Kiwis put electric ute in Aussie mines

A Kiwi company is behind an electric ute Australian mining giant BHP is putting in its underground fleet of 240 light vehicles.

Manawatu-based Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEV) launched the Voltra e-ute at EVworld NZ in Auckland in 2017 and has since refined it and packed it off to its Adelaide facilities.

Adapted from the Toyota Land Cruiser 70 Series and dubbed an eCruiser, the EV is going into BHP’s trial for a planned light electric vehicle (LEV) fleet at its Olympic Dam copper mine in South Australia. Another LEV is due in a few months.

BHP’s announcement comes at a time when Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk has revealed a few details about his company’s plans for an electric ute.

Data on the Voltra’s performance, power supply, maintenance requirements, charging time and corrosion resistance underground will be collected. A decision on wider deployment at Olympic Dam is expected to be made during in the coming financial year, BHP says.

It aims to be an industry leader in low emissions technology.

Olympic Dam has about 800 underground employees using diesel equipment for development, production, ore handling and mine services.

BHP says the battery-powered utes will significantly reduce exposure to diesel particulate matter.

“This is all part of a broader initiative aimed at achieving a 50% reduction, right across BHP, in the number of employees with potential exposure to particulate matter. Olympic Dam’s switch to LEVs in its operations will reduce emissions, exposure and costs – as well as influencing the rollout of similar initiatives in our other locations.”

BHP plans to share the trial data it collects across the company, to help accelerate the broader deployment of LEVs.