A number of charging companies have stated that significant government investment in local EV infrastructure is the key. It would end the frustrations of many holiday-going people owning an EV. The Guardian reports that in order to avoid long queues, there is a need to set up more EV charging stations.
But other businesses are more optimistic and believe the queues reported in late December and early January won’t be as bad by 2024 because they are clearly demonstrating where more chargers are needed. The NRMA, which manages 55 charging stations across New South Wales, reported a 50% increase in demand during the first week of January. The increase was even higher at the busiest locations in Homebush and Mittagong. “It has obviously led to delays, it is going to take time to build the network to a point where you see a drop in these delays,” NRMA spokesperson Peter Khoury said. “The challenge is getting the charging stations in the right location, getting them working, but also making sure we can scale up in the right places when we need to.”
The NSW government is promising to build more than 1,000 charging stations for electric vehicles under a four-year plan that would create the most extensive network in the country. BP Pulse has 22 fast-charging stations across Australia and plans to build 100 by the end of 2023. Its business development manager, Josh Hoevenaars, said the current delays indicated the increasing popularity of electric vehicles.
Infrastructure
Hoevenaars said, “At the moment we’ve got a fairly vast network of charging stations, but it is quite shallow. It covers most of Australia but lots of locations only have one of two chargers. Because we don’t have the depth of charging, or redundancy of charging at those locations, a lot of people have to wait. But that doesn’t happen very often throughout the year, only on one or two days at peak periods.”
Luke Chippindale, the general manager of the Caravan Industry Association of Australia, said some holidaymakers delayed their return home by up to eight hours due to an inability to access charging stations. “We know that a lot of the charging infrastructure is based on downtime, where people have the ability to pull up for a night,” Chippindale said. “But from a tourism perspective, when you start to look at range anxiety and battery capabilities, the reliance on a fast-charge network is really critical.” Chippindale is lobbying governments to invest in fast-charging stations at regional caravan sites. He hopes this will encourage more electric vehicle drivers to travel longer distances with confidence.
