Caps like these began to be given away to new car clients at Phillipps Motors Ltd during 1984. Robin Astridge, who worked there at the time, remembers that the incoming Dealer Principal, Peter Lloyd, rang him from Kaikohe and said he wanted to give away caps to new car clients as a similar product had been a "great give away" elsewhere. He asked if there was a New Plymouth slogan at the time. Robin replied that he didn't know of one but suggested that "we are a city of oil and gas...so we are an energy city." This ' Energy City ' slogan subsequently was emblazoned on the caps and Robin thinks it may have been the first time it was used in connection with New Plymouth.