E-bus only bids short circuited for Canterbury contracts

Environment Canterbury isn’t accepting bus operators’ bids for contracts with just electric buses.

The regional council was applauded for declaring a climate emergency and says while its tender process doesn’t rule out electric buses, it is focused on the best way of getting more people to use public transport, Stuff reports.

It says a transport expert is critical of the decision, saying it makes no sense to force companies that only want to operate EVs to also submit a proposal using diesel powered buses.

Environment Canterbury (ECan) had been seeking tenders to run bus services in the greater Christchurch area, including routes such as the Orbiter, Blue Line and Orange Line. Applications closed on November 11, with contracts due to start next November.

Applicants had to submit three proposals – one with diesel powered vehicles, an alternative using all EVs, and another showing a transition to low-emissions vehicles.

A regional public transport plan requires all vehicles bought after 2025 to be low emission.

One applicant said on the Government tender website it wanted to tender only with EVs and says it was told it could not without also putting in a proposal involving diesel vehicles.

ECan public transport senior manager Stewart Gibbon is reported as saying the cost of an e-bus is nearly twice as much as an equivalent low-emission diesel vehicle, there would be a significant cost for charging infrastructure, and e-buses did not currently have the range to run many of the longer trips, so more vehicles would be needed.

“Based on our assessment we’ve been looking at for EVs, it’s very unlikely that we would be able to do an all EV solution at the moment.”

Gibbon says an EV-only tender is not compliant because ECan specifically asked for the three proposals and needed this information to understand the best, most practical way of reducing emissions.

He considers it might be best financially to progressively add e-buses, while balancing the need to invest in more buses overall to make public transport attractive and carry more people.