COMMENT
Is something virtually no one is doing news? Is it news if you think it is something people should be doing? And if that’s the case, is that you bringing an agenda to the news that shouldn't necessarily have an agenda brought to it? Is making something seem bigger than it numerically is news?
Or is that publicity or PR? And if it is, why do you make it news when you are not in the PR business? Is it news merely because it came to your attention by press release?
All of these questions are applicable to this week's University of Otago propaganda regarding the uptake, or indeed if we want to report facts, lack of uptake of electric cars.
Here's the simple truth most of the media will not tell you, because it doesn’t suit their agenda or their PC view of news, or indeed their personal views as to what we should be doing with our lives, electric cars in this country, as a means of transport are a failure and a pretty spectacular one at that.
Virtually no one uses an electric car. A lot of electric cars that are on the road are government agency owned. And they are government agency owned not just because they might save money, but because they have an agenda and they use our money to pedal it.
They want to be seen to be doing what they perceive is the right thing, like being anti-fossil fuel.
The story, such as it was, is that Dunedin has the highest uptake of EVs in the country. And what pray tell is the uptake? 3.73 per or 1000 people. In other words, a third of one per cent.
That's not an uptake. By the time you get to Auckland, it's less than one per 1000.
The real story, not that anyone appears interested in facts, is surely the lack of uptake in EVs. After all these years of propaganda, predictions and posturing, we are still in 2019 not interested in electric cars.
It is your classic example of an idea that’s not delivered, a dream that has failed, a bandwagon too many hitched onto, only to be disappointed by the reality. But instead of recognising it, they continue to flog it with hyperbole and hope no one notices.
Through a combination of high prices, poor delivery, bad range and lack of infrastructure, the cold hard truth is that EVs are not popular.
Yes, there are more coming on stream and yes sales will increase, but as that happens let the reportage be fair, balanced and honest. Put the PR spin and nonsense in check.
Dunedin recently celebrated the opening of its second rapid charger. It's second, they have two. So it was reported but it's not news. Two of anything isn't news.
The same way having next to no one in an EV isn't news. Unless you want to tell it like it is and report yet another fanciful, tech-based theory that was espoused to change our lives by 2020 but has, in reality, fallen flat on its face.
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