New Zealand network operator ChargeNet has begun building the country’s first fast-charging network.

The first Veefil fast charger, designed and manufactured by Australian company Tritium, is going operational this week at a supermarket in the town of Kaiwaka, between Auckland and Northland. Future units will be deployed in and around major cities such as Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch.

Tritium has shipped 23 Veefil fast chargers for the first phase, and ChargeNet plans to install 75 units over the next three years.

“The small size and weight of the Veefil make it an ideal fast charger for ChargeNet,” explains Paul Sernia, Tritiums’s Commercial Director. “It was designed to be used in areas where motorists want the convenience of fast charging, such as shopping centers, coffee shops and highway services, and it can add 50 km of range to an EV battery in 10 minutes.”

Steve West, ChargeNet’s founder and CEO, hopes to establish New Zealand as a world-class EV nation. “Steve West is an enthusiastic EV driver and evangelist who decided that someone had to break the ‘chicken and egg’ situation of which came first – the EV or the charging network – which is usually the main barrier to people deciding to drive electric,” says Sernia.

Sources: Tritium, ChargeNet