SEA ELECTRIC, the Australian all-electric commercial vehicle innovator, is collaborating with insurance giant Zurich – through its Zurich Resilience Solutions (ZRS) group – to assist global fleet transitions to sustainable technology.

SEA Electric Australia sales director, Joe Di Santo said the Zurich brand globally represented quality and integrity, with its risk engineering team of around 800 engineers set to work with SEA Electric customers to enhance their EV switch. 

ZRS provides specialised insights and tools – above and beyond insurance – to help companies across a wide range of industries manage traditional and evolving risks to become more resilient. Services are provided across a number of domains, including climate change resilience, supply chain risk, and cyber security.

“The Zurich brand is highly respected within the industry, so to be working in combination with them moving forward has significant positive outcomes for both businesses, and, importantly, SEA Electric customers,” Mr Di Santo said. “The offering Zurich brings to the partnership truly has the potential to complement, enhance and complete the purchase of SEA Electric vehicles.

“Transitioning to electric is a big commitment. Our customers look to and rely on SEA Electric for guidance around the implementation of best practice strategy when it comes to the circular economy of commercial electric vehicles. We take seriously our responsibility of connecting our customers with reputable and proven organisations such as Zurich, as we lead the country in the shift to sustainable transport.

“Zurich’s risk assessment service will assist customers in understanding and identifying the many considerations, both short and long term, that come with such a purchase, ensuring they are properly prepared and set-up to scale as needed,” Mr Di Santo said.

“Ultimately with Zurich, we will be able to share learnings and enhance each other’s product offerings.”

Mr Di Santo said SEA Electric would work to assist Zurich customers in their understanding of commercial electric vehicle operations with customer experience days and webinars, while Zurich’s risk engineering department would benefit from ongoing training from SEA Electric’s knowledgeable team.

For Zurich, the partnership confirms the commitment of the business in working with customers to achieve sustainability.

ZRS Australia and New Zealand chief, Mervyn Rea said, “We are delighted that Zurich’s leading risk and resilience capability is supporting commercial EV uptake in Australia. Zurich and SEA Electric share a common commitment to improving the sustainability and resilience of our customers and community and this agreement presents an important opportunity to further this.”

Available now from a nationwide dealer network, SEA Electric introduced the world’s first comprehensive range of all-electric commercial vehicles in 2021, covering models from 4.5t through to 22.5t, which are entirely adaptable to a wide array of final applications.

www.zurich.com.au/business/services/resilience-solutions.html

www.sea-electric.com/en_au

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By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>

CARCLARITY, Australia’s first true car loan platform with an easy online application process, is set to revolutionise Australia’s auto market.

Zaheer Jappie, the founder and CEO of CarClarity, said the aim was to change the way people buy and finance car purchases.

He said CarClarity gave people the opportunity to examine options for a new car in 60 seconds. 

“It’s quite a different experience because we take into account the customer’s criteria, their credit score, their income, the car they’re buying and we actually give them real options up front,” Mr Jappie told Talking Business.

He said the process of the car dealership space in Australia and the financing of car purchases had not changed in 20 years.

“What we’re seeing in the other market globally is a big shift to more digital plays for buying a car and financing,” Mr Jappie said. “There’s a lot of hot-off-the-press overseas models that are doing very well and listing for big amounts of money and getting a lot of investment because customers’ needs are obviously more digital now and that’s now moving to the car financing space.”

EXPERIENCE TO CHANGE THE GAME

Mr Jappie himself had been in the consumer financing space for 14 years and had worked for a lender and helped build their distribution channel.

He got involved in car loans and helped distribute it Australia wide for finance brokers and got to understand how the system worked.

“What I realised was there was a huge opportunity here, where there is a disconnect between customer experience and expectations versus the reality of what happens,” Mr Jappie said.

The CarClarity company was set up with a lot of support from executives in the fintech world who have advised the business on its growth.

Mr Jappie said the business had been growing well during the lockdowns as a lot of people were buying cars for family trips “because they could not travel overseas”.

People are also looking for the opportunity to buy and finance and car purchase online, he said. 

Second hand utes, SUVs and four wheel drives have been selling well. People were actually paying more for these than new cars as new models were hard to get, Mr Jappie said.

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK IS CRUCIAL

Mr Jappie said customer feedback was a critical part of the CarClarity business model. The company does 10 customer interviews a month and those interviews provided some important guidance.

“The interesting thing was, when we started this process, we wanted to make it all digital, all online and people want that allowance to do that,” Mr Jappie said.

“They want to be able to do that online. But what a lot of our customers appreciate is actually talking to somebody once they have gone to our site, got their loan.

“They actually want to speak to somebody to help them and get the right advice. The customers’ feedback was they love the digital experience.”

CarClarity is now looking to expand and is talking to manufacturers about how it can work with dealership groups.

Mr Jappie said CarClarity was not looking to be disruptive. It just wanted to make the auto industry more efficient for customers.

“When you have a customer, a dealer and a lender, how can we make that triangle there have a really good harmony between all of them and make a better experience for all involved?” he said.

“That’s definitely the medium-to -ong term goal for us,” Mr Jappie said.

“We want CarClarity to be the home for car finance in Australia.” 

www.carclarity.com.au

www.leongettler.com

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness. 

Hear Talking Business here: https://play.acast.com/s/talkingbusiness/talking-business7-interview-with-zaheer-jappie-from-car-clar

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ENGINEERS from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney have successfully converted a diesel engine to run as a hydrogen-diesel hybrid engine – reducing CO₂ emissions by more than 85 percent in the process.

The team, led by Professor Shawn Kook from the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, spent about 18 months developing the Hydrogen-Diesel Direct Injection Dual-Fuel System that means existing diesel engines can run using 90 percent hydrogen as fuel.

The researchers claim any diesel engine used in trucks and power equipment in the transportation, agriculture and mining industries could ultimately be retrofitted to the new hybrid system in just a couple of months.

Green hydrogen, which is produced using clean renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, is much more environmentally friendly than diesel.

In a paper published in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Prof. Kook’s team showed that using their patented hydrogen injection system reduced CO₂ emissions to just 90 g/kWh – 85.9 percent below the amount produced by the diesel powered engine. 

“This new technology significantly reduces CO₂ emissions from existing diesel engines, so it could play a big part in making our carbon footprint much smaller, especially in Australia with all our mining, agriculture and other heavy industries where diesel engines are widely used,” Prof. Kook said.

“We have shown that we can take those existing diesel engines and convert them into cleaner engines that burn hydrogen fuel.

“Being able to retrofit diesel engines that are already out there is much quicker than waiting for the development of completely new fuel cell systems that might not be commercially available at a larger scale for at least a decade.

“With the problem of carbon emissions and climate change, we need some more immediate solutions to deal with the issue of these many diesel engines currently in use.”

High-pressure hydrogen direct injection

The UNSW team’s solution to the problem maintains the original diesel injection into the engine, but adds a hydrogen fuel injection directly into the cylinder.

The collaborative research, performed with Dr Shaun Chan and Professor Evatt Hawkes, found that specifically timed hydrogen direct injection controlled the mixture condition inside the cylinder of the engine, which resolved the problem of harmful nitrogen oxide emissions that have been a major hurdle for commercialisation of hydrogen engines. 

“If you just put hydrogen into the engine and let it all mix together you will get a lot of nitrogen oxide (NO_x) emissions, which is a significant cause of air pollution and acid rain,” Prof. Kook said.

“But we have shown in our system if you make it stratified – that is in some areas there is more hydrogen and in others there is less hydrogen – then we can reduce the NO_x emissions below that of a purely diesel engine.”

Importantly, the new Hydrogen-Diesel Direct Injection Dual-Fuel System does not require extremely high purity hydrogen which must be used in alternative hydrogen fuel cell systems and is more expensive to produce.

Compared with existing diesel engines, an efficiency improvement of more than 26 percent has been shown in the diesel-hydrogen hybrid.

That improved efficiency is achieved by independent control of hydrogen direct injection timing, as well as diesel injection timing, enabling full control of combustion modes – premixed or mixing-controlled hydrogen combustion.

Fast-track to commercialisation

The research team hopes to be able to commercialise the new system in the next 12 to 24 months and are keen to consult with prospective investors.

They claimed the most immediate potential use for the new technology was in industrial locations where permanent hydrogen fuel supply lines are already in place.

That includes mining sites, where studies have shown that about 30 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions are caused by the use of diesel engines in such items as mining vehicles and power generators.

The Australian market for diesel-only power generators is currently estimated to be worth around $765 million.

“At mining sites, where hydrogen is piped in, we can convert the existing diesel engines that are used to generate power,” Prof. Kook said. 

“In terms of applications where the hydrogen fuel would need to be stored and moved around, for example in a truck engine that currently runs purely on diesel, then we would also need to implement a hydrogen storage system to be integrated into our injection system.

“I do think the general technology with regards to mobile hydrogen storage needs to be developed further because at the moment that is quite a challenge.”

www.unsw.edu.au  

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A HSV HOLDEN VS GTSR W1 sold at auction on Saturday for $750,000, at an event billed as Australia’s most collectable line up of classic vehicles ever to go to auction.

Build #017 off the production line,16km on the odometer and the only one finished in the original colour VS GTSR XU3 Yellah, this brand-new car yet to be registered in Australia, was accepting online bidding for about a month on the Lloyds Auctions website. The online competition sparked a bidding war between Holden enthusiasts.

“Holdens just keep going up in value and as we have seen with other collectable Holdens within this auction, people are looking to get their hands on them as they become harder and harder to come by,” Lloyds Auctions chief operating officer Lee Hames said. 

“We had a range of people interested in bidding on these Holdens from enthusiasts and collectors but also investors looking to put their money into something they can also enjoy.”

IN VERY GOOD COMPANY

This Holden wasn’t the only rare model to go under the hammer on Saturday as it was alongside a collection of extremely rare one-of-one Holdens which also achieved record prices.

A build #001 1996 Holden HSV VS GTSR, still wrapped in its plastic, with only 86km on the clock sold for $1,000,000, while a HSV GTSR W1 Maloo Ute reached a hammer price of $1,250,000 but went into negotiations and is expected to sell in the coming days.

BUT A WIN TO FORD INSTEAD

However, in the end it was Ford that took the top honours for the auction in terms of pricing. 

Although negotiations on the W1 Ute that got passed in are expected to exceed the Ford’s record, at the auction itself  the rare Ford Falcon GTHO Phase III, in Yellow Glo, sold for $1.3 million.

In parallel, and in an Australian first, the non-fungible token (NFT) classic car art model of this exact Phase III followed directly after its sale selling for over $50,000.

“Holdens and Fords continue to appreciate in value,” Mr Hames said. “Anything of a limited build, celebrity affiliation, significant history or chrome bumpers just keeps going up in value and we urge any Holden or Ford enthusiast looking for advice to give us a call right now.”

www.lloydsauctions.com.au

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