Have your say on charging network
The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) is driving efforts to ensure the public electric vehicle (EV) fast-charging network will meet the needs of a growing electric fleet in coming years.
Chief executive officer Andrew Caseley says the agency has launched public consultation on future development of the network.
“There are a little over 33,000 EVs on the roads now, but that number is likely to increase rapidly over the next five to 10 years,” he says. “The network needs to be futureproofed and needs to inspire confidence in people who may be considering buying an EV.”
Caseley, pictured, notes EECA has already co-funded more than 700 EV chargers, more than 300 of which are fast DC chargers through the Low Emissions Transport Fund (LETF), which was formerly known as the Low Emission Vehicles Contestable Fund.
“That co-investment has helped ensure we have public chargers every 75km along most of the national highway network, but there are still some gaps and areas where density will be more important than distance.”
As part of the government’s commitment to decarbonising the transport sector, which makes up around half of all energy-related emissions, EECA will continue to provide co-funding to public fast chargers through the LETF, which is increasing in funding to $25 million by 2023/24.
Public consultation on providing public sites over the next five years will help inform the approach to building out the current network, and enable EV users to have confidence they can charge where and when they need.
To support the consultation, Caseley says EECA has built an interactive map of the current charging network, which displays the location, number and power of available public chargers, as well as other data sources such as traffic volume. The agency has also undertaken research with drivers of electric cars to better understand their use of the network.
“New Zealand has a high number of public chargers per EV, but this will rapidly change,” adds Caseley.
“The map has already enabled us to identify areas where there are existing gaps and our consumer research has allowed us to gain insights into the use of public charging.”
EECA has published the survey’s results to provide research and insights for industry and government into EV charging infrastructure.
Public consultation on “State of charge: Consultation paper on developing a short-term roadmap for the public electric vehicle charging network” closes at 5pm on November 26. The results will be published in early 2022.
Find out more – links
• EECA’s consultation document on public EV charging.
• EECA’s NZ public-charger EV map.
• Electric-vehicle charging survey.
