Electric bus driven from Wellington to Auckland

JW Group general manager Jo Crickett is amped after successfully driving an electric bus from Wellington to Auckland with one charge along the way. 

Crickett, from the Auckland-based bus importer firm, needed to get one of its electric Yutong E12 trial buses back home and a road trip was the only option with no shipping boat or towing available for the job. 

He wasn’t sure it could be done and was expecting to drive it as far as he could and then get it towed the rest of the way. 

Instead, on January 10, he managed to drive it all the way to Taupo with 18% charge remaining. There, he was able to plug into ChargeNet’s new hyper-rapid EV charger and get a full battery after two-and-a-half hours. 

“Whoever checks the billing account the next day probably thought there was some sort of error with 305.56kW charged,” Crickett says. 

“Bear in mind that three years ago this was the bus that did 420km in service. 

“However after three years of trial I would have thought between degradation and open road driving with limited regen I would be lucky to make it to Turangi.” 

The journey ended up costing him $184.06 – “A lot cheaper than a tow truck or ship.” 

He estimates the same trip in a diesel bus would cost around $450-$500 “including RUC, diesel and a sandwich for the driver”. 

In October 2020, JW Group delivered New Zealand’s first extra-large three axle electric bus to Auckland Transport. 

It’s operated by Howick and Eastern Buses on the Britomart route and is one of the largest electric vehicles in Australasia. 

It followed a 2018 and 2019 trial in which JW Group supplied a two axle EV bus to AT. The trial helped AT build confidence in operating an electric bus within its fleet to meet the demands of public transport. 

The company also delivered 21 electric buses to Christchurch at the end of last year and have 10 more due in a few months.

ChargeNet hyperchargers

ChargeNet’s hyper-rapid EV chargers opened in Taupo Central in the middle of last year. 

The project was finalised in March 2021 with the support of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) and round seven of the Low Emission Vehicles Contestable Fund and was the second hyper-rapid site for ChargeNet after Bombay. A third hyper-rapid charging site also opened in Kaiwaka just before Christmas.

Specific EV models can charge at the 300kW hyper-rapid chargers six times faster than on ChargeNet’s standard 50kW charging stations, enabling the newest generation of EVs to add up to 400km of charge in 15 minutes.