More Kiwis will soon be plugging their cars in overnight rather than taking them to a petrol station if Transport Minister Simon Bridges gets his way.

More electric, and possibly even driverless, cars could be popping up on our roads in the near future if Transport Minister Simon Bridges gets his way.

Bridges plans to get in the ear of companies developing electric car technology when he attends the three-day International Transport Forum Summit in Germany on Wednesday.

The annual meeting of the world's transport ministers and leading industry stakeholders will take place in Leipzig. Bridges will have an important role to play, with New Zealand taking over the presidency of the forum this year.

Speaking to The Dominion Post before flying out, Bridges said be believed this country could lead the way when it came to embracing electric vehicle, or EV, technology.

He would be making sure developers were aware of that when he met them at the summit, he said.

"I've said a number of times now, we're one of the most EV-ready countries in the world. That's the right phrase though, 'ready', and what we need is more companies bringing their vehicles here."

While in Germany, Bridges will have the opportunity to visit BMW's Leipzig plant, which produces its i3 and i8 electric car range.

There are currently 630 fully electric or hybrid-electric cars registered in this country. The Ministry of Transport has commissioned research to project how that might change.

Bridges believed we had the platform in place to handle an upsurge in electric vehicles, given a high percentage of the nation's electricity came from renewable sources and our "three-point plug" capability was widespread.

"Your average Kiwi can drive their electric vehicle into their garage and plug it in overnight, ready to go in the morning."

Compared with countries such as Australia and the United States, Kiwis also drove less – about 33 kilometres a day on average – which meant electric vehicles were well-suited to the majority of our travel requirements, Bridges said.

Another area he was keen to learn more about was developments in driverless cars and remotely piloted aircraft, or drones.

Drones are already being used commercially in this country for activities like search and rescue, crop spraying, aerial mapping, and photography.

"New Zealand has the capacity to have something of a leadership role in this area," Bridges said.

About a dozen Kiwi companies were already developing drone technology, while the Civil Aviation Authority was close to finalising new rules that would allow commercial drones to be flown beyond the operator's line of sight.

ELECTRIC VEHICLES IN NZ

Fully electric vehicles: 303 (64 registered in 2015)

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles: 327 (98 registered in 2015)

Total: 630 (162 registered in 2015)