Frequently asked questions

Zilch members drive electric cars on-demand, instead of owning or leasing vehicles of their own.

Zilch cars are available to book by the hour from self-service locations (hubs) in parts of the city with concentrated numbers of businesses and residential dwellers.

Zilch members drive our zero emission cars for business use, travel and private use. As an alternative to private ownership, Zilch cars go to meetings, run errands, go to the airport, stay the night at Zilch members’ houses, do the shopping, pick up TradeMe scores and head away on roadtrips.

Zilch can be joined by businesses, government agencies and everyday kiwis. Each individual driving a Zilch car must:

• Be aged 21 years or older
• Hold a full, valid driver licence

Those with licences other than New Zealand licences will need to get in touch with the Zilch Driver Care team to organise their membership: members@zilch.nz 

Overseas drivers must have been in NZ for less than 12 months and hold a full overseas driver licence or international driver permit that is in English, or has an accurate English translation.

5 RENTAL RATES (including GST)

FEES AND CHARGES(including GST)

Join Zilch online, uploading images of the front and rear of your driver license. We’ll check you’re good to drive, let you know when you’re approved and post out your Zilch card – this is your key to drive any Zilch car that you’ve booked.

As soon as you’re approved you can make a booking, but you’ll need your Zilch card to lock and unlock Zilch cars, and to activate charging units.

Expect to receive your Zilch card within 7 days from sign-up.

License checks & membership verification is completed during business hours. 

We’ll let you know as soon as your account has been verified – verification will be completed within 1 working day.

Once you’ve set up a profile and we’ve verified your account, you can go ahead and make a Zilch booking.

• Log in to Book a car
• Select the pick-up location
• Choose ‘From’ and ‘To’ Date & Time & click ‘Find a car’
• Available car models will show a ‘Book now’ button
  • Model selection is not available from Airport hubs
  • If you do not see a ‘Book now’ button, try adjusting start and end times or give us a call to check availability
• Check booking details and hit “Confirm Your Booking”
• We’ll send you an email confirming your booking details
• 30 minutes before your booking, we’ll send you a text confirming the vehicle details: Car name & where to find it

• Log in to Book a car
• Select the pick-up location
• Choose ‘From’ and ‘To’ Date & Time & click ‘Find a car’
• Choose the One Way journey you’d like to book
  • Model selection is not available online for One Way trips
• Check booking details and hit “Confirm Your Booking”
• We’ll send you an email confirming your booking details. This email will show vehicle details as TBC (To Be Confirmed)
• 30 minutes before your booking, we’ll send you a text confirming the actual vehicle details: Car name & where to find it

If you need a car on a regular schedule,  a recurring booking is a great option

Firstly, make a booking as you usually would:

• From the ‘Home’ screen, select the Zilch hub you want to pick the car up from
• Enter From & To date and time of the first booking and click Find a car 
• Choose your vehicle of choice and click Book now

Instead of confirming your booking:

• Select View Details
• Switch on Set this up as a Recurring Booking
• Choose Daily, Weekly or Monthly recurrence.
• Select the frequency required, the day(s) for the bookings and the number of occurrences required.

Example

You need a car every second Wednesday for the next 12 months:

• Type: Weekly
• Frequency: Every 2 weeks on Wed
• Occurrences: 26

Just before the start of your booking, we’ll send you an SMS and an email with details of the location of your car:

• Pick-up hub address & access info
• Booking start & end times
• The name & license plate of the car we’ve assigned to you
• The parking space your car is parked in

You can unlock the Zilch car you’ve been assigned with your Zilch card, or with the Zilch app

Zilch card:

• A card reader is located in the front windscreen of all Zilch cars.
• Swipe your Zilch card on the reader and you’ll hear a ‘beep’ quickly followed by a ‘click’ of the doors unlocking.

Zilch app:

• Sign in to the app
• Access your booking list by tapping on the icon on the top right hand corner of the screen
• Open your booking, and tap on the ‘unlock’ icon.
• You’ll hear the doors unlock within 10 seconds.

Car not opening? There’s 3 main reasons this might happen, and an easy fix for each reason:

• You’ve arrived outside of your booking start time and your booking has cancelled or isn’t ready yet
  • Fix: If you’re early, wait for your booking time to start, and try again. If you’re late, go ahead and make a new booking.
• You’re trying to unlock the wrong car
  • Fix: Check your phone to confirm the name and license plate of the car you’re booked in to.
• Your Zilch account is not verified or active
  • Fix: Give us a call or flick us an email, and we can resolve this for you during business hours.

Make sure your car is unlocked, and gently pull the charging cable out of the car. 

If you can’t get the cable out, simply lock and unlock the car, and remove the cable within 10 seconds.

• Make sure you’ve unplugged the charger, replaced the charger cap & closed the charger flap.
• Jump in, shut the door and belt up (make it click!)
• Put your foot firmly on the brake pedal and press the START or ON/OFF button

Every now and then, an error message occurs at start-up, preventing the car from starting. 

This can usually be fixed by a quick ‘off again, on again’ trick:

• Turn the car off
• Open the door – Any dash lights should turn off when you do this
• Shut the door
• Reach forward and tap your Zilch card onto the card reader – the unit will beep and the doors will lock
• Reach forward again and tap the reader – listen for the deep and the doors unlocking
• Place your foot firmly on the brake again
• Keeping your foot on the brake, press the start button again.

You may need to repeat this procedure twice, but this simple reboot usually fixes any start-up bugs.

Park up at any suitable charging location: At home, at a public charger, or at a Zilch hub

• Turn the car off & open charger flap by pushing on the fuel flap, located in the traditional place you’d find a fossil fuel flap.
• Plug the charging cable into the car and activate the charging unit in the method specified on that particular unit. 

Read a guide to Charger Etiquette 

Park up at any suitable charging location: At home, at a public charger, or at a Zilch hub

• Turn the car off
• Open the charger flap by pushing on the fuel flap button, located on the lower dash panel, just in front of your right knee.
• Remove the appropriate charging port cap
• Plug the charging cable into the car and activate the charging unit in the method specified on that particular unit.

Read a guide to Charger Etiquette 

Park up at any suitable charging location: At home, at a public charger, or at a Zilch hub

• Turn the car off
• Open the charger flap by pushing on the fuel flap itself, located in the front bumper, under the passenger side headlight
• Remove the appropriate charging port cap
• Plug the charging cable into the car and activate the charging unit in the method specified on that particular unit.

Read a guide to Charger Etiquette