Rarotonga electricity company Te Aponga Uira (TAU) has clarified that its electric vehicle chargers have always been compatible with the government’s newly purchased EVs.

Responding to a Cook Islands News article on the lack of public interest in purchasing the electric vehicles bought by the government for the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting last year, TAU corporate services manager Danny Vakapora said: “The existing EV chargers at our office have adaptors along with the newly installed ones and we can confirm that our chargers have been compatible with the newly purchased EVs from the beginning.”

Cook Islands News was earlier informed that the newly purchased electric vehicles were incompatible with the intended charging station at TAU. Consequently, four charging stations were installed in Rarotonga, two at TAU and two at the Office of the Prime Minister, the newspaper was told.

Last year, TAU purchased and installed seven electric vehicle chargers around the island for use by the vehicles transporting VIPs during the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting in November.

Vakapora said the existing charging station at TAU was already in place and “was not intended to charge the PILF EVs as is asserted in the paper”.

“The new chargers were initially installed by TAU at The Nautilus Resort and OPM and relocated following the Leaders Forum.”

The chargers at the OPM are currently disconnected but are intended to be reconnected, he said.

Twenty-five (25) Hyundai Ioniq electric vehicles costing $1.7 million were bought by the government. Seventeen (17) of the vehicles have been allocated as replacement vehicles for the government vehicle fleet, and eight have been made available for sale to the public

In Parliament last week, Opposition leader Tina Browne of the Democratic Party said that one of the new electric vehicles that was given to her was parked at the Opposition Office because it wasn’t working.

“Nobody is interested in buying these cars…”