Second EV charger loan round opens as 10,000 target maths tightens

The Government has opened a second round of zero-interest loans for public EV charging infrastructure, pushing on towards its target of 10,000 public charge points by 2030.

Transport Minister Chris Bishop and Energy Minister Simeon Brown announced the new funding round on Friday, saying it builds on the first round of concessionary loans revealed in March, which will deliver 2,574 new charge points through partnerships with ChargeNet and Meridian Energy.

“Round one demonstrated strong market demand for the programme and showed concessionary loans can successfully unlock significant private sector investment,” says Bishop. “The projects already underway will more than double New Zealand’s public charging network and represent a major step towards achieving our long-term infrastructure goals.”

Bishop describes the underlying problem as “a classic chicken-and-egg situation”, with companies reluctant to invest until there are more EVs on the road, and buyers hesitant until charging is readily available. The loans fund up to 50% of project capital costs at zero interest over terms of up to 13 years, with applications assessed through an open procurement process.

Brown says the rollout will reduce range anxiety, adding that New Zealanders are switching “without unnecessary subsidies from taxpayers”. At the target of 10,000 charge points, the Government expects roughly one public charger for every 40 EVs.

The promise trail

The announcement is the latest chapter in a charging policy that has evolved considerably since National campaigned on it in 2023.

The original Supercharging EV Infrastructure policy promised $257 million over four years to deliver 10,000 public chargers, reviving the Ultra-Fast Broadband funding model, alongside removing resource consent requirements for chargers. At the time, then Opposition leader Christopher Luxon cited around 1,200 available chargers and one public charger for every 95 EVs, the lowest ratio in the OECD.

The policy was formally adopted in April 2024, with a cross-agency taskforce established. But the money moved more slowly than the announcements. Newsroom reported in mid-2025 that around $170 million of the promised funding had yet to materialise, and an April 2025 Cabinet paper warned ministers more funding would be required to hit the target.

That same year the programme shifted from the grant model used by the previous government’s EECA co-funding rounds to concessionary loans, a change the industry says significantly weakened the business case for new sites. Drive Electric chair Kirsten Corson has said the loan scheme improves the economics of a charging station by only 1 to 2%, against roughly 30% under the old grants, and has described the charging programme as “National’s KiwiBuild project”.

The first loan round was announced in March this year: $52.7 million to ChargeNet and Meridian, with co-investment taking the total programme to more than $110 million and the network to around 4,550 charge points once delivered. The consenting promise from the campaign also landed this year, with nationally consistent permitted activity standards for chargers taking effect in May.

The maths problem

Whether the 2030 target is achievable is another question. Newsroom calculates that reaching 10,000 charge points by January 2030 requires around 174 new charge points every month, more than was built in all of 2025. Climate Change Minister Simon Watts has described the figure as a “stretch goal”.

The demand side has moved backwards since the target was set. Fully electric and plug-in vehicles made up 27.2% of new light vehicle registrations in 2023, the final year of the Clean Car Discount. That share fell to around 10% in 2025 following the discount’s removal and the extension of road user charges to EVs, although it has recovered ground this year.

The one-charger-per-40-EVs ratio also implies a fleet of around 400,000 EVs by 2030, close to triple the current light EV fleet.

Ministry of Transport officials attributed the rollout slowdown to the grant-to-loan transition, tougher economic conditions and weaker EV uptake. Charging industry figures have been blunter, with Evnex founder Ed Harvey saying earlier this year the policy reversals have “done huge damage to the industry”.

Applications for the second loan round are now open, assessed on value for money and contribution to the growth of the public charging network.