Flying for the South African and Australian air forces, Mr Knoesen estimates he burned a million litres of jet fuel in his 15-year career.
That is something he was not happy about doing, and now he is leading the charge in Wanaka for the electric car.
"In Wanaka, people seldom travel more than 40km in a day and these new electric cars can do between 110 and 220km, depending on which model you own.''
Mr Knoesen set up the Wanaka Electric Vehicle Club with the aim that, over time, 80% of the town's petrol and diesel cars will be scrapped.
The club has nine members so far, who own such vehicles as the Nissan Leaf and Toyota Prius and, in one case, a 1904 Baker Electric, New Zealand's oldest registered electric car.
Mr Knoesen has set up in business as an electric vehicle "finder'', connecting potential buyers with electric vehicles for sale in places such as Japan.
He is working on a request for a unit to power an electric boat on Lake Wanaka.
He plans to approach the Queenstown Lakes District Council to set up a fast-charging station, as has been done in Dunedin.
That would reduce recharge time from four hours to about half an hour.
Mr Knoesen was expecting to be on the road today bringing another Toyota Leaf electric car from Christchurch to Wanaka. He expects the trip will take 14 hours, with two four-hour stops for recharging.
Mr Knoesen said the Whangarei Electric Car Club's 33 members travelled 491,000km in 2015, saved $57,692 in energy costs and reduced CO2 emissions by 80,000kg.
