Thames' Civic Centre is a hotspot for anything about electric cars on Sunday 10 April from 9-11am as a convoy of electric cars travelling from Cape Reinga to Bluff this month to raise awareness of the vehicles briefly stops in town.

The event is sponsored by the Better NZ Trust and Spark, which has installed electric vehicle chargers in a number of its phone boxes - including one in Waitakaruru.

A Tesla Model S. Photo: Tesla

You can get up close and personal with a number of models: Tesla Model S P90 full electric, Tesla Model S P85+ electric, Tesla Model S 85 (LHD) full electric, Mitsubishi Outlander plugin hybrid SUV, BMW i3 plugin hybrid SUV

American electric car advocate, Chelsea Sexton, is taking part in the roadshow and can answer all your questions.

She best known for her part in the documentary, "Who Killed The Electric Car".

If you have never seen an electric car before, now is the time. Ask us questions, look at the cars, sit in the cars.

The event comes a few months after the first commercial electric vehicle (EV) charge point on the Coromandel was installed, at the Kopu Cafe.

The PlugShare website lists seven other (EV) charge points on the Coromandel, most of them at motels and campgrounds.

Electric cars have no clutch or gears, and accelerate more quickly and smoothly, in a 'sporty' way, when compared to typical petrol cars.

A fully electric engine has fewer moving parts, no spark plugs or engine oil, and requires less maintenance than a petrol equivalent.

Such cars are extremely quiet and reduce noise pollution. Travelling down hills or braking recharges the batteries, and is known as regenerative braking.

The cars have a range of 120-140km, and take between 30 minutes and 5 hours to charge, depending on the car and charger. Filling up at the Kopu Cafe costs $2.50/per hour.