About Us
Vision
We want to help facilitate New Zealand’s transition to 100% electric transport as quickly and smoothly as possible, by first enabling people to make the choice to go electric and then supporting them once they’ve made that choice.
We see a future where all forms of transport are electric and powered by 100% local renewable energy. Whether the energy is stored in batteries, hydrogen or some as-yet-undiscovered technology, the emotive force will be electric – clean, quiet and powerful.
Cyclists have clean air to breath, motorways are quiet and the skies over cities are a brighter shade of blue. We see a stronger service industry supporting longer service life of transport machines and 100% recycling of parts when they reach end-of-useful life.
Objectives
Understand
We want to help improve the general understanding of electric vehicles, their benefits and advantages. We want to help people to understand the new terminology, different types of charging technology and what to watch out for when they’re in the market to buy an EV.
Acceleration
The number of EVs in New Zealand has more than doubled every year since 2014. Every new EV on the roads helps to sell many more in a classic snowball effect. That’s why our products and services are designed to do exactly that – get more EVs on the roads sooner. Through our EV rentals, leasing and sales we are helping to get more EVs onto the roads sooner.
Support
We don’t just want to sell lots more EVs, but also support those who have already converted to electric. If people have a great experience buying and owning their EV then it’s more likely they will convince others to make the switch also. Our spare parts and service division supports all EV owners, regardless of whether they have bought their car from us.
Our History
Background
After driving his first “proper” EV in 2012 and having himself given 1,000+ test-drives around the world over the following two years, our founder knew that getting people into electric vehicles was the best way to convince them of their superiority. But it was proving an expensive hobby and with his savings running out, he decided to start Blue Cars as a way to allow him to keep doing working fulltime towards his goal – to help accelerate the uptake of electric vehicles in New Zealand.
Incorporation
The first Nissan Leaf was purchased for our rental fleet on 30th December 2014 and the company was officially incorporated as Blue Cars Limited on 27th January 2015. Our rental fleet grew to eight vehicles during that first year. Since then the company has not only expanded its fleet further, but also started to offer addition products and services that support not only our original business, but the wider EV industry in New Zealand as well.
Diverging
After poor experiences with locally sourced charging cables, we decide to import higher quality chargers from a company in Sweden and we were soon supplying these to other EV owners as well. Similarly, after having trouble sourcing spare parts for one of our rental cars that had been damaged in an accident, we decided to start our own spare parts and service division, which has now also grown into a large part of our business servicing external customers as well as our own cars.
For our better health, economy & environment!
The Team
Carl Barlev
As an engineer in the power industry, Carl worked on energy projects around the world until his strong passion for sustainability drew him to electric vehicles and he secured the exciting role of building Tesla’s first supercharger stations in Europe. Carl moved back to New Zealand in 2014 and started Blue Cars as a way to let him promote EVs as a full-time job. He is also a Director of ChargeNet NZ, a founding Trustee of the The Better NZ Trust and regular participant in the #LeadingTheCharge tour of New Zealand.
Bill Alexander
Bill joined the Blue Cars team in July 2016 as General Manager of our new Service & Parts division. He has helped us to several record “firsts” for the EV industry in New Zealand, including the first commercial battery pack swaps and refurbishing work,as well as developing a spare wheel solution for Leaf owners. Bill has Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) and brings broad experience from 25 years in the transportation industry. Bill is also a founding trustee of a Charitable Trust based in Auckland.
Joe Camuso
Joe was one of Blue Cars’ first investors and volunteer supporters. Besides managing our first rental EV in Whangarei, Joe has always been ready to lend a hand whenever we have an expo to attend. Originally from the US, he moved to New Zealand with his family in the mid 2006 and settled in Whangarei, where he has been a strong driving force for EVs. Joe made national headlines in 2015 when he launched New Zealand’s first 100% electric taxi.
Team Avondale
Matthew Bamford-King, Jacqui Brookes, Bill Alexander, Cees van Egmond
