Free EV Charging stations in NZ

As the fleet of electric vehicles continues to grow in New Zealand, there are more drivers out and about looking for a public charge station. Most electric vehicle charging takes place at home, which, for most people, is the best place for it; the car sitting there idle and making the best use of cheap off-rate power. However, there will be times when you need to charge when you're away from home and there are a growing number of charging stations around New Zealand. However most of these you have to pay to use. And rightly so; it is a big investment to install these charging units.

A few years ago, when EVs were still in the early phase of adoption, a few companies, those in the power game specifically, installed DC chargers around New Zealand and made them free to use. This was to get the ball rolling on public charging, helping kick off the infrastructure needed to support a fleet of EVs. As more battery powered cars took to the road, these spots became quite congested as people were drawn to the free electricity. Many of these free DC charger locations have since transitioned into the networks of the major service providers like ChargeNet and now you pay to use these. 

There are still a few free DC chargers around New Zealand, the trick is finding them. To do so, you can use resources such as PlugShare. You can add ‘free charging’ to the search filter, and this will bring up those around your area. 

However most of the free charging locations are of the AC type. These are often referred to as ‘destination chargers’. So called because once you reach a destination, your car will be parked for a longer length of time, and this allows for the slower charge rates of these AC chargers. 

Hmm, what do we mean? EVs charge at a much faster rate when plugged in at a DC charger, whereas on AC, the charging process takes longer. For instance, your Tesla Model 3 will take around four hours to charge from 10 to 80 per cent battery capacity on AC power. And that’s provided you are at a charge point that will max out its 11kW onboard charger. Some AC chargers might only be of the 7.4kW variety, which would take six hours to achieve the same result. However, utilising the car’s max DC charge rate of 170kW, this would take just 25 minutes. 

You will find these destination chargers at shopping malls or other locations where you are going to be parked up for an hour or so, and you can plug in to get a few free kilowatts of energy and feel good about it. Some may still require you to have the appropriate charging app installed on your smart phone to initiate the charging process, and you might also require your own charging cable.  

There are other ways to find a few kWh of free energy like signing up to companies like Jolt. This relatively new player is trying to woo customers with up to 7kWh of power free per day. You have to create an account with them to do so, and for most people, that free energy will give you about 40km of driving range. After you’ve got your free power, Jolt then starts charging you if you remain plugged in, the cost being around 50 cents per kWh, which is cheap compared with the other companies.