Latest / The SME Stream / Stephen England-Hall: Genesis Energy chief retail officer on the company taking a majority 65 percent stake in ChargeNet

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Stephen England-Hall: Genesis Energy chief retail officer on the company taking a majority 65 percent stake in ChargeNet · The SME Stream

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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 usnaging.
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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 combanization 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: key driver. If you have accelerating New Zealand's journey towards
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  Speaker 2: nets are at twenty fifty, what do.
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  Speaker 1: 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's 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: When we want to back that and help bring that
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  Speaker 2: to life.
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  Speaker 1: 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 be a leadership team and accelerate the plans that
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  Speaker 2: they have in place. What they need to accelerate those
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  Speaker 2: plans is capital and access to energy. People like Genesis,
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  Speaker 2: we have those two things and we want to make
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  Speaker 2: sure we bring them to be a plus. We've got
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  Speaker 2: you know, we've got half a million customers us the
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  Speaker 2: Genesis portfolio and we feel that that's a great way
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  Speaker 2: to start and driving more change and more adoption in
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  Speaker 2: 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 thinks big
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  Speaker 2: involved in bringing that capital and expertise to support them
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  Speaker 2: and enable their plan is probably the fastest way of
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  Speaker 2: executing it. You know, when we look at our strategy
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  Speaker 2: as a company, our gender vice commitments and our commitments
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  Speaker 2: 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 the number of charge points by the end of
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  Speaker 2: the decade is the commitment we've made the charge in it.
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  Speaker 2: If we can make that go faster because economics stack up,
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  Speaker 2: we will definitely do that as well.
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  Speaker 1: To make it go faster. Do you need to have
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  Speaker 1: incentives for the purchasing of EV vehicles?
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  Speaker 2: That's a great question. I mean, I think it centers
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  Speaker 2: always help. I think from an economics point of view,
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  Speaker 2: though EV's are cheaper to own, the cheaper to operate,
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  Speaker 2: the price of EV's is falling all the time. You
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  Speaker 2: can now buy a brand new EV for less than
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  Speaker 2: thirty grand. You can buy a mid range EV for
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  Speaker 2: less than fifty grand. You know, obviously if you want
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  Speaker 2: to be a huge amount of money, you can buy
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  Speaker 2: luxury evs too. But the prices are continuing for and
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  Speaker 2: the more evs we have in the markets, the greater
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  Speaker 2: tune we're going to see the second hand vehicles and
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  Speaker 2: so forth, and that will bring prices down as well.
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  Speaker 2: And from a cost of ownership point of view, you know,
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  Speaker 2: running an EV is considerably cheaper than run running a
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  Speaker 2: petrol power or a diesel car. And we think the
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  Speaker 2: economics over time are telling us that, you know, the
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  Speaker 2: transition is inevitable, even if the timing is a little
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  Speaker 2: bit less certain.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, is it easy to make money out of.
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  Speaker 3: Charges if you've got a decent footprint and a strong
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  Speaker 3: customer following, then yes, you can, you can start to
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  Speaker 3: make more out of it, but it's not a short
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  Speaker 3: term plan.
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  Speaker 2: This is a long term commitment and a long term
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  Speaker 2: play supporting grad EV infrastructure in New Zealand's so we
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  Speaker 2: don't anticipate to turn profits on that quickly. We think
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  Speaker 2: that those profits will come over time with doing the
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  Speaker 2: right things for customers.
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  Speaker 1: And what does overtime mean? And we're talking five 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: if consumer demand and customer demand is higher, then we'll
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  Speaker 2: probably go faster, and if it's slower then we'll slow
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  Speaker 2: that down. But our plans suggest that we can be
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  Speaker 2: a profitable business hit in this investment within a couple
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  Speaker 2: 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, where 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. You've got an answer for that, Stephen. Yeah.
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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 in a retail business. We
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  Speaker 2: see charge 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 there with, you know,
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  Speaker 2: you know, Dale welcome to use that service. And if
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  Speaker 2: we think it's that service is excellent and it's well priced,
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  Speaker 2: the customers will use it.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Right. But I suppose the question is will all
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  Speaker 1: of the charge net stations be using Genesis Energy for
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  Speaker 1: their supply?
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  Speaker 2: Well possibly, I mean there is a retail there are
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  Speaker 2: a retailer in their own right so to speak, but
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  Speaker 2: they will 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