APRIL 2021 P. 10 ABB AND AUDI THE EVENT EXCITES PAIR UP P. 12 p. 03 LEAF LESSONS P. 14 WELLINGTON GOES ELECTRIC Drive your business forward with 1 EVS Call AND SteveBEYOND APRILOwens 2021 now| WWW.EVSANDBEYOND.CO.NZ on 021 947 752 LOVELY TO SEE YOU AGAIN MY FRIEND By Geoff Dobson, (MOODY BLUES) Editor ood to see everyone at The EVent – the Electric with the venue and dates) to better reflect the general Vehicle Industry Conference hosted by EVs and e-industry (not just EVs) with the inclusion of an e-home GBeyond at the Waiheke Island Resort on April 12 section for those considering solar power, EV home and 13. charging, and smart automation. It was a chance to catch up with many people in EV- Show specials will be offered, while awards will be related fields since the inaugural conference just beat presented to those who have contributed to the e-mobility the COVID-19 lockdown in March last year. industry. In fact, Auckland’s COVID restrictions in March this year I’m delighted to see all these events return in the after- forced the conference’s postponement for a month. COVID world (hopefully) now that vaccines are rolling out Many I spoke to at The EVent agreed it was great to (not without some issues) but it’s likely to be next year network again. before anything resembling normality returns globally, particularly international travel. And they enjoyed the variety of topics covered by various speakers with a couple appearing in videos (seems to be As you will read on our statistics pages, EV dealerships more the norm now) as they couldn’t get there in person. here are enjoying good times but wonder what the Government is doing to encourage EV uptake. The COVID pandemic may have delayed some things but it has certainly focused attention on EVs and other Perhaps we will all find out in Budget 2021, due to e-mobility, including their role in mitigating climate be announced on May 20 by finance minister Grant change. Robertson. The conference covered the electric transport revolution The talk around it is that the budget may offer tax on land, water and in the air, checked out hydrogen’s role incentives such as a fringe benefit tax exemption for EVs – particularly in long-distance transport, asked where to encourage business fleet EV uptake, leading to more New Zealand will source its EVs, looked at EV subscription secondhand EVs becoming available down the line. services – especially with an expected reduction in car Of course, transport minister Michael Wood is also ownership, and explained New Zealand’s charging and EV considering an extension of the EV exemption from road fleet infrastructure. user charges – set to expire on December 31 this year. Kiwi rally ace Hayden Paddon was interviewed by Auto Whether that will happen, and for how long the extension Media Group (EVs and Beyond publisher) managing editor might apply, won’t be known until later with Wood Richard Edwards at the conference networking dinner. expected to make an announcement around it shortly. Paddon talked about the development of Paddon As many EV dealers say – enough talk; let’s get on with Rallysport’s electric rally car, one of the world’s first which the decisions, policies and action! was unveiled late last year. It’s expected to take Kiwi technology around the globe and could lead to potential exports. You can read more about The EVent in this issue. The next is planned for February 21 and 22, 2022 with Electric Island Waiheke’s programme postponed from this year to be held the weekend before (February 19 and 20). Meanwhile, many at the conference hope to be back for the eworld expo on May 7 and 8 at The Trusts Arena in EDITORGeoff Dobson Henderson, West Auckland. EVs and Beyond will be there. The expo changed its name from EVworld NZ (along 2 EVS AND BEYOND APRIL 2021 | WWW.EVSANDBEYOND.CO.NZ ABB CHARGING UP AUDI FOR EMISSIONS REDUCTION udi New Zealand has been prominent great to see this technology in the field? lately in the electric vehicle space with Ewan Morris: It is. It's really a pleasure to its sales success with the e-tron all- A work with Audi, and it's exciting for ABB. electric SUV and the announcements of the These are some of the highest power sporty e-tron GT and broad-appeal electric chargers installed in New Zealand. They Q4. utilise higher output powers and voltages Beyond the vehicles, Audi is on a mission to to be able to charge these cars with large carbon neutrality. battery capacities in a reasonable time. It’s planning on making its production carbon It's really exciting for ABB to bring this neutral by 2025, while making moves to technology to New Zealand and work with make the broader company carbon neutral Audi. too. Richard Edwards: From a dealership It’s not doing the work alone, with partners perspective it must be important to have this helping the brand make the right moves. technology in place? One of those partners is ABB, with which it is Dean Sheed: I look at them and I think of working on charging infrastructure. some of the meetings I had with Ewan, probably two years ago, where we looked into To mark the arrival of an ABB 175kW DC fast the future and said, "Well, we could actually charging unit at Audi’s flagship Auckland Richard Edwards: How many are being put some installations in that would do the dealership, EVs & Beyond managing editor rolled out? job for today." Richard Edwards sat down with Audi NZ Dean Sheed: Every dealership in the country general manager Dean Sheed and ABB New They were sort of lower level, 20, 25 capacity will have a 50kW DC charger, which is known Zealand country managing director Ewan charges, and we said, "No, actually we'll put as the country's ‘fast’ charger. For the 175kW Morris to discuss their work together. in 50kW fast chargers as a standard”, and unit, the first installation was in Christchurch two years ago, that was the national fast Richard Edwards: Dean, it must be exciting at Archibalds Audi. The second one is here in charge standard. to have this great new charger operational? Auckland, which I understand is the highest Then we tossed around the idea of future- capacity DC charger in Auckland City, and Dean Sheed: Oh, it is. From an Audi proofing our businesses by taking ABB’s then the third one will be at Farmer Audi viewpoint, it's great for the business and leading 175kW DC chargers. We looked at Mount Maunganui. it's great for our customers. We are very that scenario and then we came out and I'm fortunate that we can bring such technology We just have to get charging around the now very pleased to say we have a number to the marketplace for the benefit of country, and we need to make it seamless of them being installed around the country. It everyone. for consumers and then just knock down was a great opportunity into future-proofing some of those barriers. Richard Edwards: And for you, Ewan, it's the business. Continued on following page... WWW.EVSANDBEYOND.CO.NZ | EVS AND BEYOND APRIL 2021 3 ...Continued from previous page And that's why it's good to work with ABB, because they have the global technology and we're localising it. Richard Edwards: Ewan, how advanced are the chargers you are bringing to New Zealand? Ewan Morris: These 175kW chargers are unique because they have a modular power electronics design and building block. This means customers can increase charging capacity as the demands go up, in a scalable way – they can just add more power electronic building blocks. Furthermore, all of the ABB chargers are ‘smart.’ They use an open communications protocol, which means electricity distribution companies, for example, can manage charging loads to mitigate peaks, and to For example, the Belgium plant where builds are equipped with EV chargers. It's ensure that the network remains stable. the e-tron is produced was Audi's first much more cost effective to install a charger Richard Edwards: Dean, your DC chargers carbon neutral assembly plant. We've just as part of a new build, than to go back and are smart. You’ve also done work around launched, just at Christmas, our second retrofit it later. ensuring your customers are smart about plant, which is carbon neutral, which is in And if you look at that over, let's say, a how they charge at home as well. Can you Hungary, and we have another three major decade, we can be saving the country explain that? assembly plants to go. hundreds of millions of dollars. Dean Sheed: Yes. Data says around 80% of That's just the first part, and then we've We also need to keep increasing investment consumer charging is done domestically, and got a whole wide range of vehicles which in the number of DC chargers around 20% publicly or in a workspace. We have will obviously be full e-mobility cars, so full the country. I think we've got a good to get both solutions sorted and that's why battery electric vehicles replacing the ICE geographical coverage across the country we were very pleased to work with ABB and cars. now, but many of these chargers are single other partners in coming together for home In terms of the date when we stop producing units.