Charging ahead
Fuelled by record growth in sales of electric vehicles, Canterbury business Evnex hits 20,000 chargers.
Australasia’s largest manufacturer of smart electric vehicle (EV) chargers, local company Evnex has passed 20,000 chargers installed across New Zealand and Australia.
The Addington-based company shipped its first charger in 2017. The first 10,000 sales took eight years – the second 10,000 took just nine months.
“Crossing 20,000 chargers is a proud moment for me and the Evnex team,” says Ed Harvey, founder and CEO of Evnex.
“I started the company from my parents’ farm in Marlborough as a naïve 24-year-old simply because I wanted a charger for the 1997 Honda Accord I’d converted into an EV. What’s followed has been a wild but enormously rewarding journey.”
“When we started out, an EV was a rare sight on New Zealand roads. Now almost a third of new cars sold can be plugged in. Our job is to make charging them the easiest part of owning one.”
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The milestone comes as EV uptake hits record levels and electrification of the New Zealand economy becomes a key election issue. July registration data shows more than 60% of new cars are fully or partially powered by electricity, while the 1994 fully electric vehicles registered nearly triple the July 2025 figure.
In July, Toyota New Zealand and Lexus named Evnex their official home EV charging partner, pairing the brands’ expanding electric line-up with Evnex smart chargers, nationwide installation and local support. Across the Tasman, Evnex has partnered with brands including EnergyAustralia and AGL to bring solar-smart charging to Australian households. Growth has been rapid: Australia is now the company’s largest market, with roughly twice the sales volume of New Zealand, and this month, the number of online Evnex chargers reached parity in both countries.
The company has grown to 48 staff across New Zealand and Australia, with its chargers designed and manufactured in Christchurch and supported locally seven days a week.
“The next 20,000 will come a lot faster than the first,” says Ed. “We’ve had spikes in sales in the past but this time it’s different. This is the true start of the mass adoption curve rather than a fad. Record numbers of drivers are making the switch to electric, and our modelling shows this is not a one-off spike but a long-term and unstoppable trend,” he says.
“The savings from charging smart have never been bigger. The home charger is becoming part of the energy system itself, soaking up cheap power today, and feeding it back to the grid tomorrow.”
