KEY POINTS:
Cars running on "plug-in" electricity or biofuel blends are being touted by the Government as prime ingredients in a recipe for cleaner air and lighter oil bills.
Hybrid petrol-electric vehicles already run in New Zealand, offering at least 20km of travel for every litre of fuel burned, but they are in such global demand that only about 1600 have made it into this country's fleet of 2.6 million licensed cars.
The Government wants plenty more, saying it needs to seek out and remove barriers to the use of hybrids - which recharge themselves on their petrol cycle - and of wholly-electric cars with batteries that are able to be plugged into electricity points at homes or service stations.
Energy Minister David Parker is looking forward to the production in Japan next year of a trial fleet of Mitsubishi electric "i-cars", which have already been demonstrated as capable of reaching speeds of 130km/h and which have a cruising distance of 160km off a single battery charge from a standard home socket.
That would be a quantum leap from the performance of a 750-strong fleet of electric cars in London, called G-Wiz vehicles, which take about an hour to run out of battery juice at their top speed of 65km/h. The cars take eight hours to recharge.
For those who can't wait, elite car-maker Tesla is selling an electric roadster in the US for $145,000 which gets to 96km/h in about four seconds and travels up to 400km on a single charge.
Ministry of Economic Development senior analyst Ralph Samuelson estimates that the energy cost of driving a wholly-electric car for the equivalent range provided by a litre of petrol would be only about 40c.
That compares with 142.9c for 91-octane petrol, of which about 64c goes in taxes.
The Government's draft energy strategy acknowledges a possible challenge in working out how to recover land transport charges for building and maintaining roads from electric vehicles, but has given a strong indication of a favourable tax regime.
It has also indicated the potential for cut-price electricity for charging batteries at night, to avoid peak-time surges on the national power grid.
But it says the environmental impact of manufacturing and disposing of long-life vehicle batteries would need consideration.
Clean Green Car Company owner Stephen Pollard, who has sold 270 used petrol-electric hybrids in just under 2 1/2 years, said batteries were not an environmental problem for his customers as they lasted as long as the cars themselves.
The draft strategy does not prescribe any increase in the Government's modest targets for biofuels, of 0.25 per cent of transport fuel use by 2008, rising to 2.25 per cent by 2012.
But it says a working group should investigate moving to "significantly higher levels of biofuels beyond 2012" as an alternative to a do-nothing scenario of 35 per cent more emissions by 2030 from a transport sector which gobbles up $4.4 billion of imported oil each year.
Motor Industry Association chief executive Perry Kerr welcomed the draft document, but warned against trying to "pick winners" in vehicle technology. "Internationally, car companies are spending billions of dollars on research on improving vehicle fuel technology and the use of alternative fuels," he said.
Automobile Association spokesman Mike Noon said his organisation expected plug-in electric vehicles to become very attractive to commuters. But he added: "Driving in a fuel-efficient manner reduces consumption by between 10 and 30 per cent - that is a considerable amount of fuel, cost and emissions - the savings are there and available today."
DRIVE BY WIRE
* Electric cars in Japan can reach 130km/h and cover 160km off a single battery charge.
* The British G-Wiz takes about an hour to run out of battery juice at 65km/h.
* An American electric roadster goes from 0km/h to 96km/h in about 4 seconds and travels up to 400km on a single charge. It costs $145,000.
