I recently drove my EV from Taupō to Auckland and back.

ChargeNet is great and all, very nice quick charging. But wow is it expensive.

$0.99/kWh on a Sunday afternoon. That is 2.5x what I pay at home, and probably 10x the wholesale rate which they are buying power at.

I am an engineer, so I understand the complexities of delivering huge power loads at a moments notice. But is it really worth the 10x markup?

For context my EV gets approx 5.5km/kWh ~20c/km; vs my ute at currently 32c/km. It would be cheaper running a small petrol car rather than an EV using public charging.

I mostly charge at home at ~19c/kWh; or ~4c/km which is much more reasonable. Long trips are a killer.

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[–] 1 point 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (4 children)

Since chargenet is owned by Genesis Energy, if your home power is with them then you only pay what you pay at home: https://www.genesisenergy.co.nz/for-home/products/electric-vehicles/everywhere

But yeah it's a bit shit since the government owns 51% of Genesis Energy, you'd think they could make it more useful for everyone...

Before I was with Genesis I primarily used Z chargers, as I found them slightly cheaper and less busy, and can get a pie and a v while you charge 😂.

It would be cheaper running a small petrol car rather than an EV using public charging.

That's true, if you don't charge at home at all. Means there's less incentive to get an EV if you live in an apartment with no power points in the carpark. Still some incentive though, as most EVs have performance similar to a less efficient, more powerful petrol car (e.g. my old car was about the same size and slightly faster than my current EV; was a 3l hatchback and got about 10l/100km, and needed 95, which would work out to about 37c/km at the moment).

5.5km/kWh ~20c/km

*18c/km

Interesting that you round up for the EV, but not your ute 😂

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 6 days ago (3 children)

    Numbers are all very dependent on how I drive, if I'm really careful I can get the ute to 9.4l/100 round town and as low as 8.6 on the open road. But is also very early to be above 11 around town.

    The EV is similar... Just some rough numbers to make the point.

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  • [–] 2 points 19 hours ago* (2 children)

    Early "Christmas present" from Genesis energy: they now limit it to 500kwh per month and cut you off entirely if you use 500kwh two months in a row...

    6872

    6873

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 18 hours ago (1 child)

    500kWh/month seems like a lot.

    But in saying that I would have used 120 kWh in a 2.5 day period. So if I regularly travel to Auckland or even Hamilton; maybe needing to visit a sick parent or similar. I could easily get to 500kWh in a month.

    I know someone who, until they died, used to travel to Hamilton from Taupō at least twice a week to see their sick dad. This went on for around two years. At around 300km per round trip, that is 6-900km/week. Say average is 700km/wk or 2800km/month. A good EV will get 17kWh/100km on the open road; 20kWh/100km for a mid range EV. So we are talking 474-560kWh/motnh.

    You better hope that at least 1/2 of your charging is at home over night.

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