Government releases plan for petrol station-like EV charging hubs along state highways

The Government has today revealed a new plan to place charging hubs for electrical vehicles along every main highway. Photo / Alan Gibson

The Government has revealed a new plan to place charging hubs for electrical vehicles along every main highway and one for almost every town in New Zealand.

The scheme aims to place a charging hub every 150–200km on main highways, a public charger for every 20-40 EVs in urban areas, and public charging at community facilities for all settlements with 2000 or more people.

Transport Minister Michael Wood said their vision with the initiative, named “Charging Our Future”, is to provide Kiwis with “world-class EV charging infrastructure that is accessible, affordable, convenient, and reliable”.

“These new targets carefully balance facilitating infrastructure to support different trips and journeys that EV drivers make while ensuring that rural and provincial New Zealand locations are accessible for residents and visitors with EVs,” Wood said.

Emissions from our fleet of light cars account for the majority of all transportation-related emissions in New Zealand, Wood said, in part as a result of our country’s use of some of the most inefficient and polluting cars in the OECD.

“This costs Kiwis at the pump and is damaging to our health and the environment,” Wood explained.

“Switching to EVs would be like buying petrol for 40c/litre, which would make a big difference for household budgets.”

The Charging our Future scheme aims to guarantee that we can maintain EV adoption with more individuals making the switch.

Currently, there are over 80 per cent more people using an EV than at the end of 2021, with more 69,000 EVs on the roads.

“To make sure the strategy is effective we’ll be collaborating with local government and industry across transport, energy, and other sectors to deliver on these initiatives. I want to thank the Clean Car Leadership Group for giving advice as we’ve developed the strategy,” Wood said.

“We also want to make sure we’re working alongside the public. I hope everyone will take the opportunity to feed into the draft strategy and the discussion document.”