New electric vehicle (EV) chargers are being installed around Pōneke as part of Wellington City Council’s Charged-up Capital programme.

Over the next few months, 11 new chargers will be installed at convenient Wellington City Council sites around the city. The locations include:

• Ākau Tangi Sports Centre
• Nairnville Recreation Centre
• Karori Recreation Centre
• Kilbirnie Recreation Centre
• Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush car park.

The Council’s investment in these chargers is supported by the Government’s Low Emission Transport Fund (LETF), which is administered by EECA (the Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority.

Installed by Meridian, these public chargers mean more EVs can be more easily charged by drivers who don’t have access to private residential chargers.

The number of electric vehicles in Wellington is rapidly increasing says Mayor Tory Whanau.

“Many people don’t have access to charging facilities at home, so we want to make chargers accessible to everyone,” she says.

“These locations were chosen so people can charge their vehicle while using the Council facilities on offer.”

In the past year, new electric vehicle registrations have increased from 1.7 percent to 5.5 percent, and this number will only continue to increase says Alison Howard, Wellington City Council’s Manager Climate Change Response.

“We want to accommodate this demand, so over the next four years we will be installing 60 fast chargers across the city.

“In Wellington 34 percent of city emissions come from road transport. Alongside the shift to active and public transport, switching to EVs will help achieve the city’s carbon reduction goals to more than halve our emissions by 2030 and be a net zero carbon capital by 2050.”

The Direct Current (DC) fast chargers have a capacity of 24kW, so depending on the vehicle, you could expect these chargers to take between 30 minutes and two hours to charge.

Each charger will have both CCS2 and CHAdeMO connections – the two most common types of charging ports that are capable of DC fast charging.

You’ll be able to find the location and status of the chargers on Meridian’s Zero app and the PlugShare website.

Charged-up Capital is part of the Council’s climate action plan, Te Atakura - First to Zero. To read more about our city-wide climate initiatives and actions, check out this year’s update of Te Atakura – First to Zero.

Find out more at wellington.govt.nz/ev-chargers.

© Scoop Media