Shane has been with TR Group since 2014 as our National Sales Manager. He is responsible for leading the lease sales team, focusing on growing our asset base and long term revenue. Moreover, he leads a team passionate for trucks and people, making sure to match great customers with the right vehicles, each and every time.
TR Group orders 20 Hydrogen Fuel Cell (HFC) Electric Trucks
TR Group has ordered 20 x Hyzon Hydrogen Fuel Cell Trucks for the New Zealand market. The 600HP, 58 tonne GCM tractor units will be powered by 100% green hydrogen, with the only emissions being water vapour. The 20 HFC trucks will remove approximately 5,000 tonnes of CO2 from our atmosphere every year and will be made available to customers by way of a Fully Maintained Operating Lease (FMOL), including fuel.
TR Group has worked closely with the New Zealand Government and Hiringa Refuelling New Zealand Limited (Hiringa Refuelling), who are developing the fuel supply network to support the trucks. Hiringa Refuelling, along with their station partners Waitomo, will soon break ground on the first of four green hydrogen refuelling stations across key freight routes in the North Island.
The New Zealand Government has also been a key support in this project with $6.0 million in co-funding coming from the COVID Response and Recovery Fund and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA).
The first units will be in New Zealand in mid-2022 for performance testing with the balance arriving towards the end of the year.
TR Group’s General Manager, Brendan King, said, “We have had great uptake from customers for these vehicles, who share similar values to ourselves when it comes to decarbonising the transport network and making the world a greener place. If we are serious about reducing our impact on the environment, it is important that we embrace and seek to understand this technology and help develop it for New Zealand conditions as well as helping to develop the support networks for it, such as service and repair expertise and the vital refuelling infrastructure. This can only be done with real world use of this technology.”
King added, “Of course we couldn’t have done this without the support of our partners - EECA, the New Zealand Government, Hiringa Refuelling and Hyzon, and are incredibly grateful to them. We’re hugely excited about the learnings ahead and we look forward to playing our part in New Zealand’s journey towards a zero-emission transport future. There’s a long way to go but this is a really positive first step.”
Hyzon Motors CEO, Craig Knight, said “Hyzon is proud to participate in this exceptional partnership with TR Group and Hiringa to decarbonise New Zealand’s heavy transport sector.”
Additional Information About the COVID Response and Recovery Fund
The $50 billion COVID Response and Recovery Fund (CRRF) set out in Budget 2020 earmarked $3 billion for infrastructure projects. Ministers established the Infrastructure Reference Group (IRG) to work with local councils and businesses to identify a pipeline of projects to support the economy during the COVID-19 rebuild. Cabinet then decided the key sectors and regional breakdown of funds with more than 150 projects worth $2.6 billion being approved in principle.
These sectors are (excluding a $400m contingency)
- Housing and urban development: $464m
- Environmental: $460m
- Community and social development: $670m
- Transport (cycleways, walkways, ports and roads): $708m
The approximate regional breakdown is:
- Auckland Region = $500 million
- Bay of Plenty Region = $170 million
- Canterbury = $300 million
- East Coast = $106 million
- Hawke’s Bay = $130 million
- Manawatu/Whanganui = $140 million
- Northland = $150 million
- Otago = $260 million
- Southland = $90 million
- Taranaki = $85 million
- Top of the South = $85 million
- Waikato = $150 million
- Wellington Region = $185 million
- West Coast = $90 million
The IRG investments will help kick-start the post-COVID rebuild by creating more than 20,000 jobs and unlocking more than $5 billion of projects up and down New Zealand. They are in addition to the $12 billion New Zealand Upgrade Programme and existing Provincial Growth Fund investments.