Erlangen, Germany, August 26, 2020 — As the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe, the Germany-based conglomerate Siemens announces getting orders from Go Bus to provide them with charging infrastructure for their 34 Yutong electric buses in Auckland and Christchurch, New Zealand.
Switching from fossil fuels to electricity to operate vehicles is an essential step on the road to a zero-emission future. This is true not only for personal transportation but even more so for public transportation. However, to be fully “green”, it is crucial that the energy generation is sustainable as well and not leveraging sources that could be considered bad for the environment.
Leveraging climate-friendly power sources
More than 80% of the electricity in New Zealand is generated from renewable sources. With that sort of sourcing ratio, they are a great candidate for migrating their infrastructure to operate with electric vehicles. Investing in electric vehicles in countries that heavily rely on climate unfriendly electricity generation does often not directly lead to emission improvements.
The solution from Siemens Smart Infrastructure provides flexible charging systems that support voltage levels up to 1,000 volts and therewith remains compatible in the future in case the battery systems of the vehicles might change. The overall power capacity is planned to provide around 3.7 megawatt and the operations scheduled to go live in early 2021.
Thoughts from the leadership
“As a national bus operator, Go Bus needs to be agile and adapt to many fast-moving changes when transitioning to electric bus transport,” said Calum Haslop, CEO of Go Bus. “It’s also important that any investments we make now, take into account rapid advances in battery technology and digitalization. Siemens’ independent charging infrastructure and management software provides us with the most future-proof solutions and flexibility.”
Jean-Christoph Heyne in the @SiemensInfra webinar about #eMobility and the future of #Transportation. Interesting insight but maybe more of a near-future scenario. IMHO the far-future will be more focused on public transportation and shared rides. What do you think? https://t.co/CZp6TOSZmz pic.twitter.com/S35YZkvZjR
— Chris Isak (@ChristopherIsak) July 22, 2020
Siemens Smart Infrastructure works on shaping the future of mobility and how we live in both rural and urban areas.
Jeff Connolly, CEO of Siemens Australia Pacific and head of Siemens’ Smart Infrastructure portfolio in the region, said, “We’re proud to see our technology play a pivotal part in fulfilling New Zealand’s low carbon future. It’s critical to have a long-term view of transport infrastructure – one that centers around the effective and efficient use of the right technology and seamless movement of people.”
Yutong image film
Photo credit: The feature image is owned by Yutong and was provided for press usage. The top image has been provided by Siemens and JW Diesel and the image of the charging station is owned by Siemens Smart Infrastructure.
Source: Siemens press release
Editorial notice: The quotes have been provided by Siemens and were not changed.
