On board for Auckland-wide electric buses
Auckland’s 1360-strong bus fleet is one step closer to becoming fully electrified after Auckland Transport (AT) and Vector announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore the impacts of a full implementation.
Commencing immediately, Vector and AT will carry out a feasibility study to assess the impact of a fully electric bus fleet on the Auckland electricity network, and to identify opportunities where innovative energy technologies could be used to assist the transition and help avoid large network upgrade costs.
The MoU is a direct response to AT’s Low Emission Bus Roadmap, published last year, that outlined its commitment to have all new buses in Auckland being electric from 2025, with the whole fleet fully electric by 2040.
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff says electrifying Auckland’s bus fleet will be an important part of the city’s response to climate change.
“Electrifying the bus fleet would stop around 70,000 tonnes of C02 from entering the atmosphere every year and address the problem of pollution from black carbon, which is at high levels in areas such as the city centre,” he says.
“In 2018 I committed Auckland to ensuring that all replacement buses purchased from 2025 would be non-carbon emitting. Bringing forward that date would be even better and would be possible if the government was to extend to public transport vehicles an incentive scheme similar to its feebate for private electric cars.
“Vehicle emissions represent well over 40 per cent of Auckland’s carbon emissions and electrifying our bus fleet as well as encouraging a shift from cars to public transport is critical to achieving our climate change goals,” Phil Goff said.