Green finance tapped to fund EVs
NZ Post has inked a $20 million deal with NZ Green Investment Finance to accelerate its move to electric vehicles.
The state-owned postal service and the state-owned green finance investor will each put up $10m through Sustainable Fleet Finance to provide attractive and competitive finance for electric vans or low-emission vehicles. Sustainable Fleet Finance is majority owned by NZ Green Investment Finance.
The investment will initially be used to finance an order for 60 Mercedes eVito panel vans for the NZ Post fleet which will arrive in the second half of 2022.
Under a four-year tiered lease plan, the vehicles will first be leased by NZ Post and then offered by Sustainable Fleet Finance to NZ Post’s delivery contractors at more affordable rates as second and third owners.
The contractors are also able to tap up to $500,000 of funding NZ Post makes available to its contractors each year through its EV Incentive Scheme.
NZ Post aims to have all of its own fleet and a quarter of its contractor fleet electric by 2025 and the balance of the contractor fleet electric by 2030.
The postal service has committed to being carbon neutral by 2030. Transport makes up about a fifth of the country’s carbon footprint, and most of that comes from the light vehicle fleet of cars, vans and utes.
NZ Green Investment Finance chief executive Craig Weise said the finance deal would help NZ Post achieve its goals and also give the second-hand commercial EV market the kick-start it needed.
NZ Post owns more than 400 electric delivery vehicles, which replaced many bicycles and mopeds, and also has more than 35 electric passenger cars.
The combined NZ Post and contractor fleet covers about 2131 vehicles, of which 80 per cent are light vans and 81 per cent with diesel engines. Some 1916 vehicles are in the contractor fleet. NZ Post estimates each diesel van it replaces with an EV will abate an average 7.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per annum.
The postal service has committed to being carbon neutral by 2030.