Natalie Gallagher loves “the Beemer”.
The Park Lane Retirement Village resident moved in to her Living Well apartment early this year and brought her trusty Honda Jazz with her. But that’s gathering dust now that she can take one of the retirement village’s electric cars for a spin instead. There’s four to choose from – two Hyundai Ioniqs, a Mitsubishi Outlander hybrid, and Natalie’s favourite, the BMW i3.
It’s a long way from the Holden sedan of her parents. She got her licence in that in 1957, not long after turning 15. She already knew the basics, having learned to drive her dad’s tractor on their farm near Lincoln.
Park Lane’s EV fleet is part of a push by parent company Arvida to reduce its carbon footprint and also that of its residents. Benefits go beyond that, though – access to the vehicles allows residents to save the considerable costs of owning and running their own car. It also frees up space in the village that would otherwise go to parking for up to 100 cars.
To ensure residents can still access vehicles suitable for longer journeys such as holidays or ski trips, Park Lane has the Mitsubishi hybrid. The EV fleet will grow as more and more of the residents follow Natalie and go electric.
Natalie admits she never thought she would be driving around in an electric vehicle and that she was a bit apprehensive at first. That apprehension disappeared on her first drive. No noise, no changing gear, just foot down and you’re off. Natalie even took it as far as Diamond Harbour for a tramping club outing and found it quite peppy. The open road was no trouble at all.
Natalie was also a bit apprehensive about making the big move from the family home to a retirement village. Location was the No. 1 priority for her as she wanted to still be close to her old Halswell neighbourhood.
Now, four months after moving in to Park Lane, she loves her warm and sunny apartment and has no regrets at all about her choice. She likes that the village has a mix of building design, rather than the series of “little boxes” she saw elsewhere, and that it is on a smaller scale than some of the other options she looked at.
Making it all easier was relocation firm Senior Move Managers, who specialise in assisting with the emotional and physical aspects of shifting out of what has probably been the family home.