In 2018, New Zealand family owned operator Tranzit Group introduced its first electric bus to operations. In the years that have followed, Tranzit has cultivated an electric scene that is well ahead of the curve.
In a packed room, James Howard stands in front of the microphone. Howard is the project manager for New Zealand operator Tranzit Group, who has just won the Environmental Excellence Award – one of the top awards at the 2 Degrees Wellington Regional Business Excellence Awards.
“In the cities we operate in, we want to ensure people can travel on clean, quiet and zero-emissions buses, so what we’re doing is investing heavily in electric buses and charging infrastructure to support the journey,” he tells the crowded room at Wellington’s Lower Hutt Events Centre.
It has indeed been quite a journey for Tranzit Group – the operator’s zero-emissions transition hasn’t been an overnight success. The process has taken years of planning, trial, error and frustration to get to this point. Tranzit’s award is a rewarding moment that proves the operator’s risk was worthwhile.
Tranzit Group’s electric turn first started in 2014, when the operator harboured bold plans of introducing the first battery powered electric bus into New Zealand. It started by visiting China and parts of Europe to see how it could build New Zealand’s first battery powered electric bus designed for the nation’s conditions.
“We started by simply trying to understand what the technology was,” Howard told ABC. “We thought we needed to be on that zero-emissions journey, as the world was clearly heading that way and we didn’t want to be left behind.”
Four years after research began, Tranzit Group delivered its first battery electric bus in New Zealand in 2018. Two years prior, Tranzit had been awarded around 60 per cent of Wellington’s public transport network to provide a blueprint for an electric bus rollout. With this deal came an agreement to deliver 10 electric double decker buses to New Zealand’s capital city, with their success resulting in an order to operate 42 electric double decker buses. The family business prioritises taking a long-term approach when it comes to change within the industry, meaning Tranzit was certain its first electric bus in 2018 was to be the first of many. Howard says Tranzit viewed the initial bus as part of its long-term vision of considering the environmental impact of its fleet.
To be able to deliver the first electric bus nearly five years ago, Tranzit partnered with the Auckland University of Technology (AUT), who it already ran shuttle services for. The existing relationship allowed the operator to receive co-funding with the university to fulfil its electric bus dreams.
It was a huge leap for Tranzit to take in its quest for a battery electric bus fleet.
“The first 10 electric buses ordered was a massive risk for Greater Wellington Regional Council to take with us,” Howard says. “Thankfully the order lifted our order size from 32 up to 42 – it was a recognition of how successful the idea of the initial buses were.”
Tranzit continued rolling out the first wave of electric buses into service throughout 2018. Instead of following the manufacturing methods of other international companies, Tranzit went down a novel path. The operator elected to have the electric buses’ chassis and battery built in China, before bringing the base to New Zealand, where the body was added by local manufacturers.
When the first buses of the 42-vehicle order were launched in 2018, it was a milestone moment for Tranzit and New Zealand’s bus industry. Yet Howard knew the most daunting challenge lay in front of the operator – it still had to convince the passengers that electric buses were a safe and efficient transport option.
“There’s no doubt that we took a calculated risk,” Howard says. “We initially had a lot of pushback and naysayers. We had people from mobility scooter companies telling us we wouldn’t get our electric buses up Wellington’s hills. But we were quietly confident and took the time and effort to dispel myths.
“When the first two buses launched in front of parliament in Wellington, that was the moment where we proved that the product could work in New Zealand.”
Fast-forward to 2023 and Tranzit has now convinced New Zealand passengers that electric buses are the way of the future. Howard says the general public now appreciates the benefits that electric buses bring.
“People are now almost used to them and they expect electric buses on some routes,” Howard says. “I’ve driven lots of electric buses and it’s amazing to hear the passengers comment on the vehicles.”
Once the buses launched, Tranzit’s electric transition increased at a rapid pace. Before long, the operator introduced an electric bus into the northern island city of Palmerston North. But it wasn’t enough for Tranzit’s owners, who wanted to find other ways of increasing its electric bus fleet. The operator took on the audacious challenge of converting a Euro 6 diesel double decker bus into a fully electric vehicle as part of its first Repower bus contract.
Howard says the Repower bus was converted fully in house by Tranzit workers. The family owned operator started by upskilling its diesel mechanics to electrical engineers, with some workers completing the highest certificate available in New Zealand. The idea came from Tranzit’s transport and operations director. When Tranzit received funding from the Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority (EECA) to convert two Repower buses, the operator soon began the building process in its Masterton workshop.
The first Repower bus was launched in Wellington in January last year and has already completed more than 80,000 kilometres in just one year.
“We’ve proven that repowering diesel vehicles is a viable alternative,” Howard says. “In New Zealand, when an urban bus is retired, it becomes a school bus and continues emitting into the atmosphere for another 10-15 years.
“We figured if we could cut these emissions at the knees, then it would be a good way of fixing the problem. It’s not the answer for everything but there’s definitely space for it in the market to reduce emissions.”
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The second Repower bus will be a single deck vehicle rather than the double decker that was first converted. Following this project, Tranzit is also in the process of introducing New Zealand’s smallest electric bus in a 20-seat vehicle into the town of Taupo later this year. Since the New Zealand operator first elected to go down the electric path, it has developed its fleet at a whirlwind pace.
Howard says the biggest challenge Tranzit has faced in its electric transition is adapting to the charging infrastructure needed to keep a growing fleet of zero-emissions buses running. Tranzit has been around for nearly a century, meaning buying new buses is second nature for the company. Providing infrastructure for them has been the major constraint. To combat this, Tranzit bought two of the world’s fastest electric bus battery chargers, which can fully charge an electric bus in eight to 10 minutes. Alongside this cutting-edge charging technology, Tranzit also created the largest slice of privately owned charging infrastructure in New Zealand, which currently stands at a total of 2,829kW – enough to power 3,400 homes or approximately the small town of Foxton, north of Wellington city.
“Electric double decker buses in Wellington are light because they only run on two axles, not three,” Howard says. “These smaller battery packs give us cost advantages, but they also mean buses in the area can only run between 120 and 140 kilometres on a single charge, meaning we’ve had to install fast chargers on bus routes.
“We have had a pantograph charger in Island Bay in Wellington for nearly four years now and recently installed another one at the Wellington Bus Interchange as a way of opening more routes. Throughout the country we have chargers ranging from 30 kilowatt to more than a megawatt.”
Although Tranzit was initially met with scepticism when it started buying and running electric buses, the operator says the general public has quickly warmed to the zero-emissions fleet. Howard says Tranzit prides itself on thinking outside of the square when it comes to pouncing on unique opportunities such as zero-emissions buses.
The zero-emissions transition may have been a fever dream for years, but now Tranzit is fully involved in electric vehicles. Howard says the operator places an expectation on itself to only buy new buses that are electric models. To go one step further, Tranzit has set a goal to never buy another diesel urban bus again.
With 10 buses left in the initial order of 42 to deliver in New Zealand, Tranzit has nearly completed its audacious electric mission. Following this, Tranzit will continue repowering its fleet of diesel buses to meet the nation’s mandate of all new buses bought being zero-emissions from 2025. By 2030, no diesel buses will be allowed to operate.
For other operators considering the zero-emissions move, Howard says Tranzit has provided a blueprint on how to learn from initial efforts and constantly re-develop infrastructure to cater for electric buses.
“We look back at 2018 and we’ve learnt so much since that first electric bus was delivered,” Howard says. “It’s all about understanding where you can improve your operations and fix what you didn’t initially do right.”
Tranzit will continue innovating – Howard says it is currently investigating induction charging and hydrogen fuel cell technology to partner its electric fleet. In the years to come, don’t be surprised if Tranzit can also re-develop its tour and charter side of operations to run in more environmentally friendly ways.
“We encourage people to look at chargers and buses so they can understand the technology for themselves,” Howard says. “We now want to work out what the best product is to provide top quality service to our customers.
“We’ve been on an amazing journey so far and it’s so exciting and rewarding to think about what we can do next in this space.”