Celebrating the acceleration into an electric bus future

Canterbury Regional Council (Environment Canterbury) is celebrating its 21 newest electric buses, as it looks towards an all-electric future.  

The buses, which will be used on its urban fleet, bring its total number of electric vehicles (EVs) to 65. 

Councillor Vicky Southworth is excited by the new milestone. 

“Our urban bus fleet is now 26% electric. To have 21 more buses connecting people across Greater Christchurch every day, with zero emissions, is progress that I’m really proud of,” she said.  

Funding and support

Four of the buses arrived in January, with the remaining 17 having arrived in the last month. 10 of the new EVs were funded through New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA)/Waka Kotahi’s Climate Emergency Response Fund (CERF) programme.  

“We successfully bid for money from this fund and are really pleased to see it come to fruition in the form of these new EVs,” Environment Canterbury Public Transport general manager Stewart Gibbon said. 

The other buses were funded through a combination of NZTA National Land Transport Fund and Environment Canterbury’s 2023/24 Annual Plan and 2024/34 Long-Term Plan. 

Two of the new vehicles are set to be used on the Orbiter route, while the other 19 are being deployed across the network where they will get maximum use.

An event has been held at Environment Canterbury on July 23, 2024, to mark this electric milestone.

“It is really special getting together with other public transport advocates, groups and organisations to talk about the new additions, and how we see that number growing in future,” Cr Southworth said.

Environmental impact

“While we’re working away at the electrification of our fleet, we want to also acknowledge that every time one of our customers chooses to travel with Metro rather than driving a petrol vehicle, they’re directly contributing to reducing our region’s carbon emissions. We’ve had 2.8 million more Metro trips taken in Greater Christchurch over the last 12 months, which is a huge benefit for our city and environment,” Stewart said.

With the addition of these 21 new EVs, our urban fleet is expected to reduce Metro’s carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by an estimated 22.8% percent when compared to our existing diesel fleet, equivalent to over 3,600 tonnes of carbon dioxide saved annually, compared to a full diesel fleet.

Likewise, the emissions reduction from these electric buses includes over 22,000 kilograms less nitrogen oxide emissions and 193 kilograms less particulate matter, which is also a win for air quality.

“Our electric vehicle fleet is set to increase to 70 by the end of the year – with the arrival of another five buses expected over the next few months,” Stewart said.

“This will help push us closer to our goal of having our urban fleet fully zero emissions by 2035,” he added.

All 21 of the new EVs are owned by Kinetic.