LINDSAY Cox is an enthusiastic advocate for the Nissan Leaf electric vehicle he bought secondhand three years ago.
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He's enthusiastic enough that he spent part of last year as an Uber driver in Bathurst so he could give people who had never experienced an electric vehicle a chance to do so.
"I did that up until Christmas time and I'd have carried about 500 people, I suppose, just to expose the vehicle to the folk who had never ridden in an electric car before," he said.
"And everybody was really pleased with it. They were surprised. It opened their eyes, so it's done a good thing in that regard."
Mr Cox describes himself as encouraged by new figures from the Electric Vehicle Council which show electric vehicle sales in Australia more than tripled last year - from 2216 vehicles sold in 2018 to 6718 in 2019 (which includes hybrid plug-ins).
He bought his 2014 Nissan Leaf - from a Nissan dealer in Melbourne - not because of environmental concerns but because he wanted to experience the new technology for himself.
"I'd heard a lot of talk about it and the only way to really find out about something is to do it yourself," he said.
"I've found it a very, very satisfactory engagement.
"It's a different sort of motoring. You're going back to a quiet sort of motoring. Mind you, it's got the performance: if I take off at the lights, I can take off as quickly as a V8."
Mr Cox's Leaf had 16,000 kilometres on the clock when he bought it and he's since added 30,000 without any problems.
"There's no maintenance with them [electric vehicles] apart from the tyres and the windscreen wiper blades, really," he said.
"They're the only major costs that you can face.
"A normal car has about 3000 parts and an electric car has about 300 - that's in the motor part of it.
"It [the electric vehicle] will have the same sort of disruptive effect on the car industry as what phones have had on communication. It's disruptive technology."
The purchase cost - electric vehicles are still significantly more expensive than petrol cars - and the battery range remain the two biggest concerns for people considering an electric vehicle, Mr Cox said.
But he said the cost to charge the car is minuscule compared with filling up a petrol car and the growing number of electric vehicle chargers - the NRMA has installed fast chargers at Bathurst, Orange and Lithgow - is making motoring easier.
"It only costs around $2 per 100 kilometres to run the car if you're buying the power, but I have solar panels at my place and I get my power cheaply," he said.
"I can charge the car during the day and it doesn't cost anything."
Mr Cox estimates the prices for electric vehicles will reach parity with petrol vehicles as soon as three years from now and, once that happens, "electric cars will take off".
He also likes the fact his vehicle is not reliant on petroleum shipped to Australia from overseas.
"By generating all our energy [for electric vehicles] here, we're not sending money overseas," he said. "Our balance of payments will be improved if people use electric cars because we don't have to buy petrol."
