Hotel charger part of the service
In the carpark underneath a luxury boutique hotel in New Plymouth lies the future of driving.
The King and Queen Hotel Suites helps recharge guests’ wellbeing with fine food and comfortable beds but now it has gone a step further.
Last month the hotel installed the city’s first Tesla electric car charger as an added benefit for guests.
Hotel manager Daniel Fleming said the destination charger was for guests who owned one of the high performance cars.
It was installed at no expense to the hotel, he said.
‘‘Tesla approached us because they want to put them with high quality accommodation at specific destinations.
‘‘We are the first hotel in New Plymouth to have a charging station for Tesla cars.’’
The destination charger site at the hotel is one of 30 similar sites in New Zealand for Tesla owners.
Tesla spokeswoman Olivia Ramaget said when making a decision where to install a charging station, the company ‘‘looked for hotels, restaurants, wineries that will match the needs of our customers.’’
‘‘The King and Queen matches the location and needs of our customers,’’ she said in a written statement.
The power output from the destination chargers is 22kW, she said.
The Tesla Motors website said a home charger would give the car owner up to 80 kilometres per hour of charge while the more powerful supercharger can provide 270km of driving range in 30 minutes.
The actual driving range depended on particular usage and conditions, such as weather, driving style and battery age, the website says.
New Plymouth’s only Tesla owner, Ian Wickham, said he congratulated the hotel in accepting Tesla’s offer to install the charger.
He would not need to use it himself as he was able to charge his Tesla, a Model S, overnight at home while he slept.
It’s convenient for owners of the cars who decide to have a break in Taranaki and don’t need to worry where they can recharge the battery, he said.
‘‘The minimal cost of recharging is covered and it’s really the convenience of having a recharging station in New Plymouth which will help attract visitors.
‘‘It’s like providing Sky TV or free wi-fi, it’s another incentive to stay at the hotel.’’
Wickham’s 50amp home charger can recharge the battery in the Tesla at a rate of 50km an hour, enough to travel 500km after 10 hours charging, he said.
He can comfortably drive from New Plymouth to Auckland without recharging although he sometimes stopped at a Tesla supercharger site at Hamilton to ‘‘top up.’’
‘‘I can plug in the charger in less time than I can fill up a con- ventional car with fuel.’’
Wickham had owned the $220,000 Tesla Model S P85D for two years after being on the waiting list for three years.
The New Zealand Grazing Company owner said he drove, on average, around 100km a day, or 2000km-3000km a month in his energy efficient car.
‘‘The power bill is around $100 a month and I don’t pay any road tax until 2020 so the costs are minimal.
‘‘I can also plug into the charger in less time than I can fill up a conventional car with fuel so it’s saving me time and money all round.’’
‘‘Once the price is lowered, which is happening with the next model, there is going to be an awful lot more Teslas on the road.’’ of his vehicle to slide out and narrowly missed another car.
A week later, at 1.40pm on April 15, the defendant drove into another roundabout, this one on the corner of High and Albion Streets.
He accelerated heavily off the roundabout, causing the vehicle to fishtail from side to side along High St, then drove a little further, did a u-turn and again sped through the roundabout, causing the car to lose traction and slide from side to side.
Hawkins previously pleaded guilty to charges of dangerous driving and sustained loss of traction.
In April 2016, Hawkins, along with two others, was sentenced for the manslaughter of Hawera grandmother Christine Anne Fairweather.
The 57-year-old was killed after being hit by a car after she had gotten out of her own vehicle to remove metal barriers that had been deliberately placed in the middle of the road by the trio.
For his role, Hawkins served nine months’ home detention and 100 hours of community service.
On Wednesday, Neal Harding said being disqualified would allow Hawkins a chance to mature while he was off the road.
‘‘Unfortunately for my client, these charges are a continuation of his lack of insight into the responsibility of being a road user.’’
Judge Lynne Harrison commented on Hawkins’ ‘‘considerable driving and road-related offences’’.
‘‘You’ve come very close to a sentence of community detention, but the Sergeant is right, disqualification will keep you away from where we don’t want you - the road.’’
She sentenced him to 280 hours of community work and disqualified him from driving for 18 months.
- Catherine Groenestein