A new competitor is entering the country's electric vehicle charging network, promising free charging and hoping to shake up the existing monopoly.
JOLT’s EV Charger - Port Road, Adelaide, SA, Australia. Photo: Supplied / Jolt
Australian company JOLT will begin rolling out fast chargers from July and plans 500 chargers in place in four years.
It wants to challenge the market dominance of ChargeNet, and is offering seven kilowatts of free charging, equivalent to around 40 to 50 kilometres range.
It will initially partner with building products and D.I.Y goods retailer Mitre 10 for chargers at its stores, with the first chargers located in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington.
JOLT's New Zealand country manager Chris Monaghan said providing choice was important for EV drivers.
"It's a 100 percent a monopoly at the moment.
"When you look at energy as a commodity, EV drivers aren't wanting to pay through their nose," Monaghan said.
He said partnering with big box retail would lure customers, and believed traditional service stations would have to adapt to keep up.
"Their business model is fundamentally going to change. I guess they've known that for a while so those petrol operators are looking at ways in which they can expand their retail offering and provide a bit more dwell time while that charge goes on.
"A lot of EV drivers, although they're charging at home, they are not getting full draw at home. So they will go out and about and in their daily travels they'll see JOLT, they'll go OK, there's a free top up."
Monaghan said JOLT covered the cost of free charging by selling adverts on digital screens built around chargers, similar to bus shelters.
It said the free charging also aims to remove barriers to EV ownership such as cost, access to charging and range anxiety.
JOLT chief executive Doug McNamee said there was strong momentum within the car market to change to an EV.
"Through our partnerships with the leading retail brands and local government in New Zealand, we want to create a large and leading EV charging network that provides the best charging experience for all EV drivers in New Zealand," he said.