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.

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