Stephen England-Hall: Genesis Energy chief retail officer on the company taking a majority 65 percent stake in ChargeNet

Genesis Energy has confirmed it will spend $64 million on taking a majority stake in ChargeNet - the nation's leading EV public charging network.

Under terms of the agreement, Genesis will acquire a 65 percent stake in ChargeNet, which was founded in 2015 by tech entrepreneurs Steve and Dianna West. 

Genesis chief retail officer Stephen England-Hall says decarbonising New Zealand's transport output is critical to the country's future.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And Genesis Energy is spending sixty four million dollars on
taking a majority sixty five percent stake in charge net,
our largest EV public charging network. The investment will enable
charge net to develop more charging points and the numbers
expected to double by about twenty thirty. That of course
will help the government with its goal seeing a national
network of ten thousand charges by twenty thirty. And Genesis

(00:21):
Energy Chief Retail Officer Stephen England Hall is with us snaging.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Stephen, Good evening, Jack, how are you?

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Yeah? Very well, thanks? Why do you want to more
involved in the country's EV market?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
But we see the vanization of transport has been critical
to New Zealand's future and the public charging infrastructure necessary
to make that happen as a key enabler and a
keep driver. If you have accelerating New Zealand's journey towards
nets are at twenty fifty, what.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Do you make of our network at the moment?

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Well, I think we're early stages. Like one of the
reasons we decided to back charge Net is they're pioneers.
They've got the biggest footprint and EV charging infrastructure to
date in New Zealand. There have been ahead of the curve.
And look, they've got a great plan to make charging
public charging more accessible and more economic for more people,
and we want to back that and help bring that to.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Life more economic for more people. How will that work?

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Well, the thing is owning and driving an ev is
cheaper than owning and driving and an internal combustion engine vehicle.
And we've seen that not just in New Zealand, but
in many countries around the world where ev adoption has
been accelerating and of course has become a much more
common scene or common sight. As more people drive ev is,
the cost of that service comes down simply economies of scale.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
And so how much will Genesis taking on the stake
and charge net speed up the roll out?

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, Look, what we're looking at doing is trying to
work out how we part with someone like charge Net
and Bear leadership team and accelerate the plans that they
have in place. What they need to accelerate those plans
is capital and access to energy. People like Genesis, we
have those two things and we want to make sure
we bring them to the plus we've got. You know,
we've got half a million customers us the Genesis portfolio,

(02:01):
and we feel that's a great way to start and
driving more change and more adoption in the EV industry.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Okay, So if Genesis were not involved, would the rollout
of the network from this point under charge Net, even
with their ambitious plans, be slower or faster than with
Genesis being involved.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
I think it would be slower, I'd like to say
to be slower if we weren't involved. I think that's
big involved in bringing that capital and expertise to support
them and enable their plan is probably the fastest way
of executing it. You know, when we look at our
strategy as a company, our gender vive commitments and our
commitments to decarbonization ourselves and supporting our customers on the journey.
When we look at New Zealand's I guess carbon footprint,

(02:41):
but also the economics involved in various industries, finding pathways
to drive electrification of transport is a key is a
key factor across all those different territories. So having a
double number of charge points by the end of the
decade is the commitment we've made the charge Net. If
we can make that go faster because economics stack up,
we will definitely do that.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
As well to make it go faster. Do you need
to have incentives for the purchasing of EV vehicles?

Speaker 2 (03:08):
That's a great question. I mean, I think incentives always help.
I think from an economics point of view, though EV's
are cheaper to own, the cheaper to operate, the price
of EV's is falling all the time. You can now
buy a brand new EV for less than thirty grand.
You can buy a mid range EV for less than
fifty grand. You know, obviously if you want to spek
a huge amount of money, you can buy luxury evs too.
But the prices are continuing to for and the more

(03:29):
evs we have in the market, the greater tune we're
going to seem second hand vehicles and so forth, and
that will bring prices down as well. And from a
cost of ownership point of view, you know, running an
EV is considerably cheaper than run running a petrol power
or a diesel car. And we think the economics over
time are telling us that, you know, the transition is inevitable,
even if the timing is a little bit less certain.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yeah, is it easy to make money out of charges.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
You've if you've put a decent footprint and a strong
customer following, then yes, you can. You can start to
make money out of it, but it's not a short
term plan. This is a long term commitment and a
long term play supporting great the infrastructure in New Zealand.
So we don't anticipate to turn profits on that quickly.
We think that those profits will come over time with
doing the right things for customers.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
And what does over time men are we're talking five
years fifteen.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
Look, as part of our announcement today, we've shared with
the market that we expect to see some positive returns
from this in the next few years twenty eight onwards.
It really comes down to how fast we can reinvest
in the growth of that program. And as I mentioned before,
as consumer demand and customer demand is higher, then we'll

(04:38):
probably go faster, and if it's a bit slower then
we'll slow that down. But our plans suggest that we
can be a profitable business hit in this investment within
a couple of years.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
Yeah, all right. A question here from a listener which
is an interesting one. Jack. Can you ask if having
Gen Taylors involved in owning EV charging networks were presumably
they won't be shopping around for the best price for
their customers. Might not appeal to a large number of
EV owners. Got an answer for that, Stephen.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Look, I mean I think the fact that we I
think there are two different things. One is as a gentailer.
Obviously we have a generation and a retail business. We
see charging it as an arms linked business that we've
invested in. We want to make sure they've got access
to capital and expertise, and we want to really get
their way to ensure that they can execute against their plan.
In fact, we would love more and more customers, doesn't
matter which retailer, which energy retailer they're with, you know,

(05:28):
you know, dye welcome to use that service. And if
we think if that service is excellent and it's well priced,
then customers will use it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
Right, But I suppose the question is will all of
the charge net stations be using Genesis Energy for their supply?

Speaker 2 (05:42):
Well possibly, I mean there's a retail they're a retailer
in their own right so to speak. For they will
be procuring energy from the wholesale market.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yeah, yeah, right, Hey, thanks for your time, Steven, appreciate it.
There is Stephen England Hall, Genesis Energy's chief retail officer.
Right now, it is fourteen minutes past six.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
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Speaker 1 (06:01):
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