Electric Vehicles

We’re working together with other New Zealand companies and the government to build New Zealand’s Electric Highway.

How do they work?

Electric cars are charged using electricity that stores energy via rechargeable batteries or another energy storage device. They can be fully powered by electricity (EV), or a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) which is a combination of electric batteries and petrol or diesel engine.

Around 80% of New Zealand’s electricity comes from renewable energy, going electric is one small way that we can help reduce our emission from transport.

What’s the best plan for me?

Jump on over and have a look at our Good Nights plan. On the plan, every night you get three free hours of electricity from 9pm-midnight.

It’s the perfect time to charge your EV, ready for the next day. It will put less pressure on the grid too when the peak time of power usage earlier in the evening has dropped off.

Find out more

Why are EVs the way of the future?

With the rising cost of fossil fuels, EVs are just one great way we can help address climate change, as battery powered cars emit 60% less climate change emissions than a standard petrol engine over the course of its lifetime. They use electricity, and in good old New Zealand 80% of what we produce is nice clean, green, abundant renewable energy from hydro, wind and geothermal sources.

EVs can also save you money at the pump. EECA calculate that EVs cost the equivalent of 30c per litre. They also have less moving parts, meaning there’s less that can go wrong under the hood. Besides bringing plug-in hybrid electric cars into its own fleet, Contact is helping promote widespread national use of the technology. We’re working together with other New Zealand companies and the government to build New Zealand’s Electric Highway, currently comprising of over 630 charging stations.

This national network of charging stations lets EV drivers recharge their cars away from home or work, beginning with key stopping points and tourism locations along State Highway One, then expanding regionally.

At Contact, we’re committed towards having 30% of our company fleet as electric vehicles by 2019. So far 22% of our Contact fleet are plug-in hybrid Mitsubishi Outlanders.