TR Group, New Zealand‘s largest commercial vehicle leasing and rental company, is adding electric vehicles (EVs) to its commercial vehicle fleet with three electric 11-tonne GVM 4×2 curtainside trucks suitable for the round-town pick-up and delivery market.
The company has purchased the vehicles with co-funding from the Government‘s Low Emission Vehicles Contestable Fund, administered by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA).
The vehicles are available for rental to the wider New Zealand transport sector as of May 2021. As a sign of the growing viability of battery electric heavy commercial vehicles, the three units will join a further ten EVs that are currently under build or at work in TR‘s lease fleet with customers such as The Warehouse, Noel Leeming, TOLL, and Civic Contractors.
TR Group‘s managing director, Andrew Carpenter, said that the company is excited by the positive impact the vehicles will have on the transport sector and the environment.
“There is no doubt that EV technology has advanced to the point where in the not too distant future it will become an economically-viable, operationally reliable option certainly in short-haul metro applications. And it is also one that I know our customers will embrace, given their desire to minimise their carbon footprint and meet their sustainability goals.”
EECA Transport Portfolio manager Richard Briggs, said: “Around 20% of New Zealand‘s greenhouse gas emissions come from road transport, and heavy vehicles have a disproportionate impact on that. TR Group‘s new heavy electric trucks give road transport operators the chance to prove electric can work for them, and we look forward to seeing more businesses incorporating electric trucks into their fleets.”
Electric-powered vehicles – trucks included – produce fewer emissions than their conventional counterparts, and, in New Zealand, the electricity that powers them is largely from renewable sources.
“As a business that supplies heavy commercial vehicles for rental and lease, we feel it is important to be at the forefront of offering this technology to our customers, and we are delighted to be working with EECA and our customers to make that happen,” Carpenter said.
Look out for a full report on TR Group‘s new EVs in the June issue of New Zealand Trucking magazine.
