Latest / Best of Business / 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 · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalks. The'd be follow
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  Speaker 2: And Genesis Energy is spending sixty four million dollars on
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  Speaker 2: taking a majority sixty five percent stake in charge net,
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  Speaker 2: our largest EV public charging network. The investment will enable
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  Speaker 2: charge net to develop more charging points and the numbers
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  Speaker 2: expected to double by about twenty thirty. That of course
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  Speaker 2: will help the government with its goal seeing a national
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  Speaker 2: network of ten thousand charges by twenty thirty. And Genesis
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  Speaker 2: Energy Chief Retail Officer Stephen England Hall is with usnaging.
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  Speaker 3: Stephen, good evening, Jack. How are you?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: Very well, thanks? Why do you want to more involved
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  Speaker 2: in the country's EV market?
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  Speaker 3: But we see the orbanization of transport as being critical
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  Speaker 3: to New Zealand's future and the public charging infrastructure necessary
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  Speaker 3: to make that happen as a key enabler and a
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  Speaker 3: key driver. If you have accelerating jw Zia's journey towards
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  Speaker 3: nets are at twenty fifty.
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  Speaker 2: What do you make of our network at the moment?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think we're early stages. Like one of the
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  Speaker 3: reasons we just to back charge Net is they're pioneers.
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  Speaker 3: They've got the biggest footprint and EV charging infrastructure to
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  Speaker 3: date in New Zealand. There's been ahead of the curve.
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  Speaker 3: And look, they've got a great plan to make charging
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  Speaker 3: public charging more accessible and more economic for more people.
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  Speaker 3: When we want to back that and help bring that to.
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  Speaker 2: Life more economic for more people, how will that work?
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  Speaker 3: Well, the thing is owning and driving an EV is
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  Speaker 3: cheaper than owning and driving and an internal combustion engine vehicle.
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  Speaker 3: And we've seen that in not just in New Zealand,
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  Speaker 3: but in many countries around the world where EV adoption
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  Speaker 3: has been accelerating and of course has become a much
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  Speaker 3: more common scene or common sight. As more people drive evs,
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  Speaker 3: the cost of that service comes down simply economies of scale.
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  Speaker 2: And so how much will Genesis taking on the stake
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  Speaker 2: and charge net speed up the rollout?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, what we're looking at doing is trying to
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  Speaker 3: work out how we part with someone like charge net
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  Speaker 3: and bear leadership team and accelerate the plans that they
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  Speaker 3: have in place. What they need to accelerate those plans
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  Speaker 3: is capital and access to energy. People like Genesis, we
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  Speaker 3: have those two things and we want to make sure
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  Speaker 3: we bring them to the plus we've got. You know,
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  Speaker 3: we've got half a million customers across the Genesis portfolio
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  Speaker 3: and we feel that's a great way to start and
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  Speaker 3: driving more change and more adoption in the EV industry.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, So if Genesis were not involved, would the rollout
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  Speaker 2: of the network from this point under charge Net, even
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  Speaker 2: with their ambitious plans be slower or faster than with
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  Speaker 2: Genesis being involved.
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  Speaker 3: I think it would be slower, I'd like to say
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  Speaker 3: to be slower if we weren't involved. I thinks big
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  Speaker 3: involved in bringing that capital and expertise to support them
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  Speaker 3: and enable their plans probably the fastest way of executing it.
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  Speaker 3: You know, when we look at our strategy as a company,
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  Speaker 3: our gender vive commitments and our commitments to decarbonization ourselves
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  Speaker 3: and supporting our customers on the journey. When we look
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  Speaker 3: at New Zealand's I guess carbon footprint, but also the
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  Speaker 3: economics involved in various industries, finding pathways to drive electrification
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  Speaker 3: of transport is a key is a key factor across
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  Speaker 3: all those different territories. So having a double the number
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  Speaker 3: of charge points by the end of the decade is
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  Speaker 3: the commitment we've made the charge net. If we can
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  Speaker 3: make that go faster because the economics stack up, we
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  Speaker 3: will definitely do that as.
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  Speaker 2: Well to make it go faster. Do you need to
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  Speaker 2: have incentives for the purchasing of EV vehicles?
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  Speaker 3: That's a great question. I mean, I think it centers
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  Speaker 3: always help. I think from an economics point of view,
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  Speaker 3: though EV's are cheaper to own, the cheaper to operate,
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  Speaker 3: the price of EV's is falling all the time. You
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  Speaker 3: can now buy a brand new EV for less than
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  Speaker 3: thirty grand. You can buy a mid range EV for
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  Speaker 3: less than fifty grand. You know, obviously if you want
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  Speaker 3: to be a huge amount of money, you can buy
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  Speaker 3: luxury evs too. But the prices are continuing to for
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  Speaker 3: and the more evs we have in the market, the
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  Speaker 3: greater tune we're going to see second hand vehicles and
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  Speaker 3: so forth, and that will bring prices down as well.
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  Speaker 3: And from a cost of ownership point of view, you know,
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  Speaker 3: running an EV is considerably cheaper than running a petrol
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  Speaker 3: power or a diesel car. And we think the economics
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  Speaker 3: over time are telling us that, you know, the transition
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  Speaker 3: is inevitable, even if the timing is a little bit
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  Speaker 3: less certain.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, is it easy to make money out of charges?
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  Speaker 3: If you've got if you've got a decent footprint and
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  Speaker 3: a strong customer following, then yes you can. You can
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  Speaker 3: start to make money out of it. But it's not
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  Speaker 3: a short term plan. This is a long term can
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  Speaker 3: have and a long term play supporting greater EV infrastructure
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  Speaker 3: in New Zealand. So we don't anticipate to turn profits
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  Speaker 3: on that quickly. We think that those profits will come
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  Speaker 3: over time with doing the right things for customers.
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  Speaker 2: And what does over time men are we're talking five
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  Speaker 2: years fifteen.
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  Speaker 3: Look, as part of our announcement today, we've shared with
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  Speaker 3: the market that we expect to see some positive returns
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  Speaker 3: from this in the next few years twenty eight onwards.
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  Speaker 3: That really comes down to know how fast we can
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  Speaker 3: reinvest in the growth of that program. And as I
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  Speaker 3: mentioned before, as consumer demand and customer demand is higher,
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  Speaker 3: then we'll probably go faster. And if it's think it's slower,
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  Speaker 3: then we'll slow that down. But our plans suggest that
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  Speaker 3: we can we can be a profitable business hit in
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  Speaker 3: this investment within a couple of years.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, A question here from a listener which
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  Speaker 2: is an interesting one. Yeah, can you ask if having
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  Speaker 2: gent tailors involved in owning EV charging networks, where presumably
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  Speaker 2: they won't be shopping around for the best price for
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  Speaker 2: their customers, might not appeal to a large number of
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  Speaker 2: EV owners. You've got an answer for that, Stephen H.
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  Speaker 3: Look, I mean, I think the fact that we I
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  Speaker 3: think there are two different things. One is as a
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  Speaker 3: gent tailor. Obviously we have a generation and a retail business.
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  Speaker 3: We see charget as an arms linked business that we've
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  Speaker 3: invested in. We want to make sure they've got access
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  Speaker 3: to capital and expertise, and we want to really know
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  Speaker 3: their way to ensure that they can execute against their plan.
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  Speaker 3: In fact, we would love more and more customers. Doesn't
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  Speaker 3: matter which retailer, which energy retailer there with you know,
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  Speaker 3: you know, Dale welcome to use that service. And if
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  Speaker 3: we think if that service is excellent and it's well
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  Speaker 3: priceding customers will use it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah right. But I suppose the question is will all
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  Speaker 2: of the charge net stations be using Genesis Energy for
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  Speaker 2: their supply?
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  Speaker 3: Well? Possibly, I means a retail there a retailer in
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  Speaker 3: their own right so to speak, but they will be
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  Speaker 3: procuring energy from the wholesale market.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, right, Hey, thanks for your time, Steven appreciate
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  Speaker 2: it. It is Stephen England Hall, Genesis Energy's chief retail officer.
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  Speaker 2: Right now, it is fourteen minutes past six.
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