From automated servicing to 5 minute EV charging.
From connected cars and digital road user charges to AI fleet management, Aotearoa is making waves in the world of fleet technology.
At the recent Yoogo Fleet Technology Roadshow, a panel of experts explained how New Zealand is at the forefront of fleet innovation – and outlined some of the other big tech trends on the horizon.
Connected vehicles boost safety and efficiency
Modern cars can collect an enormous amount of data, using both onboard sensors and telematics. If you choose to share that data, it can provide a wealth of insights, from when the oil needs changing to early safety alerts. Fleet managers can immediately see how each vehicle is being used, address safety issues, undertake predictive maintenance and improve fleet efficiency.
“Fleet is one of the top five costs for most businesses,” noted Michelle Herlihy, CEO of Speirs Finance Group, which owns Yoogo Fleet. “One of our new customers was immediately able to reduce their fleet by 5%, based on what we identified from our data and analytics. We looked at a few more strategies and managed to reduce costs by around 10% in total, across about 700 vehicles.”
New Zealand is also leading the way as the testing ground for BYD’s Internet of Things (IoT) connected vehicles, with a 1000-car pilot currently underway. This would eliminate the need for additional in-car hardware, and could potentially provide national-level data on measurables like air quality.
Plus, with electronic road user charges (eRUC) set to become mandatory from next year for all vehicles, connected cars offer a way to automate and streamline compliance. Yoogo Fleet is working alongside their telematics partner, to deliver seamless eRUC integration at fleet scale.
Automation and AI improve fleet management
Yoogo Fleet is the first fleet company in Australasia to have developed an in-house automated fleet servicing platform: Digital Concierge. It combines real-time telematics data with an automated booking system to take the manual processes out of vehicle servicing and compliance. Drivers receive a reminder when a service or warrant of fitness is due and can book directly in three steps – click, pick, book. Within a month of its launch, 70% of connected drivers were using Digital Concierge to book their servicing directly.
Alongside this, Yoogo Fleet’s telematics platform uses AI-powered cameras and data analytics to give fleet managers real-time visibility across driver behaviour and fuel management.
“The AI looks at patterns over time, picks up tailgating, cell phone use, fatigue and distraction,” Dave Riches, general manager of operations at Yoogo Fleet, said at the event. “It tracks fuel usage and flags anomalies – fuel is one of the hardest fleet costs to manage, and the fuel crisis has made this visibility even more important.”
Five-minute EV charging and ‘super hybrids’
The fuel crisis has also driven renewed interest in electric vehicles (EVs), but uncertainties about EV batteries still hold back some buyers. That will change rapidly as new battery technology arrives in market, Warren Willmot, general manager of BYD Auto NZ, told the crowd.
BYD’s latest Blade Battery, anticipated to have an in-vehicle lifespan of 30 years, and to live on longer as a standby battery, is designed to be fast-charged every time with minimal degradation – “and it’s 60 times less likely to catch fire than a petrol car”.
Rolling out in October this year across New Zealand and Australia, BYD’s flash chargers will allow compatible EV models to charge fully in under five minutes. Using two charging guns simultaneously, flash charging technology will put EVs on par with ICE vehicles when it comes to refuelling time. This means at-home chargers may no longer be required, making it simpler for companies to adopt fully electric fleets.
Also rolling out this month will be a Shark hybrid ute in a cab-chassis version. BYD had no plans to manufacture this type of vehicle, but demand from the Australian and New Zealand markets led to its development. Designed specifically to meet the needs of Kiwi and Aussie customers, feedback from local drivers and fleet managers is informing the global development of BYD utes.
We can also expect to see a wider range of EV vans and utes by the end of 2027, as well as ‘super hybrid’ vehicles that can travel 2100km on a single charge and one tank of fuel. These are designed for those in rural settings and who travel frequently, which will suit account managers, tradies, and anyone who covers long distances.
Home battery storage that sits in your driveway
Across the globe, countries are taking a closer look at their energy systems, and the EVs of the future could have an important role to play. Many EVs already offer a ‘vehicle to load’ feature that lets you plug in a kettle or a power tool and run it off the car’s battery.
The next step is widespread availability of ‘vehicle to grid’ (V2G) technology, where you can tap into your car’s battery and either sell that energy back to the grid or use it to power your house. This requires a bidirectional charger, which will be standard with all Atto 3 models, at no extra cost, from 2027.
“The Atto 3 [extended range] has a 60kWh battery, which is bigger than a Tesla Powerwall. If you have solar, you probably never need to connect to the grid again,” Willmot explained to the audience. “This will fundamentally change what a car is worth at resale.”
Will a company’s fleet be able to power its office if there’s an outage? Could your car power your whole house at peak electricity times? Questions like these suggest that the innovations showcased at the Yoogo Fleet Technology Roadshow are far more wide-reaching than simply fleet management.
“We’re passionate about Kiwis and New Zealand Inc,” said Herlihy. “We want to see New Zealand solutions solving these problems, rather than just being consumers of global technology. We want solutions that work in practice for New Zealanders and create global solutions here in Aotearoa.”