is looking at
banning electric cars. Fairview lifestyle Village is in mediation with
residents on the issue because they're worried about the risk
of a lithium battery fire. Kirston Causon is the chair

(00:22):
of Drive Electric and is with us high Kirsten.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Hi, Heather, is this reasoningly?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yea, thank you.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
No, I'm not sure that they've actually sought this through
and analyzed the data.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
What would then, talery they did?

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Evs are twenty five times less likely to catch fire
than a picture or a.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Diesel vehicle, even just stationary.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Even just stationary.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, what causes a petrol or a diesel vehicle to
just combust if it's stationary?

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Oh no, that's you know, if it's in an accident
or you know, that's what.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
I mean, like you because what about when we just
measure it, when it's just sitting outside the house doing nothing.
Isn't an electric vehicle more likely to burn.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Only if it's been damaged. And to be honest, if
you look at something like you're cheap and cheerful power tools,
they're fifty times more likely to catch fire than an EV.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Right, So it's it not like because I think what's
happened here, Kirsten. There's a lot of people have looked
at the examples that we've seen with you know, the
charging of the electric bikes and apartments in Wellington and
nick minute they're on fire and exploding in people's faces,
and people have then just transferred that over to electric
vehicles not a problem.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, Look what you'll see with scooters and e bikes
and is that when they're imported there's no certification on
their battery and there's no annual servicing on those batteries.
So they are far more likely to catch fire than
an actual EV that has a certified battery and has
a servicing regime.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Okay, is there a middle ground that we can strike
here with the residents the lifestyle village where maybe if
they're worried about these cars, these cars can just be
parked a little bit away from the units or something
like that.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Look, you if you look at a country like Norway
where ninety percent of their cars, you know, new car
sales are electric now and thirty percent of their fleet.
You know, they're not concerned about this. You know, they're
not parking EV's away. And when you think about New
Zealand government has got a target that we get to
thirty percent by twenty thirty. You know, evs are going

(02:35):
to be the future of mobility. So if they want
to have a viable business, you know, moving forward, they
have to accept that. You know, electrification is going to
be the mode of mobility in the future.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah, Kirstin, thanks very much, appreciate your Ti'm Kirsten Couson,
the chair of Drive Electric. For more from Heather duplessy Ellen,
Drive listen live to news talks they'd be from four
pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio