Electric vehicle charging company ChargeNet has secured investment from a major multinational company to expand its charging network across the country.
File photo: ChargeNet managing director Steve West with the electric charger Photo: SUPPLIED
The Swiss energy trading firm Mercuria has purchased a 20 percent stake in ChargeNet for an undisclosed sum.
ChargeNet owns the country's largest charging network, with 256 stations, and had a further 24 in its pipeline.
"This investment is excellent news for ChargeNet and New Zealand because it allows us to rapidly scale up our existing network and fast-track the expansion of our hyper-rapid charging stations," ChargeNet chief executive and co-founder Steve West said.
"Right now, we're on the edge of exponential growth in the adoption of EVs," he said.
The company's "hyper-rapid" charging station had the capability to provide motorists with 400km of range in 15 minutes.
"They go a long way to reducing the current barriers of EV ownership, including range anxiety and perceived lack of public fast charging infrastructure," West said.
He said Mercuria, which is one of the largest energy and commodity company's in the world, would help the company takes its products to overseas markets.
ChargeNet chair Richard Dellabarca said the company had attracted an extremely high level of interest from local and international investors, which spoke to the quality of the company Steve West had built and the opportunity in front of it.
Mercuria's vice president of energy transition and emissions trading Jean-Francois Steels said its partnership with ChargeNet was in line Mercuria's wider investment strategy to invest in companies that are trying to support the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
"We strongly believe ChargeNet is uniquely positioned to support EV adoption across New-Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region," he said.