New RACT road safety car to spread the electric vehicle revolution in Tasmania’s schools

Tasmania’s peak motoring body will take its newest set of wheels around the state to educate the next generation of drivers about the electric car revolution.

RACT Community Manager Will Oakley behind the wheel of a new fully electric car that will be used to deliver educational programs. Picture: CHRISTOPHER TESTA.

TASMANIA’S peak motoring body will take its newest set of wheels around the state to educate the next generation of drivers about the electric car revolution.

While the take up of electric cars in Tasmania remains low compared to the mainland, numbers are expected to increase with the state’s first fast charging station already installed in Launceston and an ultra-rapid charger — capable of adding 200km to a car’s range in 10 minutes — coming to Campbell Town by the end of the year.

“We’re doing our best to be at the forefront of electric vehicles in the state,” RACT community manager Will Oakley said.

“We’re working really closely with the Tasmanian government through the Tasmanian Climate Change Office and we’re installing charging infrastructure throughout the state as well.”

Mr Oakley said the RACT chose to make its newest road safety education car a full battery electric vehicle to “spread the word” about their adoption.

He said electric car popularity was increasing as model availability improved and new vehicles entered the market at a more affordable price.

A 2018 report found Tasmania represented just 0.02 per cent of the state’s electric passenger vehicle market, with only 61 new EVs bought between 2011 and 2017 — less than every other state and territory bar the NT.

The RACT’s new car, a Hyundai IONIQ, will be used for road safety programs, mainly in the North and North-West.

“The students that we’re talking to at the moment are going to be the future drivers of electric vehicles, so it’s a really important education piece to get into high schools and colleges, and even for older drivers as well,” Mr Oakley said.

“These electric vehicles are on the way and I don’t think anything anyone is going to do is going to stop that and just how best to leverage the technology and the benefits of that, particularly for Tasmania where we have such a high percentage of renewable power.”

The RACT has already installed charging stations at its resorts in Freycinet, Cradle Mountain and Strahan and will this year add new ones in Hobart and Launceston.

“Having said that, the vast majority of charging is likely to be undertaken in the home — up to 90 per cent,” he said.