{"id":360865,"date":"2026-03-23T12:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T12:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/360865\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T12:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T12:38:10","slug":"new-zealand-gov-backs-2500-ev-chargers-with-zero-interest-loans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/360865\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand gov backs 2,500 EV chargers with zero-interest loans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">The government of New Zealand has committed to doubling the number of public EV chargers around the country with zero-interest loans.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">The government has partnered with chargepoint operator ChargeNet and state-owned energy company\u00a0<a class=\"ContentText-BodyTextChunk ContentText-BodyTextChunk_link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.evinfrastructurenews.com\/ev-networks\/meridian-energy-launches-ev-charging-hub-at-auckland-airport-in-new-zealand\" target=\"_self\" data-discover=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Meridian Energy<\/a>\u00a0for the deployment of the chargers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">The zero-interest loans will total NZ$52.7 million (US$30.4 million), transport minister Chris Bishop and energy &amp; climate change minister Simon Watts announced today (23 March).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">Both companies were selected through a contestable, value-for-money bid process, and will be investing a combined NZ$60 million of their own capital alongside the loans.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">\u201cMany New Zealanders have thought about getting an EV, even before the fuel challenges we\u2019re currently facing. But research shows that the lack of public chargers is holding many back from making the switch to an EV,\u201d Mr Bishop says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">The scheme is to get around the chicken-and-egg scenario for private investors around EV charging supply and demand. Private investors won\u2019t fund the buildout of charging until demand grows, but demand won\u2019t grow while there isn\u2019t the charging. The government did something similar with the ultrafast broadband network.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-component=\"related-article\" class=\"RelatedArticle\">Related:<a class=\"RelatedArticle-RelatedContent\" href=\"https:\/\/www.evinfrastructurenews.com\/ev-networks\/ev-charging-and-solar-installation-among-new-apprenticeship-types-in-uk-s-1-billion-employment-drive\" target=\"_self\" data-discover=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">EV charging and solar installation among new apprenticeship types in UK\u2019s \u00a31 billion employment drive<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">The average loan per EV charger will be NZ$20,000, at a net cost to the government of NZ$10,000 per loan. They will fund up to half of the installation cost and have a tenure of 13 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">The 2,574 new charge points include 1,374 DC fast chargers and 1,200 AC chargers, and around half will be spread across Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, the Wellington region, Christchurch, and Dunedin.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">The scheme hopes to bring the country\u2019s public chargepoints to 4,550, part of a goal to hit 10,000 by 2030.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">The government is also changing planning rules to make public EV chargers a permitted activity under the Resource Management Act (RMA).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">The loans will be administered by the National Infrastructure Funding and Financing (NIFFCo).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ContentParagraph ContentParagraph_align_left\" data-testid=\"content-paragraph\">New Zealand\u00a0<a class=\"ContentText-BodyTextChunk ContentText-BodyTextChunk_link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.evinfrastructurenews.com\/ev-networks\/new-zealand-s-ev-registrations-surpass-100-000-units\" target=\"_self\" data-discover=\"true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">recently reached 100,000 new battery electric and plug-in hybrid EVs<\/a>, as reported by\u00a0EV Infrastructure News.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The government of New Zealand has committed to doubling the number of public EV chargers around the country&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,60],"class_list":["post-360865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}