Wheels in motion
CARS
By the end of last year, there were 18,689 registered electric vehicles on our roads, mostly (10,223) used imports that are pure electric. Given that there are 3.2 million passenger vehicles in New Zealand, the transition from fossil fuels will be huge. More motorists are going electric, with the fleet growing 37% last year, according to the New Zealand Transport Agency. But the industry remains reliant on cheap second-hand imports.
Next year, the Government plans to introduce a “feebate” scheme that could see zero-emission electric vehicles, such as small or medium-sized cars, SUVs, vans or utes, eligible for a discount of up to $8000.
High-emission cars will also cost up to $3000 more to encourage car owners to switch. A wider range of new electric vehicles is available, but, priced from $50,000-$70,000, cost remains a barrier to uptake. We are unlikely to meet the Government’s goal of having 64,000 electric vehicles on the roads by the end of 2021.
TRUCKS
In the trucking world, it all comes down to weight. Heavy vehicles are among the most polluting and going electric will significantly cut emissions and noise.
But the batteries required to power trucks over a reasonable distance are prohibitively expensive. At the end of last year, there were only 175 of them on New Zealand roads. A large-scale roll-out of electric commercial vehicles, such as the big rigs that deliver freight the length of the country, is still years away from transforming the country’s 144,000-strong truck fleet. Developing the charging infrastructure at truck stops and depots will be a crucial requirement. Auto makers, from Tesla and Daimler to Volvo and a host of Chinese start-ups, have electric trucks in development, with Tesla expecting to start shipping its Tesla Semi this year. Greater progress can be expected with the 580,000 light-commercial vehicles on the roads as EVs aimed at fleet owners come to market.
BIKES AND SCOOTERS
Lime scooter crashes and tensions over sharing the road with e-bike riders have gathered plenty of headlines, but there’s no denying that e-bikes and scooters are an integral part of the low-carbontransport future. About 47,000 e-bikes and e-scooters were imported in 2018, more than double the number of the previous year. A new e-bike can cost anywhere from $2000 to $10,000, and e-scooters with enough capacity to get city dwellers to and from work each day cost $400-$900.
E-scooter companies such as Jump, Flamingo and Beam now have several thousand scooters between them for hire in main centres. A number of state-sector agencies, district health boards and local councils are offering e-bike subsidies of between $300 and $1200 for public servants to find greener ways of getting to work.
TRAINS
Mismanagement and underinvestment in our railways have made the transition from diesel-powered locomotives challenging. With sections of the mainline in the North Island not electrified, stateowned KiwiRail faces a big bill to allow
A wider range of new electric vehicles is available, but, priced from $50,000-$70,000, cost remains a barrier.
We are unlikely to meet the Government’s goal of having 64,000 electric vehicles on the roads by the end of 2021.
long-distance electric train travel.
Indeed, KiwiRail in 2016 announced a plan to switch from electric trains to diesel between Hamilton and Palmerston North to cut costs, a move that was overturned by the Coalition Government elected in 2017. Last year’s Budget saw $35 million allocated to refurbish 15 electric trains currently on that route.
The Greater Wellington Regional Council is pushing for the introduction of dual-mode electricdiesel locomotives, so trains can switch to diesel beyond the electrified line that ends in Upper Hutt and that continues on up the Kāpiti Coast to Palmerston North. Electric battery trains would avoid the high capital cost of electrifying lines, but their range is limited to about 150km.
Hydrogen-powered locomotives would be particularly suitable for the long-distance railways of the
South Island, where the lines are not electrified, but the technology is just emerging. Auckland Transport shelved a plan to introduce battery-powered commuter trains, opting instead to spend $133 million buying 15 electric engines to add to the 57 already on its electrified network.
FERRIES
The ferries shuttling across our harbours will increasingly go electric in the next decade, with Wellington’s East by West Ferries expected to have the Southern Hemisphere’s first fully electric ferry, a 19m battery-powered catamaran, on the harbour by the middle of the year.
Auckland company EV Maritime plans to build and test an electric ferry ahead of the Apec leaders’ week in November 2021. Ferry company Fullers has invested in the company’s research and development, with interest in using electric ferries to reduce emissions and operating costs on its inner-harbour routes. taken into account.
China’s $21 trillion economy and the growth that has transformed Shenzhen from a fishing village to an electronics powerhouse in 30 years is chiefly fuelled by coal-fired power stations. China produces nearly 30% of global CO emissions.
But it is also going green, spending large sums of money on wind, solar, hydro and nuclear energy to wean itself off coal, offering billions in subsidies for electric vehicles and infrastructure and cracking down on emissions.
A one-party state that plans a century
ahead, China is simultaneously the bestequipped country to decarbonise quickly and the one with the biggest incentive to keep burning fossil fuels to maintain economic growth.
New Zealand has about 9500 diesel buses for everything from school runs to intercity
Our electric fleet amounts to a mere 20 or so buses and Wellington, with 10 of them, is a world away from Shenzhen’s electric revolution.
coach services. A $12 billion infrastructure package announced by the Government this week went big on roading, which accounts for $5.3 billion of the $6.8 billion committed to transport. Rail received a significant boost, too, but with the exception of $371 million for the electrification of the 19km Papakura-Pukekohe line in South Auckland, there’s nothing specifically to decarbonise transport.
Our electric fleet amounts to a mere 20 or so buses and Wellington, with 11 of them, is a world away from Shenzhen’s electric revolution. But the capital’s electric bus story embodies the trials and tribulations all our cities are experiencing as they attempt to replace dirty diesel buses with clean electric ones in their efforts to go carbon neutral and reduce air pollution.
LOOKING TO CHINA
Tranzit Coachlines’ Rongotai depot is less than 100m from Wellington Airport’s runway. Jet engines rattle the room as Keven Snelgrove, the company’s co-owner and transport and operations director, gives his view on climate change.
“I’m a petrolhead at heart,” says Snelgrove, whose grandfather, Albert Snelgrove, founded Grey Bus Company in Masterton
A $12 billion Government infrastructure package went big on roading, but there’s nothing specifically to decarbonise transport.
in 1924. “But if you are pouring out the emissions we have over the past 100 years, something is going to happen. I’ve converted to electric vehicles; they’re awesome.”
Tranzit has 1500 buses running city, regional and long-distance services, including the 10 double-decker electric buses plying routes in Wellington. It introduced the country’s first electric bus in 2018 to carry students to and from Auckland University of Technology (AUT).
The debut of the big green buses in the capital in July 2018 should have been a proud moment for the city. But they hit the roads just as the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC), which controls public transport in the city and surrounds, rolled out major changes to its bus network.
The result was a “bustastrophe”. Unrealistic timetables, problems with the new
Every time Snelgrove visits China, a new battery bank weighing less and with greater capacity is available.
“Only three years ago, people said we were the village idiots. ‘Yeah, right, electric buses aren’t going to get up the hills in Wellington.’”
real-time bus information service and a driver shortage saw long delays, commuter confusion and Wellingtonians’ love affair with public transport turn sour.
“It’s a crying shame,” says Snelgrove, upon reflection. “Things didn’t go right. But they were corrected a lot quicker than the media picked up on. It seemed like easy fodder, they wanted to beat the regional council up and beat us up.”
The quiet new buses were well received, but that goodwill evaporated when commuters ended up an hour or more late for work. It took the sheen off Tranzit’s ambitious electric-bus plan.
“Only three years ago, people said we were the village idiots. ‘Yeah, right, electric buses aren’t going to get up the hills in Wellington.’”
But Snelgrove and his team had been closely watching developments in China, where most of the world’s electric buses are both made and bought for local fleets.
TAKING CHARGE
Tranzit forged a relationship with Chinese bus maker CRRC Times Electric. Bus chassis and electric motors from CRRC are shipped to Tauranga where engineering firm Kiwi Bus Builders adds the body and electronics.
“Our vehicles have to be very light due to our road construction,” Snelgrove says.
“Kiwi Bus Builders uses high-tensile steel so it can use less of it. Our double-deckers weigh little more than a regular two-axle bus.”
The batteries powering the buses come from another Chinese company, CTAL, the world’s largest electric-vehicle battery maker. Battery technology is advancing rapidly, to the extent that every time Snelgrove visits China, a new battery bank weighing less and with greater capacity is available.
“Our first bus had 109 kilowatt-hours (kWh ) of energy and the batteries weighed 2.8 tonnes. The new ones have 191kWh and weigh 1.3 tonnes.”
An electric double-decker costs nearly $1 million compared with $700,000 for a new diesel bus.
Then there’s the infrastructure required to supply electricity to charge the buses. The double-deckers connect to fast-charging stations at Reef St in Island Bay, taking 8-12 minutes and the equivalent power of
100,000 cellphones being charged at once to recharge before they hit the road again for another circuit.
Tranzit will make significant savings over the 15-year life of the electric buses on the cost of diesel. Snelgrove likes to keep the buses at between 40-70% charge, to put less stress on the batteries. A full charge costs about $23, and by slow charging them overnight, Tranzit can take advantage of off-peak electricity rates.
Snelgrove says Tranzit will invest nearly $10 million in the next decade on charg
“The Government has to get serious and help local bodies. I can’t see how a regional council such as Manawatū can afford to go for an electric fleet.”
ing infrastructure, including fast-charging stations at the busy Lambton Quay bus interchange. It will spend about $20 million on 22 new electric buses in the next two years as part of its contract with the regional council.
“It’s not cheap,” he says. “But we have been in business 94 years. We are a familyowned company that will invest for the long term.”
Tranzit has had two sizeable grants from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority’s Low Emission Vehicles Contestable Fund, including nearly $370,000 to launch the first electric bus at AUT. Heavy electric vehicles also get an exemption from road-user charges until December 31, 2025, or until they make up 2% of the fleet, whichever comes first.
But there are no direct subsidies to lower the costs of buying new buses and converting old diesel buses, which Snelgrove sees as a key factor limiting electric uptake.
“The Government has to get serious and help local bodies fund some of this,” he says. “We have an electric bus for Palmerston North due on the road in May. That’s a 30-bus fleet and it has a tender coming out in 18 months’ time. I can’t see how a regional council such as Manawatū can afford to go for an electric fleet.”
CARROT AND STICK
The Shenzhen Bus Group, which operates more than 6000 buses and 4700 taxis in the city, went entirely electric in the space of a decade thanks to generous government subsidies.
“When we procured the buses, probably 50% of our costs were covered by a very complex subsidy regime,” says Hallie Liao, head of the international development department at Shenzhen Bus Group.
It was a mix of municipal and central government funding, with the subsidies tailing off over time, to encourage quick take-up.
“If we procure the buses now, 20-30% of the cost would be covered, which is why our management made the decision to procure them in bulk earlier,” says Liao.
At the same time, Shenzhen has been tightening regulations on emissions standards and vehicle noise limits, putting pressure on fleet owners to go electric.
The roll-out of electric buses followed seven years of testing and trialling of the vehicles and the infrastructure needed to run them, beginning in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics.
“We had to figure it out as we went,” says Liao. “Charging infrastructure, setting standards for the buses, route planning. So far, we are in a good place.”
It helped to have Chinese multinational BYD Auto as an eager supplier on the bus company’s doorstep. Each year, the Shenzhen Bus Group buses emit about 422,000 tonnes less CO than the diesel buses they replaced, saving nearly 150,000 tonnes of coal each year.
But therein lies a problem with China’s electric transformation – about 64% of its energy production still relies on coal, which is more carbon-intensive per unit of energy than burning petrol.
The situation is better in Shenzhen, which is fed by the state-owned China Southern Power Grid, which supplies more than 250 million people with power and draws just under half of its supply from clean sources, including nuclear, hydro, wind and solar generation.
The Shenzhen Bus Group became such a big electricity consumer that it was able to negotiate industrial-user rates with grid operators, reducing its costs further. Lowering emissions from transport may lower greenhouse-gas emissions overall – slowing climate change – but the real impetus was to fight air pollution, which was turning skies a dirty grey in some big cities.
“Shenzhen was never really that bad,” says Liao, who was born and raised in the city.
“Beijing and the northern part of China were really heavily polluted, especially in the 2000s. It hit a breaking point. You see a similar development with India right now.”
The removal of diesel buses means less dangerous particulate matter from tailpipe exhausts is released around the city as well as less sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides.
Liao says the new buses went down well with passengers as a result.
“They are the happiest of the stakeholders involved. Usually, you would hear a lot of complaints around residential areas because diesel buses are incredibly loud and quite
The problem is about 64% of China’s energy production still relies on coal – more carbon-intensive than burning petrol.
polluting. Now, when passengers wait for the buses, they don’t have to inhale any unhealthy elements.”
GOING BACKWARDS
If Tranzit’s electric double-deckers are reducing emissions and pollutants in Wellington, their introduction was undercut somewhat by the regional council’s move in 2017 to shut down the city’s electric trolley buses, operated by the region’s other major bus operator, NZ Bus.
The controversial justification by the regional council, headed by chair Fran Wilde, in 2014, when the decision was made, was that the electricity substations powering the trolleys would need to be upgraded at a cost of up to $52 million and the buses were too costly to maintain.
The decision was pitched as a move to go all-electric, with NZ Bus producing a plan to convert the trolley buses to hybrid dieselelectric motors as an interim step. But the technology didn’t work as planned. Earlier this month, more than 50 of the old buses were listed on Trade Me, some for as little as $10,000, destined for new lives as tiny homes and pie carts.
For commercial airline pilot Herwin Bongers and his family, who live opposite the bus interchange in the eastern suburb of Seatoun, the death of the trolley buses meant misery.
Whereas they had sat silently at the interchange before making their way west along the No 2 bus route, replacement diesel buses