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David Gatward-Ferguson realised early that electric vehicles were a good fit for his tour business, Nomad Safaris.
David Gatward-Ferguson realised early that electric vehicles were a good fit for his tour business, Nomad Safaris.
He initially invested in a 4WD Tesa Model-X and took it out on the tough trails of Central Otago. The performance was great and the maintenance costs were much lower than his other vehicles.
Then, with the help of EECA, he invested in a 24 seater electric bus, which is largely used to transport customers doing the Routeburn to and from Queenstown and Glenorchy.
As he says, if you're heading into the great New Zealand outdoors, a loud, smelly diesel bus is pretty contradictory. And from a business perspective, diesel buses are also more expensive to operate.
Going early on any technology comes with risks, but people like Gatward-Ferguson are crucial to prove that it's possible and profitable and he's no doubt inspired many other operators in the Central Otago region to follow suit and upgrade their vehicles to electric.
When Mike Casey bought his house near Cromwell, it came with gas bottles on the side of the home for water and an expensive diesel system for the underfloor heating. He replaced both of them with a Steibel Eltron system and it's been saving him money ever since. As technical manager Bhawesh Singh told him at the Electrify Queenstown conference, there has been a big influx in enquiries from homes looking to get off the molecules and onto electrons.
Read moreDownloadConfidence that cutting regulations to make solar power more accessible - won't jeopardise people's safety. A new Regulation Ministry reports laid out a potential blueprint to legalise plug-in solar and reduce the time and cost of panel installation. Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey shares his thoughts with Andrew Dickens.
The burgeoning demand for solar was also a chance to address a mismatch between the numbers of training opportunities available and young people searching for work, Casey said. "The mums of New Zealand are telling me that there's not enough apprenticeships for their kids and the solar installers of New Zealand are telling me there's not enough trained people."
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