The good news: following its similar moves overseas, Tesla has opened its supercharger network in New Zealand to non-Tesla owners. The Elon Musk-helmed firm has 30 chargers dotted around New Zealand.

The Tesla chargers have
been retrofitted with CCS (Combined Charging System) connectors used by most brands of EV (electric vehicle). You have to download Tesla’s app and then load a credit card to begin. The app includes a charger locator, local rates, and whether a connection is free.

The bad news: non-Tesla owners will pay more.

The firm says the extra fees non-Tesla owners will pay reflect “additional costs incurred to support charging a broad range of vehicles, and adjustments to our sites to accommodate these vehicles”.

Tesla doesn’t quote any pricing for its owners or all-comers, just that rates vary by charger.

But the Herald got a feel for the premium that non-Telsa owners will pay by downloading Tesla’s app, which quoted $0.99 per kilowatt hour (kWh) for a 175kW Tesla Super Charger in Queenstown.

Tesla owner Craig Ryan sent a screen grab for his pricing at the same charger: $0.83/kWh – or just under 20 per cent cheaper.

Tesla promises unspecified “lower pricing” for non-Tesla owners who pay $10.99/month for a Supercharging Membership.

The app displayed the same idle-time charge for both the Tesla-owner and the Herald non-Telsa-owner: “up to $2 per minute”.

The idle time charge incentivises an EV owner to disconnect after they’ve finished charging.

A kilowatt hour – a unit often used by power companies with billing – is a measure of the amount of power it takes to run a 1000w appliance for one hour. It takes 50 kilowatt hours to charge Tesla’s most popular vehicle, the Model 3 – meaning a full charge will cost just over $40 at the Tesla owners’ rate for a public Supercharger.

The largest independent charger network operator, ChargeNet, also has pricing that varies across its network.

The Herald checked various locations and found rates including $0.50/kWh for a 50kW charger, $0.60/kWh for a 150kWh charger and $0.85/kWh for a 300kW charge.

ChargeNet’s idle time was always quoted at $1 per minute.

Why open the network?

In March, Telsa said it would open 3500 charging points in the US to other brands of EVs.

The move meant the firm could bid for a slice of some US$7.5 billion ($12.6b) in Federal funding available under a bill signed by President Joe Biden to jumpstart nationwide EV charger coverage.

Similarly, opening its network here should make Tesla eligible for Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) funding – which has so far co-financed some 1300 chargers nationwide (700 of which are operational so far), with around $6.4 million in grants and $18.2m in private sector contributions (over its lifetime, the programme, which began under the previous National Government, has allocated $54.9m in grants, matched by $112.1m in applicant funding).

Earlier this month, National Party leader Christopher Luxon promised to build 10,000 new electric vehicle chargers by 2030, saying Kiwis aren’t switching to EVs because they have “range anxiety”.

Luxon said National would invest $257m over four years to build the chargers and revive the “highly successful” Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) funding model, which blended public and private sector investment.

How long does it take to charge an EV?

Mains power trickles chargers at 1.4kW – meaning it can take up to 50 hours to fully charge an EV in your garage at home (exact charging times depend on make and model).

If you upgrade your home set-up to a 7.4kW charger (which costs from around $1300), you can get around 40km of range per hour.

A 22kW charger (only available for homes with phase 3 wiring and a compatible EV) can provide up to 120km of range per hour.

ChargeNet has a mix of 25kW, 50kW and 300kW charging points, which it says will give you around 33km, 66km and 400km of range respectively with a 15-minute charge.

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.