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Speaker 1: And Genesis Energy is spending sixty four million dollars on

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Speaker 1: taking a majority sixty five percent stake in charge net,

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Speaker 1: our largest EV public charging network. The investment will enable

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Speaker 1: charge net to develop more charging points and the numbers

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Speaker 1: expected to double by about twenty thirty. That of course

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Speaker 1: will help the government with its goal seeing a national

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Speaker 1: network of ten thousand charges by twenty thirty. And Genesis

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Speaker 1: Energy Chief Retail Officer Stephen England Hall is with us snaging.

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Speaker 2: Stephen, Good evening, Jack, how are you?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? Very well, thanks? Why do you want to more

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Speaker 1: involved in the country's EV market?

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Speaker 2: But we see the vanization of transport has been critical

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Speaker 2: to New Zealand's future and the public charging infrastructure necessary

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Speaker 2: to make that happen as a key enabler and a

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Speaker 2: keep driver. If you have accelerating New Zealand's journey towards

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Speaker 2: nets are at twenty fifty, what.

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Speaker 1: Do you make of our network at the moment?

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Speaker 2: Well, I think we're early stages. Like one of the

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Speaker 2: reasons we decided to back charge Net is they're pioneers.

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Speaker 2: They've got the biggest footprint and EV charging infrastructure to

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Speaker 2: date in New Zealand. There have been ahead of the curve.

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Speaker 2: And look, they've got a great plan to make charging

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Speaker 2: public charging more accessible and more economic for more people,

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Speaker 2: and we want to back that and help bring that to.

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Speaker 1: Life more economic for more people. How will that work?

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Speaker 2: Well, the thing is owning and driving an ev is

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Speaker 2: cheaper than owning and driving and an internal combustion engine vehicle.

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Speaker 2: And we've seen that not just in New Zealand, but

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Speaker 2: in many countries around the world where ev adoption has

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Speaker 2: been accelerating and of course has become a much more

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Speaker 2: common scene or common sight. As more people drive ev is,

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Speaker 2: the cost of that service comes down simply economies of scale.

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Speaker 1: And so how much will Genesis taking on the stake

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Speaker 1: and charge net speed up the roll out?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, what we're looking at doing is trying to

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Speaker 2: work out how we part with someone like charge Net

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Speaker 2: and Bear leadership team and accelerate the plans that they

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Speaker 2: have in place. What they need to accelerate those plans

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Speaker 2: is capital and access to energy. People like Genesis, we

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Speaker 2: have those two things and we want to make sure

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Speaker 2: we bring them to the plus we've got. You know,

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Speaker 2: we've got half a million customers us the Genesis portfolio,

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Speaker 2: and we feel that's a great way to start and

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Speaker 2: driving more change and more adoption in the EV industry.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So if Genesis were not involved, would the rollout

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Speaker 1: of the network from this point under charge Net, even

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Speaker 1: with their ambitious plans, be slower or faster than with

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Speaker 1: Genesis being involved.

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Speaker 2: I think it would be slower, I'd like to say

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Speaker 2: to be slower if we weren't involved. I think that's

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Speaker 2: big involved in bringing that capital and expertise to support

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Speaker 2: them and enable their plan is probably the fastest way

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Speaker 2: of executing it. You know, when we look at our

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Speaker 2: strategy as a company, our gender vive commitments and our

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Speaker 2: commitments to decarbonization ourselves and supporting our customers on the journey.

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Speaker 2: When we look at New Zealand's I guess carbon footprint,

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Speaker 2: but also the economics involved in various industries, finding pathways

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Speaker 2: to drive electrification of transport is a key is a

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Speaker 2: key factor across all those different territories. So having a

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Speaker 2: double number of charge points by the end of the

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Speaker 2: decade is the commitment we've made the charge Net. If

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Speaker 2: we can make that go faster because economics stack up,

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Speaker 2: we will definitely do that.

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Speaker 1: As well to make it go faster. Do you need

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Speaker 1: to have incentives for the purchasing of EV vehicles?

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Speaker 2: That's a great question. I mean, I think incentives always help.

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Speaker 2: I think from an economics point of view, though EV's

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Speaker 2: are cheaper to own, the cheaper to operate, the price

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Speaker 2: of EV's is falling all the time. You can now

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Speaker 2: buy a brand new EV for less than thirty grand.

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Speaker 2: You can buy a mid range EV for less than

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Speaker 2: fifty grand. You know, obviously if you want to spek

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Speaker 2: a huge amount of money, you can buy luxury evs too.

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Speaker 2: But the prices are continuing to for and the more

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Speaker 2: evs we have in the market, the greater tune we're

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Speaker 2: going to seem second hand vehicles and so forth, and

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Speaker 2: that will bring prices down as well. And from a

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Speaker 2: cost of ownership point of view, you know, running an

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Speaker 2: EV is considerably cheaper than run running a petrol power

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Speaker 2: or a diesel car. And we think the economics over

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Speaker 2: time are telling us that, you know, the transition is inevitable,

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Speaker 2: even if the timing is a little bit less certain.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, is it easy to make money out of charges.

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Speaker 2: You've if you've put a decent footprint and a strong

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Speaker 2: customer following, then yes, you can. You can start to

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Speaker 2: make money out of it, but it's not a short

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Speaker 2: term plan. This is a long term commitment and a

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Speaker 2: long term play supporting great the infrastructure in New Zealand.

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Speaker 2: So we don't anticipate to turn profits on that quickly.

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Speaker 2: We think that those profits will come over time with

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Speaker 2: doing the right things for customers.

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Speaker 1: And what does over time men are we're talking five

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Speaker 1: years fifteen.

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Speaker 2: Look, as part of our announcement today, we've shared with

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Speaker 2: the market that we expect to see some positive returns

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Speaker 2: from this in the next few years twenty eight onwards.

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Speaker 2: It really comes down to how fast we can reinvest

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Speaker 2: in the growth of that program. And as I mentioned before,

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Speaker 2: as consumer demand and customer demand is higher, then we'll

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Speaker 2: probably go faster, and if it's a bit slower then

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Speaker 2: we'll slow that down. But our plans suggest that we

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Speaker 2: can be a profitable business hit in this investment within

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Speaker 2: a couple of years.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, all right. A question here from a listener which

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Speaker 1: is an interesting one. Jack. Can you ask if having

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Speaker 1: Gen Taylors involved in owning EV charging networks were presumably

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Speaker 1: they won't be shopping around for the best price for

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Speaker 1: their customers. Might not appeal to a large number of

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Speaker 1: EV owners. Got an answer for that, Stephen.

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Speaker 2: Look, I mean I think the fact that we I

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Speaker 2: think there are two different things. One is as a gentailer.

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Speaker 2: Obviously we have a generation and a retail business. We

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Speaker 2: see charging it as an arms linked business that we've

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Speaker 2: invested in. We want to make sure they've got access

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Speaker 2: to capital and expertise, and we want to really get

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Speaker 2: their way to ensure that they can execute against their plan.

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Speaker 2: In fact, we would love more and more customers, doesn't

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Speaker 2: matter which retailer, which energy retailer they're with, you know,

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Speaker 2: you know, dye welcome to use that service. And if

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Speaker 2: we think if that service is excellent and it's well priced,

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Speaker 2: then customers will use it. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Right, But I suppose the question is will all of

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Speaker 1: the charge net stations be using Genesis Energy for their supply?

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Speaker 2: Well possibly, I mean there's a retail they're a retailer

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Speaker 2: in their own right so to speak. For they will

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Speaker 2: be procuring energy from the wholesale market.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, right, Hey, thanks for your time, Steven, appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: There is Stephen England Hall, Genesis Energy's chief retail officer.

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Speaker 1: Right now, it is fourteen minutes past six.

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Speaker 2: For more from Hither dup Us see Allen Drive.

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