“The five new vessels will be progressively delivered during the contract term from 2028, and ownership will be transferred to Auckland Transport at the end of the contract in 2034,” AT said.
AT is also procuring three 24m “Metro Class” diesel ferries directly. The contract is due to be awarded this month.
The Herald understands two more diesels could be on the way for the Pine Harbour route, in a similar deal to the western route contract, which would take AT’s new diesels to 10.
Asked about the cost of the new diesels and for electric ferry vs diesel ferry running costs, a spokesman said: “We are not able to provide answers to those questions at this stage. It’s still very early days.”
During a media preview cruise for AT’s first hybrid electric ferry, Mayor Wayne Brown told the Herald that the new diesels would cost $8m each, compared to $20m for each electric or hybrid ferry plus $27.6m for on-pier chargers.
ASX-listed Kelsian said in a July 2 market filing that it had bought Belaire for $8.9m (with $2.8m up front and the balance paid if certain unspecified targets were hit between 2027 and 2029. The firm said the five new diesels would have an estimated capital cost of $38m (or $7.6m each, close to Brown’s figure).
Kelsian said its seven-year Western route contracts (for the city to Bayswater, Birkenhead, Northcote Point and West Harbour, along with Rakino Island, would generate $101m and that “the contracts contain revenue indexation mechanisms which protect Kelsian from fluctuations in the cost base of key cost inputs, including diesel fuel”.
AT earlier said its long-term plan remains to electrify the city’s fleet of 30 ferries, but that central Government funding that had subsidised its first four electric vessels had dried up.
“The new vessels utilise low-emission diesel engines with modular electric or hybrid retrofit capability, enabling a transition to lower or zero-emission operations as infrastructure and funding allow. This would support our Mission Electric plan to reduce emissions in our public transport fleet,” AT chief executive Stacey van der Putten said.
Fullers will operate the city’s first hybrid-electric ferry on the Devonport run from this month, albeit utilising its diesel generator because a central ferry terminal charger, originally scheduled for operation by December 2024, won’t be finished until mid-2027.
The electrification plan has, for now, stalled at two hybrid-electric boats and two fully-electric vessels. The first fully electric ferry has now been on the water for a year without going into service.
Fullers chief executive Mike Horne earlier told Tech Insider his company would only buy electric ferries when spending its own money, because of the overall lower cost of ownership.
He told passengers on the hybrid ferry’s preview cruise, “Fullers360 testing shows this ferry can deliver energy costs around 70 to 75% lower than an equivalent diesel vessel when operating electrically.”
Auckland’s EV Maritime wins contract for Western Australia’s first electric ferry fleet
Auckland’s first two (and for some time, only) fully electric ferries were built by East Tāmaki’s McMullen & Wing, with its spun-out company, EV Maritime, handling all aspects of design, engineering and electrical integration for the carbon-fibre 200-passenger vessels.
EV Maritime founder and chief executive has pitched quieter, cheaper to run and zero-emission electric ferries as a new export industry for Auckland.
Auckland Council’s re-embrace of diesel has seen it exit stage left as an anchor customer.
But the brighter news is that Eaglen’s firm has won a key role in the largest-ever expansion of Perth’s ferry network, which comes on top of wins in the US and Canada.
Echo Marine Group won a A$66m ($78m) contract to provide five 100-passenger, 24m fully-electric ferries, then awarded a subcontract to EV Maritime for electrical systems integration as well as engineering of some key mechanical systems.
The new ferries will be Western Australia’s first electric ferry fleet.
“EV Maritime not only brings extensive understanding of the challenges of designing and building a high-performance electric vessel – essential to de-risk and successfully execute this project,” Echo Marine group project manager Anthony Livanos said.
CDC in running for 1.4GW, $25.8b Anthropic tender
CDC Data Centres is in the running as US AI giant Anthropic looks to buy 1.4 gigawatts of capacity, according to an AFR report – with the first 1GW online by the end of next year.
The paper said proposals had been requested from Australian data centre operators including CDC, NextDC and AirTrunk, with a decision to be made in six weeks.
RFP documents published by the AFR put Anthropic’s budget at US$12 billion to US$15b ($25.8b) across “land, power and data centre infrastructure”.
Those participating in the tender have to supply “background on your financial structure demonstrating ability to secure equity and debt for a 1GW campus with initial capacity operational by EOY [end of year] 2027″.
The scuttlebutt is the 1.4GW contract could be split among several players, with CDC getting a 500MW slice.
CDC, half-owned by NZX-listed Infratil, operates nine data centres around Australia and two in New Zealand (at Hobsonville and Silverdale in northwest Auckland).
CDC valuation increases 23.6% in a quarter
Meanwhile, Infratil informed the NZX this morning that CDC’s independent valuation had risen by A$3.5b or 23.6% to A$18.5b in the June quarter.
The latest increase means CDC’s 49.7% stake is now worth A$9.2b.
In May CDC said it had secured a 555MW contract with an unnamed US “high investment grade” customer, to become operational in 2028 or 2029.
The 30-year contract – Australia’s largest ever – represented 40% of current operating capacity across all Australian data centres.
Rationing AI
The growing cost of AI tokens – the basic unit of usage used for billing – saw Uber institute a US$1500 monthly cap per employee, per AI tool after the rideshare firm blew through its annual budget by March, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The paper framed it as part of a corporate trend to ration artificial intelligence as companies are exposed to more of the true costs, and some question returns.
Now the trend is coming down under, or at least a bit of a sharper eye.
AFR reported: “As Westpac chief executive Anthony Miller works away on his laptop, there is a new addition to his home screen, which is there to remind him not to get carried away with his use of artificial intelligence.”
An AI token tracker gives him a running tally of how many tokens he is using with his questions to chatbots, strategy simulations and other AI agent tasks. He has told colleagues it is about keeping the fact that each interaction costs money at the front of his mind, so he can judge if Westpac is getting a return on its investment.
A spokeswoman for Westpac New Zealand said: “We don’t have this feature.”
Aussie regulator sues Amazon’s Prime Video, ComCom weighs in
Across the ditch, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is suing Amazon’s Prime Video.
The regulator has accused Prime of unfair contract terms after some 850,000 Australians paid for a year’s worth of the streaming service upfront, then asked for an additional A$2.99 per month to avoid ads after commercials were added to the service from July 2024.
“Those subscribers were provided with a degraded, ad-supported Prime Video service for the balance of their prepaid term unless they paid for the ad-free option”, the ACCC added in a court filing.
A spokeswoman said Amazon was reviewing the case filed by the ACCC.
Amazon added ads to Prime Video in New Zealand in August last year. As across the Tasman, subscribers were asked to pay $2.99 to avoid them. The service hasn’t revealed customer numbers here.
Will our Commerce Commission follow the ACCC?
“The commission has not taken action against the concern raised in the recent ACCC case,” Commerce Commission head of fair trading Simon Pope told Tech Insider.
“However, the commission is in regular contact with large businesses selling subscriptions in New Zealand as part of our regular and proactive compliance monitoring.”
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
