With Leaf Capital’s first electric minibus arriving in the country last week, Fiji having an electric fleet of public transport vehicles may not be too far from reach.
Director of Leaf Capital Alex Reddaway and technical director Kishen Kumar retrieved two new fully electric vehicles from the freight warehouse in Walu Bay, Suva on June 30: a 14-seater minibus called the Islander 14 and a cargo van.
Arriving alongside the vans were two super-fast EV (electric vehicle) chargers which are planned to be set up in Nadi and Korotogo, the latter site already prepared with 40 kilowatts of solar panelling on the roof to supply energy to the charger.
“These are DC 40-kilowatt EV chargers with dual standards, the Japanese and European standards, so this can charge two vehicles simultaneously and is a fairly fast charger,” Mr Kumar said.
“Once we have these fast-chargers in Nadi and Korotogo, I think you’ll be able to do the trip with almost any EV between here and Nadi with only a 25-minute charge at a place with a restaurant and a beautiful view,” director Mr Reddaway said.
“So, frankly, I think we’re all systems go!”
The vehicles were built for Leaf Capital under license, and both sport the Switch Network logo.
“I think it ties together everything that we’re doing, all the way from the solar to the charging network to the vehicles themselves, it really links them up and shows how this is an integrated transport-energy project,” Mr Reddaway said.
He added that this does not mean the company hoped to make their vehicles or network exclusive, as the overarching goal was still to encourage people to start making the move towards electric for the sake of sustainability.
“We hope to kickstart the wider move towards e-mobility in Fiji,” he said.
“As for the efforts of our colleagues in the vehicle industry like Vision Motors and Palas, we’re starting to bring in more EVs and we hope that together we will really build momentum, and I think our charging network can be the basis for all of this.”