Above: Mayor Mike Tana demonstrates how to use the new electric charging station.
Electric vehicles are being welcomed in to Porirua as the city’s first fast charging, high voltage station goes live.
The station has been installed in Serlby Place carpark, adding to the ongoing revitalisation of Porirua’s city centre.
“Our electric car charging station is already attracting a lot of interest and support,” says Porirua Mayor Mike Tana. “We feel it is important our city has a station for the increasing number of people choosing to drive electric vehicles and we’ve future-proofed the site so we can easily add another charging station as demand increases.”
“Porirua is at the heart of the Wellington region so electric vehicle owners can travel around confidently knowing there’s another charge station in a central location,” says Mayor Tana.
The city worked with ChargeNet NZ, which funded the installation, and Wellington Electricity to join the network of electric car charging stations already in place across the Wellington region.
Porirua’s station has two dedicated 60 minute parking spaces, which give plenty of time to fully charge most electric vehicles. Users will typically pay between $8 and $10 to charge their cars.
Serlby Place carpark was chosen as the best location because it is easy to access, close to a good power source and handy to the city centre. Users can plug in then go shopping for an hour or grab a coffee and a bite to eat.
ChargeNet NZ is installing new electric vehicle charging stations at a rate of around one every two weeks, with the aim of having 100 in place across the country (one every 60 to 70km) on every highway.
Electric vehicles get their power from rechargeable batteries inside the car and most people charge them overnight in their garage.
Mayor Tana says electric vehicles are becoming increasingly popular. “More than half of the country's 2000 electric vehicles were bought in the last year and in Porirua we have 29 electric vehicle owners.”
The cost of a New Zealand-new used electric vehicle starts at around $15,000 and, depending on make, a fully charged vehicle can travel anywhere from 80km to 400km before needing a top up.
“Supporters of electric vehicles say the cost of driving them is a fraction of the cost of petrol or diesel and that it is much kinder on the environment. Infact, they say that if everyone in Porirua City drove a fully electric vehicle, the city’s CO2 emissions would halve,” says Mayor Tana.
2 Mar 2017
