Slow chargers underpin Govt’s slow-track investment in public EV chargers

2026-03-23 - 16:43

Analysis: The statement was upbeat. On Monday, Transport Minister Chris Bishop, and Simon Watts, the Climate Change and Energy Minister, announced 2500-plus EV chargers were “on the way”, thanks to $52.7 million in zero-interest loans from the Government to ChargeNet and Meridian. A footnote to the release said the Government had allocated about $66m of capital funding for concessionary loans. What the statement didn’t say was that money was originally appropriated by the previous Labour government. Also overlooked was what the announcement meant for the promise made by Christopher Luxon, as National Party leader, in September 2023. Back then, Luxon said the next Government would “accelerate the transition to EVs” by spending an extra $170m on building the necessary infrastructure. According to National’s policy document, an extra $42.5m would be spent each year over four years. As of Monday’s announcement, the Government is yet to spend a single extra dollar beyond what the previous government had allocated. That’s right: zero. Compounding this (so far) broken promise is the lag time. Most of the existing money earmarked by Labour – put at $87.4m in National’s 2023 policy document ‘Supercharging EV Infrastructure’ – has been sitting on the books waiting to be spent, when it could have been used to propel the country closer to the 10,000 charger goal. Even associated measures to “cut red tape” are on the go-slow. In April 2024, Simeon Brown, then the transport minister, said consent wouldn’t be required for the installation of public EV chargers. Monday’s announcement said moves to change planning rules to make the installation of public EV chargers a permitted activity were underway. Government’s trickle of EV charger announcements December 2023: While scrapping the clean car discount, Transport Minister Simeon Brown said the Government was “committed to increasing the uptake of electric vehicle ownership by supercharging EV charging infrastructure”. “We will deliver a comprehensive, nationwide network of 10,000 public EV chargers by 2030, while considering robust cost/benefit analysis.” April 2024: Brown announces Cabinet has agreed a new co-investment model for government investments in EV charging infrastructure. As part of its drive to reduce regulations, consent won’t be required for the installation of public EV chargers. April 2025: Under the headline ‘Accelerating the roll-out of public EV chargers’, Transport Minister Chris Bishop, and Simon Watts, the Climate Change and Energy Minister, said $68.5m would be used to provide concessionary loans to private operators willing to invest in public EV charging infrastructure. The use of direct grants for government investment was “outdated”. March 2026: Bishop and Watts announce $52.7m in zero-interest loans to ChargeNet and Meridian Energy, with the companies investing $60m themselves. They were selected through a “contestable, value-for-money bid process”. The net cost of the loans would be about $10,000 per charger – “roughly a quarter of what a direct grant would cost”, Bishop said. The National-Act Party coalition agreement has been a handbrake. It mandated the EV charger programme “specifically take into account Act’s concern that there be robust cost-benefit analysis to ensure maximum benefit for government investment”. In Monday’s statement, Transport Minister Bishop echoed the agreement’s theme of fiscal responsibility, saying concessionary loans bring forward private investment “while keeping the taxpayer’s contribution to a minimum”. “In this case, the average loan per charge point is $20,000, but once repayments are factored in, the net cost to the Crown is around $10,000 per charger, roughly a quarter of what a direct grant would cost.” Bishop tells Newsroom: “This Government’s focus has been on supporting a market-led rollout of charging infrastructure and getting value-for-money from Government investment.” That’s not what was promised during the election campaign, however. And the investment is being made from a pot of money set aside by National’s political opponents. Christopher Luxon, flanked by senior National Party politicians Simon Watts (left) and Simeon Brown during the 2023 election campaign. Photo: David Williams It’s not even clear if loan repayments made by ChargeNet and Meridian will be re-invested in the EV charger programme. Bishop says: “Loan repayments could be used for more public EV charging infrastructure, if co-investment is still required at the time, or allocated to other initiatives. At the relevant time, Cabinet would receive advice on options, including any fiscal implications, and make decisions.” Green co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick says the Government is “taking New Zealanders for chumps” by re-tagging Labour’s money for loans and making a new announcement. Slow progress on EV chargers “tells you everything that you need to know about their priorities”. “They can’t fast-track for things that they say that they care about when it comes to climate action.” Graph: Drive Electric On Monday, Watts, the Climate Change Minister, told RNZ the Government was still committed to the 10,000 charger target. Bishop describes it as “an ambitious stretch goal”. Swarbrick says: “We can take it about as seriously as when the Government says that it’s going to meet our climate commitments ... It frankly does not stack up.” Tangi Utikere, Labour’s transport spokesperson, says: “So far, the Government’s track record on EV charging has been anything but super.” Kirsten Corson, chair of lobby group Drive Electric, says it’s “exceptionally unlikely” the country will reach 10,000 chargers by 2030, based on current funding and settings. “It is great to see the Government doing something,” she says of the loans announcement. “I thought there would be more uptake from other charge point operators, so having only two successful operators appointed for me was a surprise.” Interestingly, the two companies chosen for concessionary loans are part-government-owned. Genesis, which took a majority stake in ChargeNet in 2024, and Meridian are 51-percent owned by the Government. Bishop addresses the tension between EV chargers and demand: “The private sector is reluctant to invest in charging infrastructure until there’s sufficient demand, but demand won’t grow until the lack of public chargers stops putting buyers off.” Is that a fair characterisation, though? Surely a big drop-off in demand was due to the clean car discount – a subsidy on electric cars, partially offset by fees levied on gas-guzzlers – being scrapped by the Government in 2023? Corson, of Drive Electric, says the Government has made successive moves to dampen demand for EVs, including by cutting EV subsidies, and introducing road user charges. “They have dampened EV sales and it is only now there’s a petrol crisis we’re going to see a huge spike.” So the Iran war has done more for electric car sales than the Government. “Correct,” says Corson. New Zealand has experienced a huge drop-off in the proportion of new vehicles being battery electric or plug-in hybrids, while Australia’s momentum has remained. Chart: Drive Electric Delving into Monday’s announcement, it’s worth remembering not every charger is built, or costs, the same. DC fast chargers are more expensive to build and charge a car in 20 to 60 minutes. The 300-kilowatt chargers can cost more than $100,000. AC chargers, meanwhile, can cost less than $5000 but charge much more slowly – over a number of hours. That makes them more suitable for charging at a destination, rather than during a journey. Under Monday’s announcement, there are almost as many AC trickle chargers (1200) as there are DC fast chargers (1374). The ratio of cheaper AC chargers to faster DC stations might be telling if the Government is under pressure to meet its 2030 target. The political rhetoric remains the same, at least. In 2023, Luxon said New Zealand languished at the bottom of the OECD, with one public charger for every 95 EVs. Bishop now says: “New Zealand currently has a bit over 1800 public charge points, which is among the lowest charger-to-EV ratios in the OECD.” What has changed is how many new electric vehicles are being bought. According to Drive Electric, 27.2 percent of new light vehicles were battery electric or plug-in hybrid cars in 2023. That dropped after the Government scrapped EV subsidies, and last year the figure was 10.2 percent. Chart: Drive Electric Last year, the Climate Change Commission’s emissions reduction monitoring report said transport emissions, to 2023, were on track for the first budget, to 2025, but urgent work was needed for future budgets. “The moderate risks to reducing passenger transport emissions intensity are due to the potential for continued low EV adoption without policies to lower the upfront and ownership costs.” As reported by Marc Daalder last year, the coalition Government’s policy changes have caused a wider gap between the country’s projected greenhouse gas emissions and the Paris Agreement reduction target. There’s also a questionable reliance on carbon capture.