A Sustainable Solution to Car Ownership

5 Friends: How to Share an Electric Vehicle.

I’d love to do my part by owning an electric vehicle instead of my fuel-burning monstrosity—that is, basically every non-sustainably powered vehicle on the road...

But right now, my budget won’t stretch for a new car, so I’ve been brainstorming other ways to make it happen. What if I bought an electric vehicle with my friends or flatmates? What if we teamed up—like we already do as renters—to share the cost and responsibility. What if, instead of each person owning a car, you could team up with a few friends to buy one EV and share it?

I did the research, and here’s how five friends could pull it off.

Why now is the perfect time to buy an electric vehicle

As it turns out, the EV subsidies caused a massive dealership oversupply. 2024 has quietly become a buyer’s market for electric vehicles. Add in a government push to expand the charging network, and range anxiety becomes a thing of the past. Read more

Here’s why prices are looking so good right now:

• EV Subsidy Removal = Slower Sales: When the Clean Car Discount ended in late 2023, EV sales dropped fast. More info
• Dealers Are Sitting on Stock: Manufacturers overproduced to meet predicted demand. But with buyers hesitating—thanks to new rules like Road User Charges—there are now too many cars and not enough people buying them.
• Motivated Sellers: With 2023–24 models still sitting on lots and newer ones already arriving, dealers are dropping prices just to move stock. That’s good news for buyers.

Right now, you can pick up a solid secondhand or even brand-new EV like a Leaf for around $30,000. And if you split that between five people? Well…

Why does everyone need their own individual car?

In Aotearoa and around the world, we’ve grown up with the idea that everyone needs their own car. But do we really? Most cars spend the day up, dusty as—still racking up costs for insurance, maintenance, rego, and emissions.

It doesn’t have to be like this.

All over the world, people are challenging that assumption. Instead of owning a car that sits idle 90% of the time, more folks are choosing to share—through apps, communities, or just informal agreements between friends. It’s flexible, it’s affordable, and it actually makes a lot of sense.

Sharing one electric vehicle between five people dramatically reduces the environmental and financial footprint of driving. Fewer cars mean fewer emissions from manufacturing, less pressure on our roads, and more cash in our pockets.

Plus, when we go from “my car” to “our car,” something shifts. The car becomes a shared resource. It builds trust. It sparks conversations about how we move around together. And it invites us to imagine a future where transport is less about ownership and more about access.

Crunching the numbers…

So how would it actually work? Here’s a simple breakdown:

1. Initial Purchase: Five friends pitch in equally for the cost of an EV—say, $30,000 for a Nissan Leaf. That’s $6,000 each.
2. Shared Costs: Split the insurance, charging, maintenance, and any parking fees. Set up a shared kitty for repairs and running costs.
3. Booking System: Use a Google Calendar or app to organise who gets the car and when. Keep it fair, flexible, and transparent.
4. Backup Petrol Car: Consider keeping one petrol car in the mix for those times the EV isn’t available. That way, everyone still has options, without owning five separate vehicles.

But what about the tricky stuff?

Totally fair question. Here’s how to handle some of the common concerns:

• Insurance & Liability: It’s actually easier than you might think. For example, with providers like AMI, only one person needs to hold the insurance policy, and as long as the other drivers are over 25 and don’t have serious driving convictions, they’re automatically covered. Just double-check the fine print before you lock it in.
• Maintenance & Charging: These cars are pretty low-maintenance—there’s no oil to change or belts to snap. It’s mostly about keeping it clean and charged. For charging, the simplest rule is: whoever brings the car home plugs it in. That way, it’s always ready for the next person and the responsibility is shared.
• Someone usually takes the lead: Like any good flat, someone will naturally take on a bit more admin—whether that’s setting up the calendar, paying rego, or booking the occasional WOF. If you’re that person, make sure the rest of the group appreciates you with snacks or petrol station pies.
• What if I still need my own car sometimes? That’s okay too. Some people might keep a backup petrol car for those rare occasions when the shared EV is booked. Or you can tap into short-term services like Mevo when needed. The point isn’t no cars ever—it’s just fewer cars, used more smartly.

Other benefits?

Who would’ve thought your EV could double as a portable power station? It’s not just for getting from A to B—turns out it can keep an entire off-grid camp humming too.

At a festival this year, we put that to the test. Our EV powered the essentials for a crew of 13 people over five days. We’re talking an electric kitchen (yes, hot meals!), charging stations for everyone’s devices, lights, and even a full-blown sound system. We swapped out the noisey, fuel chugging generators, for clean, silent power straight from the car.

It blew our minds a little, to be honest. Suddenly, the EV wasn’t just transport—it was infrastructure. It gave us freedom, resilience, and a quiet kind of magic under the stars.

So… could this work for us?

Maybe car ownership doesn’t have to be a solo mission. Maybe it looks more like five mates, one EV, a shared calendar, and a group chat called “Charged & Ready 🚗⚡️.”

For me, life has always been about community—about sharing, caring, and figuring things out together. If we’re going to thrive in this world, we need to lean back into that mindset: less “me,” more “we.”