West Auckland’s first electric bus depot opens

Auckland Transport (AT) showcased West Auckland’s first electric bus depot at New Lynn with a special opening event on September 15.

About 43 new electric buses now in service will be based there, along with the first electric double-decker bus coming later this year.

The New Lynn depot joins the Panmure and City depots in providing zero emission buses for Auckland.

AT and Kinetic (NZ Bus) celebrated electrification of the New Lynn depot, the Mission Electric milestone following on from the Panmure depot electrification – which was the first fully electric bus depot for New Zealand, unveiled in January.

The New Lynn depot launch also celebrates the 43 buses making Route 24 the latest fully zero-emission route for AT.

The NZ Bus depot has the latest technology to reduce burden on the grid and improve the environmental impact of Auckland’s electric bus fleet – all without putting Auckland’s energy supply at risk.

The new electric buses are charged up overnight, via their own individual direct current charger.

AT, Vector and NZ Bus have adopted a smart-charging system which will be connected to Vector’s distributed energy resource management system, managing e-bus charging during off-peak hours, typically overnight, to avoid increasing peak demand on the local electricity network.  

Every 15 minutes, Vector sends the depot the network capacity available for charging buses for the next 24 hours. This enables the bus depot to optimise its bus charging schedule accordingly and reduces investment on the network.

The system also futureproofs the depot for potential development of additional Bus to Grid (B2G) systems – to transfer surplus energy from bus batteries back to the network.

AT now has 133 zero-emission buses in its fleet, making it the largest number of zero-emission buses for a New Zealand city.

This is another significant step forward in implementing the Low Emission Bus Roadmap to decarbonise Auckland’s public transport, says AT public transport services executive general manager Stacey van der Putten.

“It aligns with the government’s 2035 mandate for the full decarbonisation of urban buses in New Zealand,” she says.

“It’s been exciting to witness the transition to electric buses recently and we know our customers are enjoying the cleaner, quieter travel. Auckland Transport is creating an efficient and sustainable transport network that helps Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland become a truly liveable city and region.”

AT continues to trial the only hydrogen fuel cell bus in New Zealand.