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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.
A very cool 'floatovoltaics' project makes use of unproductive pond space and also helps those struggling with their energy bills; renewables push down the price of electricity to nothing (or less than nothing) in Scandinavia and South Australia and New Zealand has an opportunity to follow suit; France goes hard on electrification, while the UK builds better; Aussie truckies reckon electrification will take decades but much bigger electric machines are here now, including some from Volvo; hydrogen generators are an innovation we do not need; the Speight's brewery gets off the gas with a $7.2 million electric boiler; and a bit of 'solarcasm' demonstrates how going off-grid is now an option for some.
Read moreDownloadA big part of our New Zealand-made energy plan is helping gas users get off the pipes and onto the electrons. Now Business NZ has added its voice to the debate, suggesting that the $200 million set aside to help the oil and gas industry is instead used as loans to help businesses electrify. The rare call for support came after it released a report showing that the businesses reliant on gas were struggling with increasing prices and their closure would have a massive impact on jobs and the economy.
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