Electric vehicle chargers in Napier. Unison established the first ones in Hawke's Bay over 10 years ago and Z Energy has confirmed plans to establish two more in the region this year. Photo / Warren Buckland
Electric vehicle chargers in Napier. Unison established the first ones in Hawke's Bay over 10 years ago and Z Energy has confirmed plans to establish two more in the region this year. Photo / Warren Buckland
Hawke’s Bay is getting at least two more electric vehicle charging stations this year as demand for electric vehicle charging infrastructure grows across the country.
Both the previous Government and the current Government have expressed interest in increasing the number of renewable vehicles on the roads, with the CleanCar Discount under Labour and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon saying during a visit to Hawke’s Bay earlier in the month that he wanted to get more electric vehicles on the road.
A Z Energy spokeswoman confirmed the company planned to add fast EV charging infrastructure to two Z sites in Hawke’s Bay “later this year”.
“This is part of our broader plan to grow our EV charging network at select Z service stations, located on key travel routes in Aotearoa New Zealand,” the spokeswoman said.
A company leading the way in developing EV charging infrastructure can be found in Napier.
Onekawa-based tech company Red Phase makes high-capacity EV chargers capable of quickly charging cars and larger vehicles, like trucks, and works with charge point operators like Z Energy.
Mike Lazelle, Red Phase co-founder and chief growth officer, said his company was both solving the grid infrastructure limitation problem and providing a great fast-charging solution.
Red Phase co-founders Mike Lazelle, Dustin Murdock and Dr Robert Turner. Lazelle said plans were being developed to establish more EV charging stations in the Hawke’s Bay region. Photo / Red Phase
He said the reasons typical chargers had a risk of overloading distribution systems was a combination of the amount of power an EV drew and the number of EVs that were going to connect.
“One EV at full charge car can draw as much power as 30 houses and EV uptake is forecast to double every three years. Power grids are a powerful and efficient means to deliver energy, but they can’t grow this fast,” Lazelle said.
Red Phase utilises smart grid technology to connect chargers to the high voltage electricity network without the need for network power transformers and unlock capacity in the network.
Lazelle said he could not disclose specifics of plans to establish EV charging stations in the Hawke’s Bay region with Red Phase partners, but he could confirm plans were being developed.
“Red Phase has worked with charge point operators like Z Energy and deployment partners like Electronet to deploy 22 charge stations across the North and South Island.”
Lazelle said challenges with establishing new charging stations included grid capacity, low EV vehicle uptake and investing partners.
“A DCFC [Direct Current Fast Charge] hub site is a significant investment and requires fast-growing EVs to deliver a return. In Hawke’s Bay EV, electric bus and electric truck uptake has been low,” Lazelle said.
“Until 5 per cent of vehicles in Hawke’s Bay are EVs there will only be a handful of DCFC sites. These will then grow as EV load grows.”
He said EV growth in Hawke’s Bay was expected to match the rate of the rest of New Zealand, doubling about every three years.
Christopher Luxon viewed the EV charging tech at Onekawa-based tech company Red Phase earlier in the month. Transport Minister Simeon Brown on Tuesday announced that owners of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles will pay less in road user charges. Photo / NZME
Jason Larkin, Unison commercial and regulatory general manager, said Unison was focused on providing connections and capacity for EV chargers rather than their own chargers for now.
He said Unison had active initiatives with fuel retailers and EV charging businesses looking at a number of both existing and new sites in Hawke’s Bay to grow their network and keep pace with growing demand, but Larkin could not speak about specifics due to commercial sensitivity.
Unison first got involved with EV charging when it established the first public EV chargers in Hawke’s Bay more than 10 years ago and seven public charging stations have been established at key destinations by Unison in Hawke’s Bay, including urban centres like Napier and Hastings and State Highway 5 and State Highway 2.
“Sometimes where the most logical place to charge a vehicle in terms of the road network may not be the strongest part of the electricity network, in terms of capacity, so there is a little bit of what you could almost call prospecting that goes on to find sites where it can be readily connected to the network and economically viable.
“At the same time [it involves] working with fuel retailers who have existing sites to increase the capacity of the electricity supply to those sites so they can add charging,” Larkin said.
He said Unison’s long-term network planning took into account the electrification of transport in terms of people charging at home and the growth of public charging sites.
“EV uptake in New Zealand has been phenomenal. I think the country has really gotten on board with the opportunity to reach net zero [carbon emissions] and with a renewable electricity supply. EVs are a great way of decarbonising New Zealand.”
A Napier City Council spokeswoman said the council could not comment on any potential resource consent proposals for EV charging stations, but NCC has had meetings with third-party providers of e-vehicle charging stations.
“It is possible there will be more charging stations in the city. NCC has no plans at this stage [regarding] EV charging infrastructure,” the NCC spokeswoman said.
James Pocock joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2021 and writes breaking news and features, with a focus on environment, local government and post-cyclone issues in the region. He has a keen interest in finding the bigger picture in research and making it more accessible to audiences. He lives in Napier. james.pocock@nzme.co.nz
