The South Island's first fast-charging station for electric vehicles will open for business in Dunedin before Christmas, Delta has announced.
Delta's charging station would mark the beginning of an ''avalanche'', Chamber of Commerce energy committee chairman Scott Willis predicted.
''This is really the first step in what will be a transformational change,'' he said.
''It's really exciting, it really is.''
There are several ''slow-charging stations'' for electric vehicles in the South Island, where cars take several hours to charge up completely.
But Delta's charging site would be the first in the South Island where cars can charge up in under 30 minutes.
Delta spokesman Gary Johnson said the energy company was hoping to put the station in the Filleul St car park.
Delta also planned to allow electric car owners use the charger for free for the first year.
''We want to encourage the uptake of electric vehicles,'' he said. ''It's important to give that confidence to electric vehicles owners, that when they come to Dunedin, they can charge their cars.''
After that, a charge would cost ''in the region of $5'', a Delta press release said.
Mr Johnson said Delta did not expect the charging station would be a drain on its resources.
The extra load was ''entirely manageable'', he said.
''Plus, realistically, there are 800 electric vehicles in New Zealand, and most are in Auckland. At this stage, we don't expect it'll be too taxing on us at all.
''But, clearly, we want it to be very popular.''
Dunedin City Council senior planner John Sule confirmed Delta had filed a consent application for the charging station, and said he expected the consent would be granted within the standard 20 working days.
''It's a fairly small-scale structure,'' he said.
''It's not something that will cause us any issues.''
Milton resident Alex Gillanders, who has an electric car and regularly drives to Dunedin, said Delta's announcement was ''really good news''.
He was not surprised Delta would keep the charger free for the first year.
''It's just a good gesture to get people going,'' he said.
Auckland-based company ChargeNet NZ has also announced its intentions to set up a fast-charging station in Dunedin, but the location and timeframe is unknown.
ChargeNet could not be reached for comment yesterday, but Mr Willis said he expected Delta's charger was ''likely to be followed by a second very, very soon''.
