Bay of Plenty Business News December/January 2018

BAY OF PLENTY BUSINESS NEWS December/January 2018 13
GOING ELECTRIC
– THE PROS AND CONS
Pros
• Super quiet - so much so
you need to be wary around
pedestrians.
• Low maintenance – only
about 20 moving parts in
engine, versus 2000 in
internal combustion engine.
No oil required.
• Cheap to fill – the AA
calculates at equivalent of
30c a litre.
• Low emissions- only 20%
of a conventional car over
its lifetime.
Cons
• Still relatively expensive
compared to equivalent
conventional car.
• Slower to “fill” than a petrol
vehicle.
• Range remains limited,
but is improving with battery
technology. Remember, the
average distance travelled
in NZ is under 30km a day.
• Battery life can be a
concern, depending on the
age of the vehicle and its
battery quality.
The Hyundai IONIQ is one of the electric vehicles
available in New Zealand. Photo: Hyundai.
years hold for electric cars in
Tauranga, but cautioned that
media enthusiasm may have
run ahead of market realities.
“The real issue globally is
production levels are still relatively
low. However, in about 12
months’ time we are going to see
a real increase in the number and
variety of models available.”
His dealership can offer
two purely electric cars, the
Hyundai Ioniq and the e-Golf,
a popular car in global short
supply.
For now, electric cars still
hold appeal mainly to early
adopters, said Farmer.
And they will have become
truly mainstream only when he
has customers enter the dealership
asking about a specific
model first, then looking at an
electric option, rather than the
other way around.
“We will see the selection
and the price differential to
internal combustion powered
cars also drop, which will
make a significant difference
to buyer choice when they
come into the showroom.”
Long-time second-hand dealer
Chris Verryt, of Tauranga’s
Chris Verryt Cars, has had limited
dealings with electric cars
to date, with little inquiry from
a local market that he said was
relatively conservative.
“But I am also conscious
things are changing, and likely
to change very fast in coming
years. Like any new technology,
people have questions
around things like battery life,
maintenance and range, but all
are improving.”
He noted the recent positive
press received for vehicles like
the Nissan Leaf being voted
New Zealand’s most reliable
car in Consumer magazine
would only hasten the uptake
of electric cars.
Without a combustion
engine or gearbox, the two
most problematic aspects of
car reliability, 97 percent of
Leaf owners said they were
“very satisfied” with their car.
“But I think we need to
see new electric cars fall to
the $20,000-$30,000 bracket
to really take off.”
At Ebbett Holden, dealer
principal Julian Clements
said the marquee had received
very few inquiries for electric
options, and there were no EVs
Tauranga remains heavily car-dependent
A
recent New Zealand Transport
Agency survey put Tauranga’s
dependence on cars at 91 percent of
all journeys travelled. This compares with
87 percent in Hamilton and a mere 54 percent
in Wellington.
It’s a dominance that, despite recent
efforts in promoting walking or biking, has
on the horizon for Holden at
this time.
Despite repeated requests,
on going to print, Bay of
Plenty Business News was
unable to contact either
Tauranga City Council transport
manager Martin Parkes,
or NZ Transport Agency Bay
of Plenty highway manager
Niclas Johansson for comment
about policies on EVs in Bay
of Plenty.
The council’s webpage
states a regional project is
underway to establish a Bay
of Plenty charging network,
connecting the main business
centres throughout BoP and
tourist destinations to “support
reduced only slightly from 93 percent seven
years ago.
Meanwhile, traffic growth has increased
at a very rapid pace. A March Quarterly
Economic report identified a jump of
nine percent in the past year, almost double
the national average increase for the
same time.
stress free travel.”
At this stage Tauranga has
charging points at Bayfair
Shopping Centre, one of which
is a rapid DC “user pays” charger,
plus two funded by Bayfair.
The southern end of the
Strand has two AC chargers
through the country’s first dedicated
solar fed charging units.
Seven IT projects for Christmas
Depending on your type of business and industry, you
may have reduced working hours over the festive and
holiday season. This is a great time to do a number of IT
projects while limiting business disruption.
Supportive IT partners
wont be closing down
over this period, making
it a great time to engage services
for things that have been put
off “until you get round to it”.
So what can you do or get
your IT partner to do for your
business, giving you peace of
mind for 2018 and making
sure you have a successful and
trouble-free year? Try some -
or all - of these seven projects.
1) Backups
Ensure your backups are working.
Test them and do a “res-
toration test” by picking a file
or a folder to try and recover.
2) Disaster recovery plan
Formulate a disaster recovery
plan. Right from Internet connectivity
issues and, hardware
malfunction through to earthquake,
flood and fire.
3) Antivirus check
Is your current antivirus up
to date? Have you just been
hitting close or later when the
renewal reminder comes up?
Update your programme and
make sure everyone on the
network has the same version.
Better still, look at managed
options.
4) Network documentation
and patch management
Is your comms cabinet like spaghetti
junction? Do you have
a diagram/visual representation
of how it all fits together?
5) Maintenance and asset
list
Make sure all tools have the
right security patches and are
running the right versions
across the business. And
check to see whether you have
an up-to-date asset list of hardware
and software applications
in the business for insurance,
accounting and support purposes.
6) Professionalism and
digital marketing
Does your small business have
a gmail/Vodafone/ Hotmail
address? Do you have a website?
If the answer to both
those questions is yes, consider
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Director Stratus Blue Ltd. Tony@stratusblue.co.nz | Mobile
022 122 8669 T 07 777 0010.
how much more professional
it would be to use you@
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hotmail.com. This is a simple
and very economical fix for
your business that can set up
up well for your 2018 digital
marketing plan.
7) New phone system,
server or cloud migration
This is a good time undertake
the bigger projects. Check out
the latest technology in areas
such as IoT, VR, AR, Ai and
bots to see how they could
assist your business. This may
also be a fun thing to with the
kids duringthe break.
For those that want to stay
away from technology over the
festive season, talk to your IT
partner about the above steps.
You can also visit our blogs
to see some tips on what to do
with the kids without technology
and screens.
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