Out of charge: Why we need to accelerate our EV charging network ASAP | Opinion

Anyone still living in the fantasy that electric cars are not the future needs to snap out of it and start helping to make the transition easier.

Sure, electric vehicles (EVs) still only make up 7.4 per cent of all vehicles sold, but when you consider they officially made up less than one per cent just three years ago, it’s safe to say Australians are embracing the electric future more than ever before.

The new car sales data released earlier this week by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries made for some interesting reading, as it covers the first six months of the year and provides a snapshot of where we’re at as a nation.

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The headline number was the 5560 Tesla Model Y that were sold in June, which made the American-branded, Chinese-built EV the second best-selling model in the country, behind only the Toyota HiLux and ahead of big names like the Ford Ranger, Toyota RAV4 and Hyundai Tucson.

Australians bought 11,042 EVs in June alone and in the first half of this year we’ve snapped up 43,092 battery-powered cars; that’s a 345.2 per cent increase year-to-date.

And that’s all good news… but it brings us to the bad news.

Quite simply, the public charging infrastructure is not keeping up. A 2022 report from the Electric Vehicle Council stated that public charging stations grew from 1614 to 2392 last year, with individual plugs available rising from 3413 to 4943. Those figures represent a 48 per cent and 44 per cent increase, respectively. 

Electric vehicles (EVs) still only make up 7.4 per cent of all vehicles sold in Australia. (Image: Tom White)

The catch? EV sales were up 548.9 per cent in 2022, so the amount of charging infrastructure is being dwarfed by the amount of cars sold. Which isn’t really surprising, as adding public charging is a time-consuming and costly process, relative to the mass-produced EVs that are hitting the roads.

But the time has clearly come to start accelerating the roll-out of public charging to meet the increased demand from EV drivers. 

There is an argument to be made that anyone who buys an EV does have access to charging, as EVs can be plugged into any household outlet and slowly replenished that way. Indeed, a common argument I’ve heard over the last few years is that EVs are so expensive most buyers will probably have a house and off-street parking where they can install a wallbox for quicker charging.

Except that’s not really true, certainly not anymore. The sheer volume of Teslas, BYDs, MGs and other ‘affordable’ EVs combined with Australia’s increasing percentage of apartment-dwelling population means there is an increasing demand for publicly accessible chargers.

Australians bought 11,042 EVs in June alone.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve tried to charge a test EV only to find every EV bay filled with a Tesla - usually with someone behind the wheel watching a video on their phone while they wait for a charge. 

Which makes sense as my local shopping centre is surrounded by apartments and offers thousands of regular parking spots but only six EV charging bays. Which, to be fair, is better than another nearby centre, which could only squeeze in two EV charging bays across its multi-story parking lot.

As a motoring journalist, I’ve been fortunate enough to drive multiple EVs in recent years, but as someone who rents a house rather than owning it, I haven’t been able to install any sort of wallbox to charge these cars faster. Instead, I literally plug any EV I’m testing into my lounge room socket (via an extension cord). It’s not an ideal scenario, but it does get the job done.

On a recent trip to France, it was interesting to see many locals deploy the same method, with a litany of electric and plug-in hybrid Peugeots, Citroens and Renaults plugged into extension cords running from French apartments and shops.

The headline number was the 5560 Tesla Model Y that were sold in June. (Image: Tom White)

But this isn’t really an ideal long-term solution. The time has clearly come for more action of expanding the public EV charging network to keep up with the increasing volume of EVs hitting the roads.

I understand it’s no easy task and has no quick fix, but hopefully the latest sales figures and the shock of seeing an EV as the second best-selling car in the country will inspire those in a position to help to begin accelerating a rapid expansion of available infrastructure.