Ultra-fast EV chargers hoped to lure motorists to battery power

A Kiwi start-up is hoping to usher in a new era of electrification for New Zealand’s vehicle fleet with the roll-out of ultra-fast chargers* and a fresh approach to looking at the health of the power grid.
Napier-based tech company Kwetta (formerly called Red Phase) has partnered with Z Energy (Z) to set up 38 chargers around the country so far. Depending on the vehicle, each charger is capable of topping up an EV battery with about 300-400 kilometres of range in around 20 minutes.
Kwetta co-founder Mike Lazelle said the slower pace of home charging and range anxiety are proving hefty roadblocks to moving Kiwi drivers away from fossil fuel consumption – but hopes to smooth the transition with charging technology that allows faster speeds by applying principles of electricity usage formerly used to manage factories’ electricity demand.
“I believe what the world is really struggling with at the moment is ensuring ultra-fast charging,” Lazelle said. “And I think that’s holding back electrification.”
As the demand for EV charging has risen in recent years, it’s put a strain on the power grid. But while most would just think of the available capacity of power, Lazelle said a more holistic view needs to be taken to match the demand.
“Think of the power grid like a river,” he said. It’s essentially a massive piece of connected infrastructure used to deliver an important resource, but a fisherman or a boatie doesn’t just think about how much water is flowing down the Waikato River.
There’s levels of pollution and the stability of the ecology or the water level.
Lazelle said the power grid is similar too – impacted by factors like voltage, security and quality along with capacity.
“Everyone else thinks the problem is just capacity,” he said. “But with our background in power electronics and deep technical understanding, we can see the wider issues.”
The team looked to hardware used in the niche market of factories that used power conditioners to avoid constraining the grid by regulating incoming voltage, before adapting it to the New Zealand market.
The 200 kilowatt per hour chargers can be found across 11 Z service stations, including  across the former range anxiety-inducing hinterland of the central North Island, with chargers at Z sites in Masterton, Levin, Waiouru and Tūrangi.
The technology itself was born from a garage in Napier during the pandemic, when Lazelle joined other founders Dustin Murdock and Dr Robert Turner to combine three different histories with electrical engineering into one brainchild.
It was a partnership years in the making. Lazelle said he first met Turner when they were students at the University of Canterbury back in 2003.
“When I was moving into the dorm, somebody said you have to come and meet this guy,” Lazelle said. “I went up and he was sitting there with all this tech spread out in front of him. Eighteen years old and he was running a radio station.”
Lazelle said even in those pre-EV days, Turner had a clear vision of an electric future.
And now that New Zealand is navigating the sometimes bumpy road to vehicle electrification, he’s grateful one of the country’s leading transport energy companies has jumped on board.
Lazelle said the already established brand and network of Z have allowed the smaller company to more rapidly and comprehensively roll out the new chargers.
“They’re thinking big and they’re thinking long-term,” Lazelle said. “And that’s what we need.”
Z announced it was partnering with Kwetta  at the end of last year with a pilot at Z Waiouru.
Lindis Jones, Z’s CEO, highlighted while Z continues to meet New Zealanders’ energy needs now, it’s also looking to make alternative energy choices easier for customers. A core element of the retailer’s strategy is growing the ‘on-the-go’ EV charging network, with an aim to have 150 charging bays across its network by the end of this year.
“Leveraging our existing retail network, we’re able to select sites where we can offer a high-quality charging experience with fast or ultra-fast chargers, well-lit bays, alongside a high-quality convenience retail offer and other amenities such as toilets,” he said.
Jones said collaborating with like-minded partners like Kwetta was crucial to pursuing a low-carbon Aotearoa.
“Their unique solution tailored for the New Zealand landscape is helping us to establish high-capacity multi-bay locations without the constraints and expenses of extensive network enhancements. It does this by enabling the EV-charging infrastructure to use power more efficiently and reduce pressure on the local electricity network.”
But Lazelle said a swift move to electrification would require the cooperation of both public and private sectors, especially if the power grid was able to keep up with mounting demand in coming years.
“New Zealand has great renewable energy opportunities,” he said. “It needs great tech and leadership to make the most of them, and for the public and private sector to commit – if you don’t commit, you can’t do this long-term.”
He related a recent trip to Bergen, the second largest city in Norway, where he saw tradies and office workers charging up their vehicles en masse in the middle of the day.
The Scandinavian country has the highest rate of electric vehicle adoption in the world, with the Norwegian Road Federation reporting 82 percent of all new car sales in the country last year were electric, joining an almost third of all vehicles on the road.
Norway has been proffering zero-emissions vehicle incentives for around 30 years, with the aim of all new car sales being electric or hydrogen by 2025.
“Norway is definitely going to be the example,” Lazelle said.
But even walking down the rows of chargers in downtown Bergen, he noticed chargers labelled ultra-fast taking their time.
The fix for that comes back to addressing not just power grid capacity, but the other potential infrastructural hiccups that Lazelle said his tech can take care of.
* Ultrafast chargers are 150kW or more and able to charge a car from 20%-80% in 15 minutes or less