“Cheaper than a mince pie:” Tradie charges up electric digger then tows it to work with his Tesla

A New Zealand tradie has simultaneously charged up his electric digger and Tesla while towing the earthmoving machine 2.5 hours to a worksite, and says he is sick of the misinformation spread about electric vehicles.

With no noise and no dangerous diesel exhaust pollution, electric earthmoving equipment will be a game changer for the health and wellbeing of millions of machine operators and tradespeople.

“Im a bit over hearing about what you can’t do with EV – much prefer what you can do,” posted Greg Gedson on NZ EV Owners facebook group.

“I just drove 2.5 hrs to a job that starts in the morning. Stopped to charge the car and the digger on the way, only needed 20 mins.”

The all electric digger, a Sany SY19E electric excavator, was recently reviewed by Gavin Shoebridge on his EV YouTube channel Ecotricity NZ. The digger has a 22 kWh lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery enabling it to run non-stop for 6 hours on the job site.

“This thing will run all day long for less than the price of a mince pie,” says Shoebridge.

“With this thing you can quite literally bury your competition.”

According to 1news.co.nz the cost of a mince pie in New Zealand in 2022 was $5. To fully charge a 22 kWh battery for $5 the price of electricity would have to be around $0.23 per kWh making Shoebridge’s mince pie claim highly plausible.

While kiwi tradies are already reaping the benefits of going all electric, some Australian politicians are attempting to rehash the culture wars against electric vehicles after the government recently announced its intension to legislate vehicle efficiency standards. A pollution standard that only Russia and Australia still fail to have in place.

In the lead up to the 2019 Australian federal election, then minister for employment, skills and small business Michaelia Cash launched a bizarre attack on vehicles with electric drivetrains.

“We are going to stand by our tradies, and we are gonna save their utes.” said Cash.

“What I worry about for people like Johny is that the car he is driving today, if a Labor government is elected, will not be the car he is driving tomorrow.”

“If you look behind us at all these apprentices here, 50 % of those apprentices will be driving electric vehicle under Bill Shorten.”

However, evidence suggests that tradies actually love electric vehicles. During my YouTube series Coal Miners Driving Teslas I met Dan who maintains fuel pumps in Tasmania. After going for a spin in the Tesla Dan was totally sold.

“You can obviously see that electric cars are coming.” said Dan during the drive.

“And I am way more keen to go home smelling like a Tesla battery rather than a fuel bowser or a bit of diesel.”