EV Council calls for massive leap in charger reliability, upkeep and locations in new report

The Electric Vehicle Council (EVC) has suggested a range of measures to address Australia’s often patchy and unreliable EV public charging infrastructure.

Importantly, the lobby organisation emphasised the glaring need to have more ‘redundancy’ at each charging location, akin to a supermarket checkout or fuel station.

“Multiple EV chargers at a location, each with 95 per cent uptime, will almost certainly deliver better consumer outcomes in terms of availability than a single EV charger with 99 per cent uptime,” the EVC white paper said [PDF ↗].

The EVC recommended having multiple DC fast-charging stations at each site – with each location spaced at most 70 kilometres apart on highways or up to 5km in metropolitan areas – to reduce the likelihood of queuing, while providing backups for any out-of-order stalls.

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The EV Council also warned charging networks to consider the potential impacts from natural disasters, such as flooding and bushfires.

To combat such emergencies, networks should consider having temporary stations capable of around 100kW DC (powered by a carbon-neutral biofuel generator) ready for deployment as needed.

Last month, the Australian Government pledged a major project with the NRMA to have an EV fast-charging site spread every 150 kilometres apart nationally to fill black spots in regional and remote areas.

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The white paper publication comes as the EVC made a series of recommendations for the federal government, which is currently drafting its promised fuel efficiency standards – intended to finally set a carbon dioxide exhaust emissions limit based on the average of all vehicles each car manufacturer sells.

When legislated, the major public policy will encourage carmakers to bring more zero- and low-emissions model supply and choice to Australians.