Cheap parking offered for Auckland electric cars

Buyers check out an electric Tesla car in a California showroom. Auckland Transport is offering subsidised parking for hundreds of electric vehicles in a car-sharing scheme. Photo / AP

Auckland Transport is offering subsidised parking for hundreds of electric vehicles that it hopes will be provided for a public car-sharing scheme.

The council body is today issuing a worldwide request for proposal document for a private operator to provide a scheme starting with 250-300 vehicles.

Chairman Lester Levy hopes the number will increase in time to at least 500 cars, which he says will be matched by a similar number of dedicated parking spaces.

But at a waterfront event today he said that would be the extent of Auckland Transport's contribution to the scheme, which would come at no extra cost to rate payers. He said a private operator would have to arrange for electricity charging points to be installed at those parking spaces.

Although the City Hop car-sharing scheme has been struggling for seven years for visibility to increase its Auckland fleet of 25 vehicles, Dr Levy believes an electric scheme would win strong community support.

Auckland Mayor Len Brown said Aucklanders were already flocking to the city's quieter and cleaner new electric trains, and he expected similar enthusiasm for an electric car-sharing scheme.

Dr Levy, when asked if Auckland had dense enough population to support electric car hire said the similar sized United States city of Indianapolis was about to launch one.

He said car-sharing schemes in general reduced the number of vehicles on the road.

Electric car-sharing would have the additional benefit of helping to curb vehicle emissions, which were responsible for 126 premature deaths a year among Aucklanders aged 30 and over