Zero Emission Vehicles

Australia is at the start of an exciting transition, bolstered by a new industry focus and worldwide concerted efforts to achieve net zero-emission targets.

Overview

As transport emissions account for one of the fastest growing and largest sources of emissions in Australia, transitioning to zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) provides an opportunity to achieve significant emissions reductions for many fleet owners as well as substantial community benefits.

WSP’s international experts are diligently monitoring global and emerging trends and are helping cities around the world transition their internal combustion fleets to cleaner alternatives, the main types being battery electric vehicles (BEV) and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles (FCEV). Our expert international and local team is now helping Australian clients learn from other cities’ experiences.

Download our ZEV flyer to learn more.

Our expertise

Zero Emission Vehicle Strategy

WSP has supported clients in Australia and overseas around key decisions in the delivery of their transition to zero emission vehicles. These include strategic rationale, readiness of technology reviews, sustainability impact assessments, geospatial network planning, and transition scale and rollout timing. WSP brings deep technical experience to our strategy work, ensuring strategies are grounded with both infrastructure requirements and operational reality.

Zero Emission Vehicle Economic and Financial appraisal

Adoption and transition of zero emission vehicles requires careful consideration of the economic and financial implications. WSP has extensive experience building economic and financial models to inform budgets and cashflow requirements for our client’s transition. This includes understanding the capital for significant infrastructure requirements, reduced operating expenditure through lower fuel and operations and maintenance costs, and calculating the broader economic benefits of reduced noise and emissions.

WSP can assist with:

Green fleet policy and strategy advice
Fleet alternative fuels study
Baselining and global benchmarking
Finance, funding and cost economics
ZEV performance specification
ZEV transition plan development and assessment
ZEV infrastructure strategy, planning and design advice
ZEV service planning and technology advice
Battery electric power advisory services
Transition planning including staging, asset replacement and procurement
Stakeholder engagement
Implementation support (including trials)

Bespoke tools

Green Fleet IQ Tool - Low carbon fleet scenario analysis

WSP's Green Fleet IQ scenario planning tool enables comparison of different alternative fleet scenarios, and the feasibility of low carbon technology adoptions from a triple bottom line approach.

When developing the fleet strategy and the associated capital and operating costs, WSP takes a holistic approach with fleet and infrastructure to include the following aspects:

Facility and infrastructure upgrades
On-site equipment cost
Power transmission/fuel delivery to site
Fleet capital and operating cost
Tooling upgrades and personal protective equipment (PPE)
Staff training (high voltage safety)
Fleet emissions

The Green Fleet IQ tool will enable comparison of scenarios in terms of net present value (NPV) as well as annual capital and operating costs over the forecast period of the fleet strategy. Furthermore, the tool can enable the cost-benefit analysis of investment cost against the magnitude of greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction and identify any constraints in achieving GHG reduction targets.

Battery Optimisation and Lifecycle Tool (BOLT) for scheduled fleets

WSP developed BOLT to simulate heavy-duty battery electric bus (BEB) fleet operation and help government agencies and operators quickly and easily identify the best routes for electrification as well as energy consumption at depots.

BOLT incorporates a local analysis of numerous electrification scenarios, considering all the critical factors needed to simulate scheduled operations of a BEB or BEV fleet to determine energy consumption, evaluate range performance, and lifecycle operating cost. This allows simulation of a fleet owner’s entire network to create a system network Electrifiable Index (EI). The EI identifies the routes that can be electrified, potential routes for near-term conversion and a recommended path to guide a long-term transition to a zero emission fleet.

Triple Bottom Line (TBL) Assessment Tool

Our TBL Tool takes a holistic approach to understanding the financial, environmental and social benefits of the zero-emission fleet and facilities, including facility and infrastructure upgrades, fleet capital and operating costs, tooling upgrades, fleet emissions and more. This tool can assist fleet owners to compare various transition models and forecast the overall transition cost.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Tool

The TCO tool analyses the total cost of owning the existing bus fleet against equivalent ZEVs. The result is an Equivalent Annual Cost (EAC) that’s comparable across the various propulsion types at one or several agreed lifecycles for each type (e.g. 18 years for diesel versus 13 years for ZEB).

The complete model will include costs associated with all asset life stages in procurement, operations and maintenance, overhaul/rehabilitation, and disposition.