Fast chargers complete Alpine Pacific Highway EV drive

ChargeNet NZ has a fast charger in Ward open and another in Cheviot ready by the end of May, completing the South Island’s Alpine Pacific Highway EV charging network.

“That means a low range EV can now easily travel between Christchurch and Blenheim,” ChargeNet NZ business development manager James Cozens says.

The Ward and Cheviot chargers north and south of Kaikoura respectively complete the east coast stretch of State Highway One for EVs. They remove the charging issues in that area found by French students Heloise de Bokay and Solene Trinquet during their New Zealand tour in a Jucy prototype EV campervan last year.

They travelled part of the SH1 route damaged in the 7.8 magnitude earthquake at Kaikoura in 2016.

“We struggled a lot (with charging) in the north of the South Island, mostly from Blenheim to Christchurch,” Trinquet says.

The road was still closed from Kaikoura to Christchurch, so the EV travellers crossed Canterbury via alternative routes.