Drive Electric backs Auckland emission-free zone

Auckland and other world cities are considering emission-free zones in their centres which will impact on the commercial vehicle sector and deliveries.

A public discussion document for the creation of a Zero-Emissions Area (ZEA) in Auckland’s city centre has recently been released following mayor Phil Goff’s signing of a Fossil Fuel Free Streets (FFFS) declaration.

The FFFS, also signed by mayors from major cities including Paris, London, Los Angeles and Mexico City, sees Auckland agree to procure only zero-emission buses from 2025 and create a ZEA in the city centre by 2030.

Any business relying on vehicles to deliver to Auckland’s central business district (CBD) is therefore on notice, with 10 years for the sector to comply with a zero-emission target.

Drive Electric chairman Mark Gilbert says that the focus on commercial vehicles comes at a good time.

“It’s common knowledge that the lower part of Queen Street is quite polluted. Diesel buses get a lot of the blame, but there are a lot of other diesel vehicles entering and exiting the city, plus ships coming into port contribute also,” he says.

“Given all the investment that’s going on to improve the city centre to make it more liveable, I think having a program to achieve a cleaner atmosphere down at the bottom of town makes good sense. And that means ultimately, the diesel vehicles will have to go.”

Auckland’s black carbon measure of 2.3-5.3 is nearly double reported results in America and the United Kingdom, making Auckland higher than most developed cities, with the exception of those in China.

Black carbon is a component of fine and ultra-fine particulate matter produced during diesel fuel combustion and have been connected to chronic and acute health impacts world-wide.

Queen Street also has notably higher hourly NO2 concentrations, with the 200 µg/m3 hourly average standard – the minimum reasonable standard of air quality – having been breached on several occasions.

As buses are part of the problem, Auckland Transport is already moving to introduce a zero-emission bus fleet, with two ‘extra-large’ electric buses rolling into Auckland by August 2020.

Those are in addition to two other e-buses already being trialled and six new e-buses being purchased for Waiheke Island. AT will also be trialling hydrogen buses and hopes to bring forward the transition to purchasing only non-carbon-emitting vehicles by 2025.

“There’s a lot of conversation about the number of cars that come into the city. But there’s probably less conversation had about how many vehicles stay in the city and just do those loops around and between business to business,” Gilbert says.

“It is pleasing to see private companies taking the initiative to move towards zero emission vehicles ahead of the deadline.

“Waste Management, for example, a firm that picks up rubbish around the city, is showing great leadership by moving to an entirely electric fleet in New Zealand.

“Another company, Civic Contractors, has also been investing in the only all-electric compact sweeper in Australasia and recently welcomed their first fully electric rubbish compacting truck to Auckland to be trialled in central and south Auckland. Their plan is to shift the majority of our fleet to electric vehicles by 2025.

“But are we seeing the availability of the types of vehicles that would allow zero emission delivery of goods around the CBD?”

Gilbert says while much of the focus has been on getting the passenger car fleet sorted, little attention is on what’s happening in the light commercial vehicle market where there are many exciting opportunities.

“LDV for example, has a superb range of electric cargo vans and the likes of the Nissan eNV200 van – sort of like your traditional bread van you could call it – along with Renault covers the smaller vans that dart around the city,” Gilbert says.

“They’re more expensive than diesel equivalents and I think that’s the issue that holds people back.”

Gilbert believes people forget that EVs have lower operating costs, “so people just have to do the math really and compare total cost of ownership”.