NZ’s EV ‘high priestess’

This story first appeared in the June issue of AutoTalk – CLICK HERE to download the magazine FREE

Dee West needs no introduction to the EV community.

She’s the high priestess of EVs in New Zealand and is known in EV circles around the world too.

Passionate about social and environmental sustainability, her role in helping establish fast-charging network ChargeNet NZ with Steve West has been an appropriate fit and has led to Dee promoting EVs any chance she gets.

That can be through her New Zealand Electric Vehicle Podcast – now internationally available – with co-host and founder Theo Gibson, joining in social media discussions, and through many EV events like the EVworld Expo in which she has played a key role.

The Wests were also founding members of the Better NZ Trust, to educate and create opportunities for New Zealanders to live more sustainably.

The trust is behind the annual Leading the Charge EV road trip too.

Well known for her enthusiasm, “out there” attitude and warm welcomes, Dee West has certainly come a long way from the days when she grew up in Canada’s “oil patch” in Alberta off Highway 22 (aka The Cowboy Trail) and was “bullied mercilessly” at school.

Partly to escape all that, she came to New Zealand at 16 as an exchange student at Thames High School, having already visited the country with family around 1992.

West met many good people during her stay and her parents later moved to New Zealand as well.

After living in places like Inglewood, Stratford and Dargaville, West did a communications degree course at Unitec in Auckland, then worked for Telstra Clear.

She then joined internet service provider WebInternet as sales and marketing manager, working at the leading edge of technology and watching the birth of the internet.

She met West, who was a customer and had established Serato, creating DJ and music production software, and they later had four children.

“Both of us were super nerds,” Dee says, adding Steve had always been interested in electrification and converted an electric blue Toyota MR2 Spyder to electric drive.

“That’s how we got hooked in with the EV crowd,” she recalls.

“It was still early in the piece and you couldn’t buy an EV then – they didn’t exist, so the only way was to do your own conversion.”

They travelled extensively and Dee says she reached a watershed moment in Oslo, Norway, where everywhere she looked she saw EVs.

“We met Carl Barlev there .”

Barlev later came to New Zealand and established Blue Cars in Auckland, helping form the Better NZ Trust too.

Dee also knows Norwegian EV Association secretary general Christina Bu, who has visited New Zealand several times, catching up with her again at the recent Nordic EV Summit in Oslo.

What really helped open doors in the EV world was that the Wests had a Tesla Roadster which they took around schools, agricultural shows and other events, later adding another Tesla.

Late racing great Chris Amon once had a drive in it.

Dee says Steve woke early one morning and asked if he could spend all their money on a national charging network so people could drive all around New Zealand in EVs.

“I said ‘yes, that’s great.Let’s go’.”

Steve set up ChargeNet NZ in 2015, now one of the largest privately owned fast-charging networks in the world.

The Wests both own and operate ChargeNet NZ.

“That’s our legacy,” Dee says, adding it’s doing better than they ever imagined.

The Wests also initiated the first EVworld event in New Zealand in 2017.

Both were recognised at EVworld NZ 2018 for the outstanding work they have put into New Zealand’s EV space, receiving an award for their contributions.

It’s largely due to their efforts that automotive manufacturers have confidence to import more EVs and find motivated drivers to buy them.

Dee has also taken on board electric streamliner motorcycle world speed racer Eva Hakansson and husband Bill Dube, both working on Green Envy, the successor to their KillaJoule racer, at ChargeNet NZ’s factory.

Hakansson will race Green Envy at Lake Gairdner in South Australia and possibly at the Bonneville salt flats in the USA where she raced KillaJoule.

The Swedish-born engineer is also a lecturer in mechanical engineering at the University of Auckland which has helped come up with a reinvention of the wheel, called KiWieel.

The rubber tread produced by a 3D printer was threaded into holes drilled in a solid aluminium wheel and is designed to provide for increased speed without the risk of blow-out on salt flats.

Hakansson and KillaJoule were a big attraction at the Big Boys Toys Electric Avenue display in Auckland in November 2018.

Back at Electric Avenue this year, Dee West will host Electrifying Conversations, featuring keynote speakers with “rock star representations across various industries” on November 1.

The conference at the ASB Showgrounds in Greenlane has up to 350 tickets available and is geared towards tourism, transport, infrastructure and sustainability.

Electric campervans from Jucy and Tourism Holdings Ltd will feature.

On November 3, an invitation-only EV road trip catering for up to 25 people leaves Electric Avenue to travel to Matamata, Rotorua, Taupo, New Plymouth and Wellington – discussing issues such as climate change, electric tourism, EV infrastructure and energy at the appropriate stops.

In the meantime, West is planning to travel to New York, Dundee and Oxford shortly to help spread the EV message.

Contact her on dee.west@charge.net.nz for more information.