Customer-Centric Electric Vehicle Orchestration in New Zealand: How Residential Smart Charging Can Deliver Affordability and Customer Satisfaction

The conditions for flipping the vehicle fleet to electricity are ripe in New Zealand: the electricity supply is largely renewable, policies incentivize the shift to electric vehicles (EVs), and customer interest in EVs is high. During this transformation, the home is expected to become the new fuel station. Integrating EV charging seamlessly into the electricity network is critical to guarantee that the vision of electric transport is delivered in a cost-efficient, equitable, and reliable supply. To understand customer behavior and network requirements for at-home charging, Vector, New Zealand's largest electricity distribution company, has been carrying out an EV smart charging trial with 200 EV owners over the last three years. The trial established data-driven EV charging requirements that have been implemented into network planning processes. Furthermore, the trial demonstrates how smart charging can integrate EVs within existing network capacity while also delivering customer satisfaction. The trial provides a blueprint for how electricity networks can harness data, monitoring, and smart control to transition to the new energy future.