Re-embracing fossil fuel: AT getting 8 new diesels; EV Maritime lands big Perth contract – Tech Insider

“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.

Endangered species: Auckland’s first hybrid-electric ferry. Fullers says it will begin service on the Devonport-CBD route this month.

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.

Fullers CEO Mike Horne says his company’s testing shows a fully electric ferry delivers 70-75% lower energy costs than an equivalent diesel vessel. Photo / Corey Fleming

“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.”

EV Maritime founder Michael Eaglen at McMullen & Wing during construction of Auckland’s first two electric ferries. Photo / Michael Craig

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 EV Maritime handling all aspects of design, engineering and electrical integration for the carbon-fibre 200-passenger vessels.

EV Maritime founder and chief executive Michael Eaglen 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.

An artist render of one of the five electric ferries commissioned for Perth.

Echo Marine Group won a A$66m ($78m) contract with the Public Transport Authority of Western Australia 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 vessels – part of the Metronet on Swan Ferry Service Expansion – 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.

One element is certain: Tech Insider has been told by a well-placed source that the contract does not extend to New Zealand.

CDC’s Hobsonville Campus One data centre, with the edge of Campus Two visible at the right rear. Photo / Chris Keall

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.

Over the past three years, CDC Data Centres has risen to dominate Infratil’s capital expenditure, and become easily its most valuable asset. But One NZ has been easily the largest contributor to operating earnings (ebitdaf).

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.”

Jeremy Clarkson in his Amazon Prime show Clarkson’s Farm

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.”

Competition for Starlink: Amazon Leo says it will launch by year’s end

Amazon Leo says it now has enough satellites in orbit to begin service by year’s end.

The fully-owned Amazon subsidiary, which has a ground station under construction in New Zealand, will compete with SpaceX’s Starlink.

Tech Insider understands a second player, AST SpaceMobile (backed by Google, Samsung, Vodafone, AT&T and others) is also on track for a commercial launch by year’s end. AST also has a ground station underway in NZ.

Starlink’s share of New Zealand’s rural broadband market increased from 19% in the year to June 30, 2024 to a market-leading 27% in the year to June 30, 2025. Source / Commerce Commission 2025 Telecommunications Monitoring report.

After launching 29 over the weekend, Amazon Leo says it now has just under 400 satellites in orbit. Starlink has around 650 of its next-gen, mobile-to-satellite-capable satellites in orbit, and around 10,000 overall.

Amazon has FCC permission to launch 4500.

Competition is due. Earlier this year, Starlink hiked its prices worldwide ahead of parent company SpaceX’s IPO.

The Commerce Commission recently revealed that Starlink increased its NZ subscribers from 58,000 to 85,000 in the year to June 2025 – surging past Spark to become NZ’s largest rural internet service provider with 27% share. Elon Musk’s firm will now be drawing around $185m from the NZ market.

NZGCP board refresh in a leaner era

NZ Growth Capital Partners has named angel investor Debra Hall as its new chair and Paul Hocking and Paul Reid as new directors.

They replace departing chair Annabel Cotton and outgoing directors Grant Straker and Nicole Buisson.

The Crown-owned agency has to make more of its own luck these days.

NZGCP received $300m in Budget 2019 for its Elevate fund, which puts money into venture capital firms’ funds for investing in start-ups. $270m of the total came from the NZ Super Fund.

In 2023, with most of the original sum invested, the Government-appointed members of the Startup Advisors Council (including Straker, before he joined NZGCP’s board) recommended that Elevate get a $500m top-up.

With Budget 2025, Elevate received a $100m top-up.

Budget 2026 saw $10m for NZGCP to create a new “fund of funds” that will invest in “selected emerging and first-time fund managers who invest in start-up companies”.

There was also a swings and slides move in this year’s Budget, with NZGCP’s Aspire seed for emerging companies moving from self-funding to receiving $6m per year from the Crown – balanced out by a requirement for NZGCP to pay the Government a $6m dividend each year.

NZGCP’s smaller Aspire fund, which directly invests in very early-stage companies, invested $9.6m across 21 companies last year.

Although no Government has leaned on the NZ Super Fund to make a major contribution to NZGCP since 2019, the Guardians have been active in venture capital, but have cut out NZGCP as a middleman.

The NZ Super Fund invested $70m into Movac’s Growth Fund 6 and $35m into the Wellington firm’s new Growth Fund 6, which recently had its first close at $185m.

New Kordia director Ben Kepes. Photo / File

Kordia’s got a new chair, too

Tech entrepreneur, investor, outdoor equipment impresario and commentator Ben Kepes – a Kordia director since 2021 – has been named the state-owned enterprise’s new chair, replacing Sophie Haslem.

Kordia – once TVNZ’s broadcast arm – now has a mix of media, emergency communications (an at times fraught area where it was part of the Public Safety Network upgrade), maritime communications (where it’s landed major business with Maritime NZ) and IT services including cloud and security offerings.

The SOE’s revenue was flat last year at $146m, while it squeaked to a $5m net profit (after a $2.5m dividend to the Crown) from a breakeven result the year before.

New cloud and AI initiatives were promised for the current year.

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.