Spark and Chorus are piloting a process aiming to make it easier for homeowners to install fibre for their broadband service.This involves upgrading all Spark customers in the same street that want Spark fibre broadband, in just one week…
Other News
Plus4 Insurance Group appoints a new Chairman & Director
Plus4 Insurance Solutions (Plus4), the national insurance advisory and financial services group, today announced that it had appointed a new director to its board, Matt Thomson, and existing board member Roy Norris had been elected chair…
Enprise Group reports strong half year revenue and profit
Total half-year revenue rose 11.7% to $4.3 million. Of this, Australian revenue grew 37% to $876,000 and New Zealand revenue grew 6.8% to $3.4 million. Net profit for the period rose 189% to $323,000. Cash and bank balances were $627,000…
Shark alerts added to safer.me app to keep Kiwis safe at the beach
In an innovative move, the safer.me workplace safety app is about to add a feature that helps keep New Zealanders safer while they’re on holiday at the beach. ThunderMaps’ Managing Director Clint Van Marr…
Ngāi Tahu Tourism wins Māori Excellence in Export Award
Ngāi Tahu Tourism is thrilled to have won ‘Ha kai kei aku ringa’ for Māori Excellence in Export at the New Zealand International Business Awards 2016. The winners were announced last night at the SKYCITY Conven…
Trilogy Achieves Carbonzero Certification
Trilogy Natural Products, New Zealand’s favourite natural skincare brand, is pleased to announce its carbon-neutral status as a carboNZero certified organisation. The carboNZero programme is the world’s first internation…
Santa Parade this Sunday
The City Rail Link construction work underway in Albert Street means this year’s Santa Parade Route will take a right turn from Queen Street into Customs Street East, not the usual left turn and parade ending in Albert St. The…
Orion launches public EV chargers in partnership with Christchurch City Council
Orion, the central Canterbury electricity network company, today opened the first of its public electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. A fast charger and a standard charger were opened in Little River on Banks Peninsula.
The Little River charging stations have been installed by Orion, in partnership with the Christchurch City Council. Orion is planning to roll-out more chargers across its network over the coming months.
A fast charger typically charges an EV in around 20 to 30 minutes, whilst a standard charger will take a few hours to fully charge a car. Usually EVs are not charged to full capacity at public spots, but rather simply ‘topped up’, with full charging occurring at home overnight using cheaper night rate electricity. EV owners need to open an account at charge.net.nz to be able to use the chargers.
“EV technology is improving all the time and given their many benefits they’re set to make a strong contribution to our transport needs, said Orion Chief Executive, Rob Jamieson. “We want to encourage that future and facilitate our customer’s ability to benefit from EVs. To do that we need to give people the confidence to buy EVs by providing them with places to charge their vehicles away from their homes”, said Mr Jamieson.
Public charging stations help drivers overcome what is known as ‘range anxiety’, as electric vehicles on the market today have a range of 100km to 400km. The need to provide strategically placed public charging stations to help overcome this range anxiety is a vision shared by the Christchurch City Council.
Christchurch Deputy Mayor, Andrew Turner, said the Christchurch City Council wants EVs to be part of the region’s transport future, and the Council was very pleased to partner with Orion to provide a public charging station.
“EVs offer a number of benefits to the city, improving air quality, reducing emissions and reducing the reliance on imported fuel. To help promote EV uptake, we have agreed with Orion on a further five sites for EV charging stations, and we’ll be considering more potential locations in the future”, said Mr Turner.
The fast charging station will be free to use until the end of January 2017, so that EV drivers can drive to Akaroa and back in the Xmas holidays at no cost. From February 2017 a typical charge will cost about $10. The standard charging station will be free to use for at least one year.
For the standard chargers, in line with New Zealand guidelines, cables aren’t attached. EV owners need to have their own cable which is vehicle specific.
Those interested in learning more about electric vehicles or Orion’s EV charging stations can visit its website at oriongroup.co.nz/electric-vehicles.
With Ian Meredith (publisher)
Despite retiring to the picturesque Coromandel, former university lecturer, Ian Meredith, has turned over a (somewhat) new leaf. After many […]
Businessman blames it on the Moonshine…
They don’t build them like they used to. Well, they might not, but Greg Roy, sure does! When he’s not busy […]