Meridian Energy says there's plenty of power for electric cars

Neal Barclay will become Meridian's CEO at the end of the year.

Meridian Energy doesn't believe helping power up New Zealand's growing electric fleet is a big generation growth opportunity but is still good for its own business and the country.

The country's biggest renewable generator is moving towards making half of its own car fleet to electric and its general manager of retail, Neal Barclay, says the rate of EV uptake by other New Zealanders was soaring.

The Government has set a target of 64,000 plug in vehicles by 2021 and although there were just 3300 vehicles now, the rate they were being bought was accelerating rapidly.

Barclay said the rate of increase in the fleet would not stress the electricity sector where demand has been flat.

Meridian estimates that if it was possible to immediately convert the country's entire light vehicle fleet - which numbers more than three million - it would add around 7000 GWh to the electricity sector or the equivalent of 17 per cent of generation.

''If you spread that demand growth over say 30 to 40 years it becomes incrementally a relatively small number. The country can cope comfortably with delivering new renewable generation to meet this potential demand growth,'' he said.

''It's not a massive opportunity for new generation perspective but it is an opportunity for demand growth. It is a great opportunity for the country to get carbon out of our system.''

Meridian is adding near new Nissan Leafs and new Hyundai IONIQs, which have a list price of just under $60,000, to its fleet. The Hyundais have a range of over 200km.

It expects to have between 16 and 20 EVs by around the middle of next year.
Barclay said it made financial sense for the company and would save about $2000 to $3000 on fuel per vehicle.

''For us it has been a journey of discovery. We have found that the business case stacked up,'' he said.

''I suspect it will become more and more apparent to other businesses that it does for them as well. And once the second hand options start to grow it will start to work for many individuals as well.''

The charging network was also expanding rapidly. Early last year there were eight fast chargers around he country and now there were 64.