This study examines the impact on the local electricity grid should electric vehicles (EVs) or a light rail transit (LRT) system be introduced to the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. Spatial analysis highlighted that EV owners would not be evenly distributed throughout the city, and the initial stages of a proposed LRT network would cover only a limited area. Therefore, a few local power substations would have to provide the majority of additional power for both electric transport modes. Without management of EV charging patterns, one of the local substations would be overloaded if more than 2.6% of the Christchurch light vehicle fleet were EVs. The power demand from a LRT system would not overload the local grid given current demand levels. However several substations would need an upgrade 4 years earlier than current plans. A comparative analysis shows that despite the power demand from an EV fleet being higher than the demand from a LRT system (on a equal passenger kilometre per day basis), demand side management methods would allow shifting EV charging off peak time whereas a LRT system would still contribute significantly more to peak load. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.