Two parks in front of the Warehouse on Wilson St have been reserved for electric vehicle recharging only, but nobody has charged their vehicles since they were installed last month.
Two prime parks outside The Warehouse on Wilson St have now been reserved for electric vehicle recharging, marked out with blue paint to deter other vehicles from parking there.
Rather than put the recharging stations in the bottom carpark, which is not as popular with shoppers, the decision was made to locate them right at the front of the shop.
Greg Nelson, head of Environmental Initiatives at The Warehouse Group, said the parks were chosen for their proximity to electricity cables but also to encourage awareness and use of electric vehicles (EVs). “At every site we look at the most feasible place, proximity to electricity, and carpark layout,” he explained.
At the time of publishing, nobody had used the charging stations to charge their EV since they were installed on May 29, however Greg expected this to change. “We have just started promoting the Cambridge chargers and we expect they’ll be in use very soon.”
It is free to use the charging stations, for now, and Greg said there are 100 active users across the network of 20 charging stations at Warehouse stores around the country, with four more to be installed in the next few weeks. “Some are used several times a day, others every few days,” Greg said, adding that the most popular charging location is Rangiora, followed by Invercargill and Royal Oak in Auckland.
As the Warehouse has no authority to ticket vehicles, Greg said they are relying on shoppers to follow the rules. “The carparks run on goodwill, if someone is parked incorrectly we may ask them to move their car.”
