Five best uses of the EV Contestable fund
The latest round of funding from the Low Emission Vehicles Contestable Fund was announced recently. Damien O’Carroll looks at five of the best.
The Low Emission Vehicles Contestable Fund is a pool of ‘‘up to $7 million’’ a year that the Government has established to encourage innovation and investment to accelerate the uptake of electric and other low-emission vehicles in New Zealand.
Paid for from the levy on fuel, the fund is administered by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) and, according to EECA’s website, is available to ‘‘co-fund up to
50 per cent of project costs with private and public sector partners in areas where commercial returns aren’t yet strong enough to justify full private investment’’.
This year’s round was recently announced and more than $4 million distributed to various businesses and organisations.
Here is what we considered to be five of the best uses of the contestable fund.
YMCA Invercargill ($18,000)
It’s not all about the big-money projects and we like the fact that the YMCA in Invercargill will use the money to buy two second-hand electric vehicles and one charger for its corporate fleet, to be used in delivering its community and youth programmes.
The YMCA says it is committed to both cutting carbon emissions and to help demonstrate the practical actions people can take in their own lives to live more sustainably.
The organisation will also ‘‘integrate the benefits of electric vehicles’’ into their teaching curriculum, passing knowledge on with its programmes that it says reach about 500 young people in the area each year.
VTNZ ($26,000)
One of the more interesting infrastructure uses of the fund is VTNZ’s intention to use its slice of the money to test the reliability and affordability of a method for testing EV battery condition, as well as charging infrastructure performance and safety, with the idea of advancing the knowledge and skills needed to develop an EV battery servicing market in New Zealand.
VTNZ says it will leverage the experience of their parent company in Germany to develop a test for New Zealand conditions and that the test would provide the buyer of a second-hand electric vehicle with confidence in battery condition, life expectancy and charging ability and safety.
Ryman Healthcare Ltd ($117,500) and BUPA New Zealand ($128,675)
Ryman Healthcare will purchase an electric vehicle fleet and install two charging stations at each of its five Auckland retirement villages, to be used by residents, their families, staff and the broader public who regularly visit their facilities.
Bupa will purchase three electric vans to replace existing diesel vans in Auckland and Christchurch, as well as install a publicly available charger at three sites. The vans run laundry pickup and delivery services across four to six sites each, travelling up to 100 kilometres a day.
ORIX New Zealand Limited ($135,451)
ORIX will use the money to support its Electric Vehicle Initiative (EVI) programme where businesses with more than 15 ORIX-leased cars may have the opportunity to upgrade one fleet vehicle to an electric vehicle at the same lease rate as the fossil fuel equivalent and install a charging unit free of charge to the customer.
The company says integrating electric vehicles into a three-year lease will enable each company to experience and fully evaluate electric vehicles for their organisation and that the project will help eliminate many of the barriers faced when incorporating an EV into a fleet.
Ports of Auckland Ltd ($250,000)
As part of its hydrogen fuel demonstration project, Ports of Auckland together with its partners (Auckland Transport, Auckland Council and KiwiRail) will use the money to procure hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (EECA funding goes toward one bus and up to three cars) that will be used and tested as part of the wider hydrogen demonstration project in Auckland.
The project will be undertaken in collaboration with project partners with each party testing the viability of the fuel cell vehicles for their needs.