Jo Crickett, from the Auckland-based bus importer firm, needed to get one of its electric Yutong E12 trial buses back home and a road trip was the only option with no shipping boat or towing available for the job. \
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He wasn’t sure it could be done and was expecting to drive it as far as he could and then get it towed the rest of the way. \
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Instead, on January 10, he managed to drive it all the way to Taupo with 18% charge remaining. There, he was able to plug into ChargeNet’s new hyper-rapid EV charger and get a full battery after two-and-a-half hours. \
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“Whoever checks the billing account the next day probably thought there was some sort of error with 305.56kW charged,” Crickett says.
