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Electric Vehicle Nation – Can Australia Support EVs with the Current Infrastructure?  

Learn how EV charging stations and infrastructure is being rolled out across Australia, now and in the future
  Written by 
Adrian Edlington
Adrian Edlington is PR & Communications Manager at Savvy. With a keen interest in personal finance, car loans, the mortgage industry, cost of living pressures, electric vehicles and renewable technology, Adrian's research includes conducting primary data surveys and analysis of up-to-the-minute secondary Australian data sources. His work on behalf of Savvy has been featured on ABC.net.au The Conversation, the Sydney Morning Herald, AFR, News.com.au, The Age, Herald Sun, Adelaide Now, SBS On The Money, 7News, Car Expert, Which Car, Drive.com.au, Auto Talk, CleanTechnica, The Latch, Newcastle Herald, The Examiner, Illawarra Mercury, Professional Planner, New Idea, Canberra Times, Bendigo Advertiser, The Courier, Evee.com.au, MSN, The Australian, Stockhead, Yahoo Lifestyle, Smart Company, Yahoo Finance, Money Management, Proactive Investors, Glam Adelaide, Your Life Choices, Investor Daily, Real Estate Business, Homely.com.au, Money Mag, Yahoo News, Elite Agent, The West, Crikey.com.au, Yahoo Sports, AIB.edu.au, Domain.com.au, Nine.com.au, Mortgage Business, The New Daily, MPAMag, and NestEgg.com.au. In his spare time, Adrian enjoys mountain biking and business podcasts.
Our authors
 
  Commentary by 
Bill Tsouvalas

Guest Contributor

Bill Tsouvalas
Bill Tsouvalas is the managing director and a key company spokesperson at Savvy. As a personal finance expert, he often shares his insights on a range of topics, being featured on leading news outlets including News Corp publications such as the Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun, Fairfax Media publications such as the Australian Financial Review, the Seven Network and more. Bill has over 15 years of experience working in the finance industry and founded Savvy in 2010 with a vision to provide affordable and accessible finance options to all Australians. He has built Savvy from a small asset finance brokerage into a financial comparison website which now attracts close to 2 million Aussies per year and was included in the BRW’s Fast 100 in 2015 as one of the fastest-growing companies in the country. He’s passionate about helping Australians make financially savvy decisions and reviews content across the brand to ensure its accuracy. You can follow Bill on LinkedIn.
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Published on July 14th, 2022

Last updated on March 15th, 2024



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With EV sales making up a small 1.6% of all new vehicle registrations in 2021, one of the most cited reasons that people are reluctant to take up electric vehicles is a lack of charging infrastructure. Savvy looks into the current state of EV charging infrastructure and what’s planned for the future.

  • 700 new fast charging stations will be built around Australia in the next five years
  • Federal investment of $24.55 million through the first round of Future Fuels Fund for 400 public fast charging stations
  • Federal Labour government proposes $39.3m additional investment in providing charging stations every 150km
  • 350kW Ultra-Rapid chargers provide a potential 400km of range in 15 minutes
  • New EVs with industry leading 350kW maximum DC fast-charge rate claim to gain 111km range in 5 minutes

Historians have always noted Australia suffering from the “tyranny of distance” both internationally and internally. We are remote as a continental island – a country that’s nearly 7.7 million km2 in size – and our major cities much more distant than other developed countries.

For example, the driving distance between Melbourne and Sydney is 878km; the distance between the capitals of New York State (Albany) and adjacent New Jersey (Trenton) is approximately 330km.

The fully electric Nissan Leaf would be able to travel from Albany to Trenton comfortably with a full range of 385km. However, it would need to stop at least twice to go from Melbourne to Sydney.

With petrol stations abundant in Australia, EV drivers may feel they could be left in the lurch. But is it as dire as public perceptions seem?

In this report, we use the Electric Vehicle Council of Australia March 2022 data to answer questions such as, how many public charging stations are there in Australia? How many are planned for the future? Where are they now, and where will they be located? We investigate what’s available for EV owners and prospective owners.

The types of EV charging stations

Electric vehicles – such as fully electric or Plug-in Hybrid Electric vehicles (HEV) – require electric power from the grid to run (although not fully for Hybrids, which run on a mix of electric and petrol.)

EVs require DC power – which is either supplied at a charging station direct or converted from AC to DC by the car’s internal converter. DC charging is the fastest way to charge an electric vehicle.

Typically, one kilowatt (kW) will add one kilometre for each ten minutes of charging.

AC public charging stations fall into the range of about 7kW to 40kW and are usually referred to as “destination charging” stations, allowing cars to be recharged overnight. The cars themselves may only get a fraction of that throughput after the conversion.

DC charging stations are much quicker in comparison and designed for immediate top-ups.

There are two types of DC public charging stations – above 50kW fast charging and below 50kw regular charging.

At 50kW, a vehicle will add 50km of range (on average) for each ten minutes of charge.

The fastest available charging stations in Australia are 350kW “ultra-rapid” facilities, such as those offered by providers like Chargefox, for example. Chargefox provides a theoretical 400km of range in 15 minutes, though, these are few and far between. More have been promised by state and federal governments in the coming years.

Even if every DC charging point was capable of 350kW output, the vehicles themselves are limited by what they can accept. Until recently, top of the line EVs in Australia with DC maximums of 110kW to 200kW were considered high, however the latest vehicles such as Hyundai’s Iconiq 5 and the Kia EV6 both have max per hour charge speeds of 350kW.

Other factors affect total charge time however, such as batter size or capacity. Furthermore, EV battery charging does not proceed in a linear fashion. kW charging power will peak early and decline as the charge increases. As such, EV brands talk about time to charge from “10% – 80%”. Using the Iconiq 5 as an example, it claims to take only 18 minutes to charge from 10-80% for both its long range and standard battery.

*Savvy has no affiliation with any brands used as examples.

The number of public EV charging stations vs locations in Australia

Note that the number of public charging locations does not reflect the number of individual charging points. There may be many points at one location.

Fast charging

As of January 2022, there are 293 fast charging locations around Australia. This represents an increase of 85% since August 2020 (157).

Unsurprisingly, the distribution of these stations matches the population density of each respective state.

EV Fast Charging Locations Over Time -Australia
EV Fast Charging Locations by State / Territory

Bill Tsouvalas, Savvy Managing Director & Electric Vehicle loan expert;

"Australians are increasingly eager to get make their next new car purchase an EV. We can see this reflected in the volume of car finance enquiries. There are a couple of sticking points that are stopping electric cars from going gangbusters though. The first and most obvious one is price: they're still too expensive for mass uptake. I reckon the price will have to drop below 40 or $50k before we see wider mass adoption."

"The other big issue is charging time. People have gotten used to not having to wait for anything. When we fill up our regular cars at the pump, it takes five minutes max, in and out. Who is going to be willing to spend an hour charging their car on a long journey? What if you get there and all the bays are full? I'm still not convinced this problem has been solved. We are seeing inroads now however, with the increase in 350kW ultra-rapid chargers and cars coming out that can take advantage of that. So, my prediction is that when prices drop below $50k and charging times drop below 15 minutes, you can expect a real EV boom."

Regular charging

As of January 2022, there are 1,580 regular charging stations in Australia. This represents an increase of 29% since August 2020 (1219.)

This also matches population density, though WA with 202 is an outlier.

EV Regular Charging Locations Over Time -Australia
EV Regular Charging Locations by State / Territory

Finding charging stations

The EV community has pitched in to help fellow drivers by providing a free cross-platform app called PlugShare.

PlugShare allows users to find charging stations in Australia and worldwide, map new ones and share their EV activity with other enthusiasts.

Google has already rolled out an EV charging station finder in the United Kingdom and United States, with countries such as Australia and New Zealand to follow.

The future of charging

State and federal governments are supporting the rollout of additional fast charging stations around Australia.

The Electric Vehicle Council, based on estimates of funding from state and federal governments, says that 700 new fast charging locations will be added across Australia over the next five years. Each location will have multiple charging points to accommodate many vehicles.

Other state government programs will increase the density of fast charging equipment currently in use, so more cars can take advantage of charging at the same time.

Federal

The previous Coalition government pledged $24.55 million to co-funding 400 fast-chargers across approximately 200 sites, mainly in metropolitan locations.

The new Labor government announced a pre-election policy of a $39.3 million investment in a national electric vehicle charging network to establish charging stations every 150km on Australia’s major transport route. The amount will be matched by the NRMA.

NSW

NSW will commit $131m to co-fund 1,000 fast charging bays across 250 locations.

ACT

Will co-fund 20 new fast chargers.

NT

Have committed funding to fast-charging, with details to come.

QLD

QLD’s “Queensland Electric Superhighway” will see 18 new fast-charging sites added at a cost of $2.75m.

SA

The SA government has pledged $13.4m to add 28 new regional fast charging stations.

TAS

Has committed $600,000 to build additional fast charging stations.

WA

$20 million pledged to fund fast charging stations across 45 sites in regional WA.

VIC

The government has promised $6m to co-funding fast charging stations across 50 regional Victorian locations.

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  Written by 
Adrian Edlington
Adrian Edlington is PR & Communications Manager at Savvy. With a keen interest in personal finance, car loans, the mortgage industry, cost of living pressures, electric vehicles and renewable technology, Adrian's research includes conducting primary data surveys and analysis of up-to-the-minute secondary Australian data sources. His work on behalf of Savvy has been featured on ABC.net.au The Conversation, the Sydney Morning Herald, AFR, News.com.au, The Age, Herald Sun, Adelaide Now, SBS On The Money, 7News, Car Expert, Which Car, Drive.com.au, Auto Talk, CleanTechnica, The Latch, Newcastle Herald, The Examiner, Illawarra Mercury, Professional Planner, New Idea, Canberra Times, Bendigo Advertiser, The Courier, Evee.com.au, MSN, The Australian, Stockhead, Yahoo Lifestyle, Smart Company, Yahoo Finance, Money Management, Proactive Investors, Glam Adelaide, Your Life Choices, Investor Daily, Real Estate Business, Homely.com.au, Money Mag, Yahoo News, Elite Agent, The West, Crikey.com.au, Yahoo Sports, AIB.edu.au, Domain.com.au, Nine.com.au, Mortgage Business, The New Daily, MPAMag, and NestEgg.com.au. In his spare time, Adrian enjoys mountain biking and business podcasts.
Our authors
 
  Commentary by 
Bill Tsouvalas

Guest Contributor

Bill Tsouvalas
Bill Tsouvalas is the managing director and a key company spokesperson at Savvy. As a personal finance expert, he often shares his insights on a range of topics, being featured on leading news outlets including News Corp publications such as the Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun, Fairfax Media publications such as the Australian Financial Review, the Seven Network and more. Bill has over 15 years of experience working in the finance industry and founded Savvy in 2010 with a vision to provide affordable and accessible finance options to all Australians. He has built Savvy from a small asset finance brokerage into a financial comparison website which now attracts close to 2 million Aussies per year and was included in the BRW’s Fast 100 in 2015 as one of the fastest-growing companies in the country. He’s passionate about helping Australians make financially savvy decisions and reviews content across the brand to ensure its accuracy. You can follow Bill on LinkedIn.
Our authors

Published on July 14th, 2022

Last updated on March 15th, 2024



Fact checked

At Savvy, we are committed to providing accurate information. Our content undergoes a rigorous process of fact-checking before it is published. Learn more about our editorial policy.

This guide provides general information and does not consider your individual needs, finances or objectives. We do not make any recommendation or suggestion about which product is best for you based on your specific situation and we do not compare all companies in the market, or all products offered by all companies. It’s always important to consider whether professional financial, legal or taxation advice is appropriate for you before choosing or purchasing a financial product.

The content on our website is produced by experts in the field of finance and reviewed as part of our editorial guidelines. We endeavour to keep all information across our site updated with accurate information.

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About Savvy

Savvy is one of Australia’s largest online financial brokers, focusing on personal and commercial financial products. Founded in 2010, the firm has seen rapid growth, a testament to their provision of market leading rates and reaching customers with the latest in media and technology. Savvy is a proud supporter of Kids Under Cover, a charity assisting homeless and at-risk youth to strengthen their bonds to community and education. Savvy was named one of BRW’s fastest growing companies in 2015.

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