Two electric utes for Christchurch rangers

Christchurch City Council rangers are becoming ‘e-rangers’ following the arrival of two new electric utes.

The twin-cab LDV eT60 utes are a new addition for the Port Hills and Banks Peninsula Regional Parks rangers, joining the fleet of one electric ‘side-by-side’ LDV vehicle and an UBCO electric motorcycle.

“These vehicles may look like a standard park ranger ute, but they do enable the majority of our daily work – while helping out the environment and incurring reduced operational costs as we do it,” Port Hills and Banks Peninsula head ranger Paul Devlin tells the council’s Newsline.

The e-utes can carry a good load, are comfortable for passengers, have no harmful emissions and are quieter than standard internal combustion engine (ICE) utes.

They have a standard three-pin plug, allowing rangers to run electric tools or handheld battery chargers off the truck’s battery pack.

“These basic 2WD EV utes with a range of 400km can still do 75% of the things we need ranger trucks to do. Just not off road, in the snow or towing too much,” says Devlin.

He says it’s a move towards Christchurch City Councils Sustainability Policy goals, and that adding a bike rack and loading up an off-road electric motorcycle make patrols almost anywhere possible.