Stephen England-Hall: ChargeNet Board Member on the Government's new approach to EV infrastructure

The Government's changing New Zealand's approach to EV infrastructure.

Grants will now turn into interest-free loans -$69-million worth for the private sector to build chargers throughout the country.

The target is 10 thousand in the next five years.

ChargeNet Board Member Stephen England-Hall talks to Mike Hosking about the scheme.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A little bit of a change up to the way

(00:01):
the government is approaching eb Infrastructure grants will now turn
into loans, interest free lines, sixty nine million dollars worth
of them for the private sector to build charges up
and down this beautiful country of balance. The promise is
ten thousand. Of course by twenty thirty charging it. Board
member Stephen England Hall is whether Stephen, very good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
To you, Good morning mine.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Does the loan grant thing change the landscape or not?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Really? I think it does. Yeah, it certainly makes more
capital available for the development of infrastructure networks like ev charging.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
What should in your view, the government's role in this
whole thing be if anys.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
I think a government. Yeah, the government's role here is
really an enabler, and I think the approach with concessionary
loans does make that because it makes that role more formal.
Grants are really helpful to get US industry catalyzed and
off the ground, but we're at a point where were
trying to emerge into a scalable, rough bust sustainable model,
and so moving to a loans structure, almost a public

(00:55):
private partnership structure, really means that capital is going to
be allocated, and the competition to those people with great
business plans, good models, and good know how to make
these things happen.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Is the money at risk? Is anyone going to not
pay it back? Do you think?

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Well, the money is always a risk when it comes
to a loan type facility, But we would expect that
with the appropriate structures and governance in place, the right
people will have, the right decisions will be made, the
money will be presented to the people with the right
capabilities and skills and sufficient capital themselves to see it through.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Of all the hurdles facing EV and the big EV story,
where do you reckon charges on the road side fits?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
I don't think it's going to be one of the
bigger ones, just particularly as EV's continue to increase their
share of overall transport, the availability of charge points for
consumers world maybe individuals or businesses becomes increasingly necessary to
ensure that EV adoption continues to grow at a reasonable page.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
So you would say that I would disagree with you.
I think most people who've got EV's charge in the
garage at night, don't they They pop out to their
ten k's to work their pop home the up overnight.
That's really what people are charging. The number of people
to charge on the street is minimal or am I
completely wrong?

Speaker 2 (02:06):
No? I think at the current level we are seeing
most of eighty percent of charging generally speaking, happens at
home because it's gumly convenient. It's like having your own
petrol station garretts right downstairs. It's it's easy, it's convenient,
and it's really really cost effective, given that you know,
running an EV versus a petrol diesel car can be
as much as you know, seven times cheaper per kilometer
of use. If you're charging at home, that becomes the

(02:29):
economic brought you sort of. There's two things really happening.
One is when you're not at home and you're on
the road doing things or you're running a business, you
need high capacity, high speed charging. You're not going to
do that over a twelve hour periods. You want to
do that, you know, five or fifteen minutes to get
a decent range.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Which was my next question. Are these charges being rolled
out top of the line, in other words, they're going
to pump you full of gas fast or are we
going to get caught out? Technologically, well, the.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
EV technology continues to change, but the key thing is
the charging unit itself is a relatively inexpensive part of
the installation of the charging ecosystem. It's connections to your
local limes companies that's building their infrastructure and transformers. That's
clearly widen the ground to put your charges in. That's
also really expensive. So long as that's well planned. The

(03:16):
EV charge itself will evolve over time. They're getting new
one and fast one and bigger ones. But I'll just
use the same underlying infrastructure.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Okay, text for you, texts, We've got text. You really
EV use the stations as car parks, you plug in
your park, you do it for free? Is that true
or not?

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Well know, because the EV charger you usually pay, the
company that runs the EV charge point will be paying
ground rent for that for their parking space for that car,
And when you're charging, you're effectively charging both for parking
as well as for the energy.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Okay, second question. The trouble with super fast EV charging
stations is you need a small nuclear power plant charging site,
true or not?

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Not true? You need you need proper distributed energy management,
so you've got proper tools to make sure you balance
the demand balance the network needs. Not for EV charges,
but for all electricity users.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
All right, Steven, appreciate your expertise very much. Go well,
Stephen England Hall. Who's the charge net board member? I
can tell you by the way, speaking of cars and
EV's European car sales and March, you're up now. Why
am I telling you this because it's interesting because Tesla's
in the same market over the same period of time
went backwards twenty eight point two percent. So if you
don't think he's got an image problem, you're not awake for.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
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